Justice HS neighbors seek ‘justice for Justice Park’
 |
| People gather at Justice Park June 5, despite the 93-degree temperature, to support the need for green space. |
The informal Justice for Justice Park group held an open house on the basketball court June 5 to educate their neighbors about the value of preserving the park.
The group opposes a plan by Fairfax County Public Schools to appropriate a nearly 2-acre section of the park to create a satellite parking lot for Justice High School.
 |
| Residents write why it’s important to preserve green space in the community. |
FCPS is building an addition to the school on the school’s existing parking lot, so it plans to relocate the Justice Park basketball court to make room for the satellite parking lot.
So far, 1,142 people signed a petition calling for the park to be saved. The petition notes Justice Park serves a densely populated area with the lowest amount of parkland per capita. It also says that making changes to a county park requires an amendment to the park’s Master Plan, which isn’t being done in this case.
Related story: Community presents complaints about Justice Park parking lot to school and park officials
School board chair Ricardy Anderson (Mason), in her newsletter to the community, said “if the additional parking lot is not allocated, the addition cannot be built.” The addition is needed because Justice High School is currently at 116 percent of capacity and is expected to reach 126 percent in two years.
According to Anderson, in exchange for giving up part of the park, FCPS proposes clearing eight acres of unusable parkland taken over by invasive species and provide a walking trail, a shelter, and an outdoor classroom.
 |
| Del. Kaye Kory is interviewed at the Justice Park open house. |
“We refuse to be mollified by Anderson’s statement that this is a win-win,” said Kathleen Brown, who lives near the park and is a member of the Justice High School PTSA. “In fact, these promises have been made for decades and have never been delivered.”
“We want the school addition but have not been given an opportunity for community input,” Brown said.
Members of the community have had a hard time getting specific details about the parking lot proposal.
After seeking a meeting with FCPS and Park Authority officials for months, a community meeting was held on May 6. Local residents posed numerous questions and proposed alternatives to the parking lot, such as e-scooter and bike shares to limit the number of cars – and parking spaces – needed. Surrounding neighborhoods have agreed to provide bike racks and rideshare gift cards to help students get to after-school jobs or to get home to care for younger siblings.
FCPS has yet to post answers to residents’ questions raised at the May 6 meeting; Anderson said that will happen on June 7. FCPS also promised to hold another community meeting but hasn’t scheduled one yet.
At the Justice for Justice Park open house, there was a major effort to spread the word about the parking lot issue in Spanish, as the park serves many immigrants who don’t have access to other green spaces.
“Other areas of the county don’t have to choose between parkland and good schools,” said Lydia Lawrence. “Historically, the government has always taken land from the Black and Brown communities. We deserve to be part of the solution. We deserve both quality parks and quality schools.”
Whitney Redding, of Friends of Holmes Run, said paving a large section of Justice Park would create a heat island and would threaten the health of the Tripps Run tributary that runs through the park.
 |
| A larger area of Justice Park is overgrown and impenetrable. |
When she served on the Park Authority Board several years ago, Marie Reinsdorf said, “I met with Justice Park neighbors who were keen to see the park become a more beautiful, welcoming place and were willing to put time and effort into that, including fundraising. Unfortunately, there was no mechanism in place allowing citizens to organize to pursue their vision for the park.”
What is needed, Reinsdorf said, is an openness to community involvement “that puts the community at the table with county planners.”
I was there last week, the park was empty except for the softball game. The bulk of that park between the tennis courts and softball field is rarely used. It's not even flat enough for a decent pick up soccer or football game.
Invariably the park is not busy 24/7. I go by the parks only few times a month and far more often than not the park is packed.
We have loads of parks in the county that are unknown/barely known. Last summer I visited 2 dozen local parks, mostly on Saturdays and Sundays, and found them generally empty. Around here, visit John & Margaret White Gardens; Hogge Park; Poe Terrace Park. Justice is by comparison fully used, and would be much more so with some actual park design: a welcoming entrance, shaded benches, a vista over the stream, well designed trail network. These parks may not be getting the attention they need, today, but that doesn't mean they should be ignored or abused. Their future must be protected, until we find the way to unlock their potential.
Hogge Park is a vacant lot that has its grass mowed by the county. Comparing it to Justice Park that has courts and fields and a playground is a misrepresentation. Would be great to see it turned into something with purpose. But for now lets turn attention back to the decisions made by the county and school board to design a expansion that didn't address parking without stealing land from the county parks.
M, part of a park's value is the simple fact that it's not pavement. Its "potential" is inherent: preserved parkland protects water and air quality, prevents erosion, works against the urban heat island effect, decreases noise pollution, and provides habitat for wildlife.
A park that isn't jam-packed–and I wouldn't measure that during a pandemic shut-down–is still far better than another slab of asphalt.
–kda
There are schools more crowded than Justice that aren't getting permanent additions like Justice. If the community doesn't want to lose the park space, it seems like the prudent thing to do would be to cancel the addition, wait until the upcoming renovation and expansion of Falls Church HS is finished, and move some Justice students to Falls Church. There's no money budgeted to build a vertical parking lot at Justice and other schools in FCPS have capital needs as well.
The point is that FCPS did not plan correctly for the Justice HS expansion. How could FCPS not plan or even think that they would need to replace the lost parking spaces? Apparently FCPS designers decided or were told in 2018-19 not to worry about that little problem because they would take parkland for parking if needed. Parents have said they asked FCPS in 2018 at initial design presentations what they would do about lost parking spaces and were told "We don't need them." This is malfeasance and it must be uncovered so it can't happen again and again. Justice Park is not an unused park. It is there when people want to use it. They can take the trails through the woods, on the open field play soccer, hit golf balls, play football, or run their dogs. They can play basketball, tennis all without having to reserve the courts or fields. The point is parks are not there to be taken over by FCPS, just because of FCPS's bad planning.
FCPS can start the school expansion now and solve the parking later probably through school buses, metro card passes, walking, or riding bicycles to the school. Now is the time for FCPS to think out of the box and do something innovative other than taking needed and used parkland, wasting thousands more dollars by redesigning parkland to make it into a parking lot. Our county government is being badly run.
Since most if not all of the FCPS board is liberal, I'm surprised they approved this plan. I thought liberals were all about the environment. Hey Fairfax County citizens…you get what you voted for!!