School board claims ownership of land in Justice Park

Neighbors of Justice High School are concerned about the motives behind the Fairfax County School Board’s action to claim ownership of a 25-foot-wide stretch of land along Peace Valley Lane across from the school Nearly all the land is within Justice Park.

According to a resolution approved by the board, it’s the school board’s intent to grant Fairfax County an easement to use that land for a future sidewalk. Local residents who reviewed the documents related to that land say it isn’t clear that FCPS actually owns that land.

It’s also especially concerning to community members because of the controversy over the school system’s failed attempt to create a parking lot in Justice Park to accommodate an expansion of the overcrowded high school.

“We want clarification about the ownership of the strip of land on the Justice Park side of Peace Valley Lane that the school board has resolved to take and potentially use to add a sidewalk,” said Barbara Wolf, the president of the Ravenwood Park Citizens Association. “Given the contentious fight over Justice for Justice Park – in which the county proposed paving part of the park for a school parking lot – we are also concerned about FCPS’s actual intentions for the land they are claiming ownership of.”

Wolf doesn’t trust the school system. She worries there is “some kind of subterfuge going on that FCPS has a right to that land, but we’re really not sure what they want to do with that land.”

Related story: FCPS will not use Justice Park for parking

The School Board resolution was adopted as part of a consent agenda, which allows the board to approve several items in a single motion.

The resolution confirms the school board’s ownership of the 25-foot strip of land although it acknowledges ownership is actually ambiguous. It authorizes FCPS to finalize the acquisition of the 25-foot strip of land, including a “certificate of taking” and a “petition for condemnation.”

According to the school board, staff “discovered the existence of a long-abandoned outlet road” along the southern property boundary of Justice High School that was believed to be part of the Justice High School property.

That land “was likely intended to be included in the property acquired by the School Board in the mid-1950s, but the chain of title does not contain clear language conveying the strip to the school board,” FCPS states in the document accompanying the resolution.

“That portion of Peace Valley Lane is integral for access to and from Justice High School, as well as to provide much-needed parking along the north side of the road.” It also says acquisition of the land will facilitate “future building expansions at the already-undersized school site.”

Neither the resolution nor the explanatory documents state that nearly all of the land in question is now part of Justice Park.

Noting that passage of the resolution “got ramrodded through at a Nov. 3 school board meeting on a consent agenda,” Wolf said, community members only learned there would be a public hearing the day before from Mason School Board member Ricardy Anderson’s monthly newsletter.

Related story: Supervisors approve Justice HS addition

According to Anderson’s newsletter, “the purpose of the agenda item is to remove possible claims to an old outlet road right-of-way that appears in certain documents of record for the Justice High School property.”

“With that question removed, FCPS will be able to grant a sidewalk easement to Fairfax County so the county can construct a 5-foot-wide sidewalk on the south (Justice Park) side of Peace Valley Lane,” Anderson wrote. “The sidewalk had been identified as a county project for a number of years in response to requests from the community to improve access to both the high school and the park.”

During the school board hearing on Nov. 3, Kathleen Brown, president of the Ravenwood Citizen Association and Justice Park advocate, asked the school board to move the resolution off the consent agenda “to allow for more public discussion of this complex issue.”

The school site was recently rezoned from R-3 to R-8 to allow for the expansion project. “So why is the school board claiming the 25-foot-strip is needed for that project?” Brown asked the board. “With ownership of this land, FCPS can block implementation of components of Justice Park’s Master Plan by denying park easements.”

Brown questioned whether the school board actually owns the land in question, noting that the Park Authority maintains it.

The land once belonged to the Nevius family, but the board claims the heirs cannot be reached. “Has a diligent effort been made to identify the heirs?” Brown asked. “Two are in the area – Theodore Nevius is on Reservoir Road in D.C., and Katherine Nevius is in Annapolis or Easton, Md. Perhaps the Nevius heirs would prefer their land to be given to the Park Authority.”

Peter Jones, who leads efforts to remove invasive plants in Justice Park, and Ravenwood Park resident Mark Doehnert also raised concerns about the negative environmental impacts of a sidewalk in Justice Park.

Doehnert notes the 25-strip of land consists of three feet on Peace Valley Lane and 22 feet in the park. He questioned why the Park Authority isn’t claiming title to the land in Justice Park.

“How does the record and history show FCPS intended to take that land, when we can see otherwise?” Doehnert asked the board. The 1986 and 2009 master plans for what is now Justice Park show the park boundary at the southern edge of Peace Valley Lane.

After the controversy over the parking lot issue, when residents complained about the lack of transparency and the lack of public notification, FCPS promised to do better.

But in this case, the lack of transparency continues, Wolf said. “It’s an ongoing problem.” There’s also a lack of coordination among school and county agencies. “There’s no direct line that connects all these dots.”

“We’re advocates of expansion and upgrades to the school and we’ve been frustrated over the years by the county’s lack of transparency and lack of coordination for a comprehensive plan,” Wolf said.

Related story: Public officials failed to inform public on Justice Park land negotiations

In an email to school, county, and Park Authority leaders and elected officials, Wolf called for “a truly comprehensive plan and planning and implementation processes for transportation, including sidewalks at Justice High School, Justice Park, Ravenwood Park, and other neighborhoods.”

That plan should address “pedestrian, transit, and safety between our neighborhood and the school, park, and Mansfield Drive neighborhood” and should include ADA-compliant ramps and crosswalks, she said.

The sidewalk should be on the school side, not the park side, of Peace Valley Lane, Wolf said. Mason Supervisor Penny Gross set aside money for that years ago, but then FCPS put up a fence there. The fence would have to be removed and some grading would be needed, but that option makes more sense than taking parkland, she said.

According to Wolf, a five-foot-wide sidewalk in Justice Park would require the removal of trees, which would further degrade Tripp’s Run and a resource protection area in the park.