FCPS will not use Justice Park for parking
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| Community members gather on the spot in Justice Park where the parking lot was proposed for a presentation Sept. 18 on the Black families displaced when the park was created. |
In a huge victory for community members, Fairfax County Public Schools has backed away from creating a parking lot in Justice Park to accommodate the future expansion of Justice High School.
In a Sept. 24 email to the Justice HS community, Region 2 Assistant Superintendent Fabio Zuluaga wrote, “FCPS will not be using the park for parking spaces” because of concerns raised by local residents.
Zuluaga invites the community to a virtual meeting Oct. 12, 7 p.m., “to learn about the next steps including a solution that is in harmony with the community’s feedback.” Register for the meeting here.
The Park Authority, which initially agreed to give up parkland for a parking lot, determined in July that a parking lot in Justice Park is “unacceptable.”
Related story: Park Authority calls parking lot in Justice Park “unacceptable”
Community residents fought long and hard against paving over a portion of Justice Park, citing environmental and equity issues. “Justice for Justice Park” advocates urged the Park Authority and FCPS to save green space in an area with few parks. They also spoke about the need to prevent stormwater runoff and to recognize that eminent domain was used to displace Black families to create the park.
Related story: Fairfax County forced Black families to vacate land for Justice Park
The following is an excerpt from Zuluaga’s email:
“At the onset of this project, FCPS proposed a solution to work with the Fairfax County Park Authority to add additional parking spaces at Justice Park across the street from the school.”
“The solution would have meant converting an area of the park into parking spaces. The school division offered to make several enhancements to the park in exchange for the use of some of this space including eliminating the invasive species and building a walking trail.”
“However, this proposed solution was not popular with the community who wanted to protect the entire green space. The school division is grateful for the feedback and we promised to come back to the community with alternative options.”
Related story: Public officials failed to inform public on Justice Park land negotiations
“FCPS also values green open space in our community and has tried to balance the need for the addition to ensure a quality learning environment. Like you, FCPS does not want to impact or encroach on the Park Authority’s parkland.”
“As a result, the facilities staff have worked over the summer to come up with alternative solutions that do not use the park for parking spaces. These include the request for a parking modification (waiver) by the county Planning Commission to reduce the number of parking spaces required on the school site and working with the project architect to find ways to increase parking spaces through the design of the addition.”
Justice Park advocates caution that the parking lot issue is not a done deal and urge the public to come to the Oct. 12 meeting.
Finally someone came forward with brains.
Yes, it is amazing that FCPS is doing the right thing by not taking irreplaceable parkland. Everyone is for Mason District getting schools equal to schools in other Fairfax County districts–in this case a much needed expansion for Justice HS. Thanks to all who fought so hard for Justice Park. We can have both a great school and a great park. Carol
Keep your eyes and ears open folks. Forty years of experience with the duplicity of local government agencies raises the suspicion that they will still use the park as previously planned. Months from now, we will drive past Justice Park after a long holiday weekend and find everything clear cut, with "Tree Protection Area" banners all over the cleared land. Oh, the concrete trucks will be lined up to pour.
I guess students at Justice HS can walk, bike, or take the bus. You certainly shouldn't expect the rest of the county to cough up additional money to pay for a parking garage when you're already getting an expansion and turned down the park proposal.
We walked and biked to school as a kid, what is wrong with that. These kids all need to lose weight and the parents need to stop chauffeuring. Its no wonder this country is losing to China, we are raising an entitled underclass!
There will be no expansion to Justice High School without the parking. Nice job, folks.
Heaven forbid school students ride the SCHOOL BUS to school!
More pavement, ever-increasing road traffic, dirtier air, less green space, and fewer opportunities to exercise are NOT what the American public–especially children in urban/suburban areas like the one surrounding Justice HS–needs today (or ever).
Believe me now and thank me later.
–kda
The renderings I saw didn't seem like the parking lot that they were going to build was gonna substantially devalue or destroy the park. And I understand the need for the upgrades to the school. But, assuming growth, which I think is the only really rational certainty, what and how long until the next need to re-purpose the parkland for the school? Taking parkland for surface / ground-level projects will always be the cheapest and least logistically challenging path to grow. Witness American sprawl for the last 40 years.
And so, while I'd like to say, sure FCPS use this little bit of land and next time don't even ask, how likely would such a good faith promise be to be honored in 10, 20, or 30 years? FFX county doesn't even religiously honor its own actual plans, months after making them.
It will never be easier to build within the existing footprint of Justice HS, and the longer FCPS goes without doing so, the harder it will be.
And I know, what about the children? Sure, but what about the oxygen, the trees, the deer, the foxes, the birds, the silence? It shouldn't be a one or the other proposition, and if you consider any timeline longer than the 4 years your kids might be at Justice it's not.