Residents oppose sidewalk at Justice Park
Residents who live near Justice Park in Seven Corners say a sidewalk planned along Peace Valley Lane is not needed and urge the county to cancel the project.
The Fairfax County Department of Transportation is proceeding with the development of an 825-foot sidewalk between Mansfield Road and the cul-de-sac at the end of Peace Valley Lane.
The new sidewalk has been on the drawing board since at least 2018, with the goal of providing a safer pedestrian route to Justice High School, which is across the street from the park.
Related story: Sidewalk project underway at Justice Park
Since then, Fairfax County Public Schools put in a sidewalk on the other side of Peace Valley Lane, “so the issue is moot,” says nearby resident Jessica Swanson. “Everyone was shocked to see them starting this. The needs of the community have already been met.”
Barbara Wolf, president of the Ravenwood Park Citizens Association, and Kate Fry Cicero, president of the Ravenwood Citizens Association, sent a joint letter on Nov. 15 to Mason Supervisor Andres Jimenez, board chair Jeffrey McKay, and the Park Authority expressing “deep opposition to the pending sidewalk installation.”
“This is an unnecessary intrusion into the park and its resource protection area and is inconsistent with the park master plan,” Wolf and Fry wrote. “We are disappointed to learn that this project appears to have advanced without public notice or opportunity for community input.”
They call the outlay of upwards of $900,000 for a redundant project “wasteful and a misuse of resources.”
“Our neighborhoods, along with others nearby, have worked for years to protect and enhance the park,” Wolf and Fry remind county leaders. “We advocated tirelessly to preserve the green space from becoming a parking lot for Justice High School during its recent expansion.”
Ravenwood resident Kathleen Brown, one of the key opponents of the parking lot proposal, who currently works on ridding Justice Park of invasive plants, is concerned that several large, mature trees would have to be removed to make way for the sidewalk.
When Brown met with Jimenez’s chief of staff, Devin Pharr, on Nov. 15, she learned that the supervisor hadn’t been informed about the sidewalk project. She urged Jimenez to take the project out of the county’s work program. According to the FCDOT website, the sidewalk is supposed to be completed next April.
Related story: FCPS will not use Justice Park for parking
“This has been in the pipeline for years, and there’s been no community engagement,” she said. “There was supposedly a community meeting in July, but no one knew about it. This is insulting.”
The cost of the sidewalk was originally estimated at $500,000, but has now gone up to over $1 million, Brown said. With all the budget cuts under consideration, “there are better things to spend the county’s money on.”
FCPS installed a sidewalk in front of Justice High School about a year and a half ago. There are already two crosswalks along that stretch of Peace Valley Lane, and speed bumps were installed last summer, she noted. “We don’t want another sidewalk.”
Fortunately, there are plenty of roads in Mason District that could use safety enhancements like a sidewalk or pathway. Old Columbia Pike gets a fair bit of pedestrian and bike traffic, but doesn’t even have shoulders for multimodal safety.
This seemed like a decent plan when it was initially on the table in mid 2010s and community outreach done back then, but with the expansion having installed a sidewalk already, it doesn’t seem like a good use of $$$ to install what amounts to a SECOND sidewalk on the other side of the street that would end up potentially tearing up mature trees.
Seems like we should look at reallocating this $ towards other transportation and mobility projects in the district – ideally some of the hot spots that were identified by the Justice High School transportation work group where students end up walking in the street due to dilapidated, undersized, or non existent sidewalks/crosswalks.
Thank you for publishing this article. We need to make this problem very public. The communtiy fight to save the park from destruction has already been fought and won. While no one with in the Park Authority
seems to know where the request and ongoing construction originated, it is clear where it needs to end.
The cost of the sidewalk would provide SNAP benefits for many families. I hope that the FC BOS will respond to public outcry.
Is this an accessibility issue, like ADA related?
Wow, what a waste of taxpayers’ $1 million! Redundancy in an inappropriate place plus failure to notify the community. Blame lies with many Fairfax County staff! Apparently the backlog of sidewalk plans from the previous decade need careful scrutiny and accountability.
This is a boondoggle for some Fairfax County Public Works’ contractors. There is already a sidewalk on the school side. We need to know which contract companies are going to receive $900,000 of citizens’ money? There needs to be an explanation to residents from the Park Authority, Mason District Supervisor, and the Board of Supervisors for wasting citizens’ money!
I’m curious if anyone who disagrees with the sidewalk has kids who walk to Justice HS. I do, and let me tell you my child’s experience. The crosswalk at the end of Peace Valley at Mansfield is not pedestrian friendly. Drivers leaving Justice ignore kids in the crosswalk and often do not even stop at the stop sign. My child has had many near-misses. A new sidewalk allows walkers to skip crossing here at this crosswalk and cross at a safer location closer to the school. I hate the idea of losing big trees, but something needs to be done. Ask any parent with kids walking from Blair Rd, everyone will tell you how close their kids have come to being hit at the crosswalk.