County officials fail to address residents’ concerns with Justice Park sidewalk

Community residents’ last-ditch effort to stop the construction of an unneeded and unwanted $900,000 sidewalk at Justice Park has failed.

After urging the Fairfax County Department of Transportation and the Board of Supervisors to halt the sidewalk project, without success, the residents reached out to the Fairfax County Internal Audit Office to request an audit of the project.

In an April 9 email, Deputy Director Deirdre Bland denied their request. “Our office confirmed that the Board of Supervisors approved as part of the Office of Financial and Program Audit’s FY 26 Work Plan, a study of Fairfax Active Transportation Projects, which would review processes related to the concerns you have expressed,” Bland wrote.

Brown calls the “$1 million sidewalk to nowhere” an example of poor processes in land acquisition, community engagement, interdepartmental communications across agencies, financial transparency, and accountability.

Mason Supervisor Andres Jimenez, Board Chair Jeffrey McKay, and Fairfax County Executive Bryan Hill have refused to meet with residents opposed to the sidewalk.

In response to residents’ request for a meeting, McKay’s chief of staff deferred to Jimenez, noting “a significant portion of the project’s design work has already been completed, and construction is scheduled for this summer to minimize disruption to students.” Jimenez didn’t respond to the residents.

Related story: The Justice Park sidewalk will start construction in June

FCDOT staff met with residents in March at Justice Park but they only confirmed that construction will start in June because money had already been spent on planning and design.

At a recent meeting of the Board of Supervisors’ Transportation Committee, board members urged FCDOT Director Gregg Steverson to speed up the process for completing transportation improvements and strengthen community engagement.

Among the concerns raised by residents of Ravenwood, Ravenwood Park, Lake Barcroft, and members of local environmental groups:

• A sidewalk in Justice Park is unnecessary because, since it was first proposed in 2018, a sidewalk has been built on the other side of Peace Valley Lane next to Justice High School.

• The new sidewalk would encroach on Justice Park, which is one of the few urban forest environments in this densely populated area.

• The unneeded sidewalk is a waste of taxpayer dollars that could be better spent on more urgent, unfunded walkway connectivity needs in Mason District.

• The sidewalk project demonstrates how Fairfax County agencies are working at cross purposes with one another. The Department of Public Works and Environmental Services is beginning a $540,000 stream restoration project in Justice Park without coordination with FCDOT.

• The sidewalk fails to connect with Mansfield Road, so students and other pedestrians will still need to walk in the street to get to school.

• County officials have not engaged the community on the sidewalk project since it was first proposed eight years ago. After residents successfully blocked a parking lot proposed for Justice Park five years ago, the county promised to improve community engagement.

• Several trees will be cut down during the construction process, along with native plants recently planted by volunteers as part of Fairfax County’s Invasive Management Area program. 

Related story: FCDOT to proceed with Justice Park sidewalk despite community opposition

“Fairfax County has about $100 million dedicated to sidewalks and other transportation,” said Brown, “so when Jimenez and McKay look at this, it seems like they don’t care if we’re wasting $1 million on a sidewalk project.”

“It’s an enormous undertaking managing the budget, and we have no accountability,” she said. The county does not have an independent inspector general. Instead, there’s an Internal Audit Office that reports to the county executive and an Office of Financial Program Audit that reports to the Board of Supervisors.

Brown had hoped the Internal Audit Office would review the sidewalk project, but “they completely brushed us off.”

That the sidewalk will be constructed despite opposition by the community is “positively egregious,” she said. “It makes no sense.”