School board member seeks feedback on Justice HS addition
 |
| A rendering of the Justice High School addition. [FCPS] |
School board member Ricardy Anderson (Mason) plans to put out a survey on Monday, Nov. 22, on Fairfax County Public Schools’ plan for the Justice High School addition project.
Anderson announced the forthcoming survey in a Nov. 19 newsletter, which is sent to people who subscribe to her email list.
She said the survey will be “disseminated via email to Justice pyramid parents/guardians and Justice staff and students.” The survey will be “available in Arabic, Spanish, and Vietnamese as soon as possible” after Nov. 22.
Anyone else who wants to participate in the survey, should fill out this form.
Because the addition would reduce the size of the Justice High School parking lot, FCPS and the Park Authority initially agreed to carve out space at Justice Park for an auxiliary parking lot.
Related story: Fairfax County Public Schools to seek rezoning and parking waiver for Justice HS addition
In the face of intense community opposition to the loss of green space, the Park Authority announced in July that it will not allow a parking lot in Justice Park. FCPS backed away from the Justice parking lot proposal in September.
At an Oct. 12 community meeting, FCPS announced plans to find enough parking spaces on school property to allow the project to proceed without reducing the size of the addition. That requires the school system to go through a rezoning process and seek a waiver of Fairfax County’s parking requirement.
Anderson indicated at the Oct. 12 meeting that more community engagement is needed and called for more feedback from the public on “the prior proposal” [revising the use of Justice Park for parking?], as well as the revised plan.
Related story: FCPS will not use Justice Park for a parking lot
In her Nov. 19 newsletter, Anderson wrote, “In last month’s newsletter, I shared my intention to engage the community for feedback on FCPS’ two proposals for the Justice High School addition project as this had been a major concern expressed during the Oct. 12 community meeting.”
The survey is an attempt to gather that feedback, but it’s only going to be distributed to parents, students, and staff in the Justice pyramid – not to people who live near Justice High School and Justice Park but don’t have a current connection to the schools in the pyramid.
Any other community members who want to submit feedback have to specifically request the survey.
Thanks for continuing to cover this still evolving story about the fate of the only public park and small green space for hundreds of families and children in several surrounding neighborhoods. And as a taxpayer who has supported school bonds, I say finding a better alternative to paving under any part of Justice Park should guide the County’s path forward, not expediency.
I, for one, am dismayed that FCPS's proposed "solution" here was to do a wild swing and go for a parking solution that is effectively net 0 additional parking for a reasonably large addition (striping existing non-striped parking so that it "counts" is just a book trick). Note, FCPS still has not given a satisfactory reason why some of the alternative solutions that were proposed were rejected, such as making peace valley lane one way and adding angled parking.
I personally wonder whether a compromise could exist where a small parking lot parallel to the south part of Peace Valley Lane could happen, but the proposed lot that replaced the basketball court and the new basketball court would have been placed on one of the fields would be dropped. A substantially reduced parking waiver and whatever zoning changes needed for school's FAR density would then be sought and we could finally get this thing moving.
If you take the stance that there should be ZERO encroachment on park land, then such a proposal would still not be acceptable. But if you look at this from a standpoint of seeing that we have a school and a park that serve a lot of economically disadvantaged kids that deserve a solution that doesn't put their teachers and students who need to drive to the school due to work commitments in a bind but also doesn't unduly cut into green space… maybe, just maybe there is a compromise out there to be had.
I believe that using the strip of land in front of the tennis courts for some additional parking spaces would be acceptable. The basketball court would stay in it's current location. Yes, it would entail chopping down 3 shade trees but that would not affect the bulk of the usable park space.
So, If we object to any proposal, are we considered domestic terrorist's, just asking..
May I ask how far away do the students who are the students Attending this school live and have no Bus Service? I follow many such buses along Nevius St. that are heading to the High School to load and unload students.