FCDOT to proceed with Justice Park sidewalk despite community opposition
Despite strong opposition from nearby residents, the Fairfax County Department of Transportation is proceeding with a sidewalk project next to Justice Park along Peace Valley Lane.
The sidewalk was first proposed in 2018 to provide a safer route for students walking to Justice High School, then seemingly fell off the radar.
Now, residents say it’s no longer needed because a new sidewalk was constructed on the school side of Peace Valley Lane a couple of years ago. They also say a new impermeable surface next to the park would harm the environment and that the cost, which has ballooned to nearly $1 million, could be better spent elsewhere.
Community not informed
There hasn’t been any community engagement on the sidewalk project in at least five or six years. So, in early November, when residents saw stakes in the ground on the edge of Justice Park and a sign stating construction will start in spring 2026, they scrambled to figure out what was going on. There was confusion about who owns that strip of land and which agency was responsible for approving the project.
Residents’ outrage is less about the sidewalk than the lack of communication, said Ravenwood resident Kathleen Brown.
Fairfax County Department of Transportation Director Greg Steverson told Annandale Today a community meeting is “not something we’re looking to do,” but will talk to Mason Supervisor Andres Jimenez about that. Jimenez has not responded to requests for comment.
“None of this makes sense,” she said, “especially as this current sidewalk design only extends to the end of the parkland near where buses enter the lot, not all the way to Mansfield Road,” which negates the county’s goal of improving connectivity.
Not a park project
“This is clearly not a Park Authority project. It’s a Fairfax County Department of Transportation project,” Rick Healy, the Mason District representative on the Park Board, told Annandale Today.
“We don’t have a voice on whether the sidewalk proceeds or not,” Healy said, as it would be located on the public right of way.
There’s just a tiny sliver of land, 10 by 20 feet, next to the cul-de-sac and not in the developed park area that the Park Authority is ceding to FCDOT for the sidewalk, he said. Only two trees would be removed, and they are both next to the cul-de-sac.
Related story: Residents oppose sidewalk at Justice Park
“Any conversations about whether the sidewalk should be constructed should be solely directed to FCDOT, not us,” reiterated Jai Cole, executive director of the Park Authority, in an email to residents. “We do not make a value judgment nor use the withholding of a small sliver of parkland as a means of stopping a project another agency has deemed for the public good.”
The area adjacent to the road is not part of Justice Park, Cole said. “It is, in fact, the road right-of-way and fully within the purview of FCDOT. … While I greatly appreciate how much you value our parks, I cannot continue to engage with you on an issue that should be directed to another agency, so I must now consider the matter closed.”
Kaye Kory, a nearby resident and former member of the House of Delegates, said Cole’s assertion that the land in question is part of the right-of-way is incorrect. “The road alongside the park is owned by FCPS. It is not a public road, and the ROW is not legally under FCDOT’s purview,” she said.
An old request
In an email to residents, FCDOT Director Steverson said the agency received a petition from the Ravenwood Park community in 2016 requesting a sidewalk on the park side of Peace Valley Lane. At that time, Fairfax County Public Schools claimed they couldn’t build a sidewalk next to Justice High School because that land is sloped.
“I am deeply concerned that this is now explained as an old request from the Ravenwood Park community from October 2016,” Brown said. That was long before neighbors successfully fought a proposal for a parking lot in Justice Park and the recent construction of a sidewalk in front of the school.
Sidewalk opponent Barbara Wolf, the current president of the Ravenwood Park Citizens Association, explained that when the petition was circulated, the assumption was that the sidewalk would be built on the school side of the road. At the time, there were no safe pedestrian routes for dog walkers to get to the park.
FCDOT in charge
According to Steverson, “pedestrian connectivity in this area has been a priority since the initial County Transportation Priorities Plan in 2014.” After receiving the petition, the Board of Supervisors included the sidewalk project in the 2020-25 TPP.
Steverson said construction won’t start until next summer, when school is out.
It has been a longstanding policy to provide sidewalks on both sides of a street, Steverson said. “As such, no matter on which side of Peace Valley Lane a sidewalk was provided, it would not negate or diminish the county’s need or desire to provide a facility on the other side of the street.”
Following meetings with FCDOT, the Park Authority, and FCPS, Steverson said, FCDOT and the Mason supervisor’s office presented a concept plan for a sidewalk on the south side of Peace Valley Lane at a citizen information meeting in April 2019.
“FCDOT did not receive any objection to the project from the community, and as such, we have proceeded forward with final design and acquisition of any necessary land for the project,” Steverson said.
“This project is about connectivity to the park, and it attempts to be as minimally intrusive as possible,” he said. “There are minimal tree impacts (two trees affected), but FCDOT is proposing to plant eight trees to help create an enhanced visual frontage on the south side of the street.”
Brown and her neighbors call for an immediate halt to the project “until the community can be engaged in shaping and envisioning what’s the best use of our tax dollars.”
Please keep asking questions, Kathleen Brown, and community residents. There is no reason to waste a million dollars of Fairfax County residents’ money. The request for a sidewalk was made long before there was a sidewalk on the school side. There was no communication to or from residents during that 10-year interim about whether or not the sidewalk on the park side was still needed. In almost 10 years, FCDOT never informed or asked residents for their opinions. Apparently residents need to understand that if they ever petition the county for a particular item, there is the possibility that it could be honored 10 years later. Apparently FCDOT has no ability to reengage or be flexible once an item is approved. I now understand why people are always complaining about government bureaucracy.
“Mason Supervisor Andres Jimenez has not responded to Annandale Today’s requests for comment.”
Jai Cole takes no responsibility.
This is exactly what I’ve come to expect from both these “leaders.”
Know what would have been acceptable? If Andres Jimenez responded to an email, and if Jai Cole said she had reached out to FCDOT on behalf of the residents. The bar is SO LOW, yet Jimenez and Cole seem to still fall short every… single… time.
Maybe it’s time we get some people in these positions who can take time to at least pause Netflix to respond to an email? Or they can even keep Netflix playing while they respond. I work for the federal government, so if I can do it, I know they can do it too!
You can do it!!!!
I find this hilarious. The residents requested the sidewalk. It was approved and put into the plan for 2020-2025. The plan was presented in 2019 to no objection. The process continued. The county has proceeded forward and we are now near the end of the time frame that the sidewalk was scheduled for and the residents are furious that the sidewalk (which they requested and has been planned for 10 years) is finally being built.
When Fairfax County’s Department of Transportation marches forward with a nearly $1 million sidewalk at Justice Park “despite strong opposition from nearby residents,” it is not infrastructure, it is improv. Decisions are made first, explained later; if at all. Outreach is promised like a magician’s rabbit, but the hat is always empty. Accountability is reserved for press releases, where buzzwords pirouette across the stage like dancers in a taxpayer‑funded ballet.
Suggesting that residents “take it to the Board” is like advising them to shout into a hurricane. The only sound that comes back is the whoosh of bureaucratic wind. Emails vanish into the abyss. Sending concerns to Mason District Supervisor Andres Jimenez feels less like civic engagement and more like writing letters to a mime; you will get the same response, only quieter.
As a retired Soldier, I stood for duty, clarity, and honest orders. I did not wear the uniform to watch communities bulldozed by bureaucratic theater. If the county intends to rip up trees, carve into parkland, and force a sidewalk plan down the throats of locals, then at least admit the truth: this is about politics and contracts, not safety or community input. Call it what it is, a sidewalk subsidy for contractors dressed up as “community improvement.”
Good governance requires transparency and respect. “We decided for you” wrapped in buzzwords is not leadership. It is performance art, complete with props, stage lights, and a captive audience. And Justice Park deserves better than being cast as the backdrop in Fairfax County’s latest episode of The Sidewalk Show.
Sounds like the a creative writing class that focused on creating clever analogies was very influential in your life’s journey.
Read the first comment. The way I interpret it, another nearby sidewalk was built after the first request, alleviating the need for the one requested. And no one at FCDOT evaluated whether the first sidewalk requested was still still needed or wanted, or requested public comment, seven years later. If there are millions of dollars available for sidewalks, how about building one where it is really needed, like on Old Columbia Pike?
I was no fan of Penny, but Stupidvisor Jimenez makes her look better every week.
P.S. I did not know we had a FCDOT. When I called the County to request repair of a cracked sidewalk in front of my home, I was referred to VADOT.
Fairfax County’s Justice Park sidewalk project is less about concrete and more about comedy. Residents asked for it, the county approved it, the plan was published in 2019 with no objection, and it was slotted neatly into the 2020 to 2025 schedule. Fast forward a decade, sprinkle in cost inflation, and suddenly the sidewalk is treated like an ambush.
It is hilarious, you say. But what is truly funny, in the tragicomic sense, is how a decade of silence, ballooning costs, and shifting assumptions can turn yesterday’s request into today’s outrage. The sidewalk that once looked like a modest improvement now carries a near million dollar price tag. That is not the same sidewalk residents thought they were getting.
And let us not forget the misunderstanding. Many assumed the sidewalk would be built on the school side of the road, where it would connect naturally to existing paths. Instead, the plan drops it on the park side, carving into green space and trees. That is not a minor detail; it is the difference between a welcomed improvement and an unwanted intrusion.
Even more absurd, the residents who first supported the plan may not even live here anymore. The county is destroying green spaces to honor a decade old request from people who may have since moved on. That is not community input; that is archaeology. We are digging up old plans like fossils and pretending they represent today’s voice.
So laugh if you like. But the real punchline is this: when government waits a decade to act, inflates the cost, builds on the wrong side of the street, and serves a constituency that may no longer exist, it should not be surprised when residents stop clapping. The comedy here is not in the community’s concern; it is in the county’s timing, execution, and failure to check back in before rolling out the bulldozers.
Thank you Annandale today for excellent local reporting that no one else provides.
Effective communication takes disciplined focus effort on all sides. That looks like the positive solution.
I would not refer to the opposition to this project as “overwhelming” – as stated above this request dates back several years and originates from the neighborhood where it is being built. It will improve access to the park from the neighborhood and be minimally invasive (two trees per the plan I saw, with several more being planted). While there are certainly folks who don’t want it, there are others who do or see no issue with it’s construction.
The sidewalk on the south / park side of Peace Valley Lane not needed. That alone should result in terminating plans to construct it; the County’s projected budget shortfall and the sidewalk’s detrimental environmental impact are even more reasons to stop plans for construction.
As for the recently installed sidewalk on the north / school side of Peace Valley: many squares are – already – significantly pitted.
But the school DID build the sidewalk on the school side of the street (with little explanation to anyone in the community). Therefore, the original request has been met.
The point now is that building a sidewalk on the park side has less value and $1 mil can probably be spent better elsewhere.