Sidewalk project underway at Justice Park
The sign and stakes are up at Justice Park in preparation for the construction of a sidewalk along Peace Valley Lane.
The $900,000 project calls for 825 linear feet of a five-foot concrete sidewalk between Mansfield Road and the cul-de-sac at Peace Valley Lane in Seven Corners.
The project is aimed at accommodating pedestrians going to and from Justice High School.
A new crosswalk is planned on the southeast leg of Peace Valley Lane at the cul-de-sac.
The sidewalk is expected to be completed in April 2026. The construction contract was approved on Oct. 25. The Fairfax County Department of Transportation held a community meeting on the project in 2019.
Related story: BoS seeks eminent domain for Columbia Pike sidewalk project
Good news.
We need walkable, bikeable, pedestrian, rail friendly communities.
Just don’t make major mistakes with “road diets” for major thoroughfares. It completely ignores reality. Such as been proposed. Annandale is car centric because of the needs – families have to get groceries, most people have to drive to work (not take the bus), etc.
The Ravenwood Park Citizens Association (RPCA) and the Ravenwood Citizen Association (RCA) have deep opposition to the proposed sidewalk installation in Justice Park. Since the RPCA’s initial request over a decade ago, Fairfax County Public Schools installed a sidewalk along the opposite side of the street, along with crosswalks to the park, fully addressing the original pedestrian safety concern.
Further sidewalk construction within the park represents an unnecessary intrusion into the park and its resource protection area and is inconsistent with the park master plan. We are disappointed to learn that this project appears to have advanced without public notice or opportunity for community input. We believe meaningful engagement with residents should have occurred before any surveying work began inside this park.
Our neighborhoods, along with others nearby, have worked for years to protect and enhance the park. As you know, we advocated tirelessly to preserve the green space from becoming a parking lot for Justice High School during its recent expansion.
We ask that this project will be paused pending further discussion.
Mason district residents & RPCA, RCA & LBA— I ask how can this be happening? Again?
Why in the world wouldn’t at the very least FCDOT alert our current Supervisor about this sidewalk request— long in the pipeline by previous Supervisor Gross & clearly not known, by the requesting Ravenwood Park community that it remained there & was finally, after years languishing in the work queue, placed back in the pipeline without vigorous community engagement?
Some kind of input was invited this past July? How was this communicated? What did this look like? Was it perhaps like that done for parking in Justice Park where 2 people responded! Clearly Ravenwood Park & Ravenwood communities, where our current Supervisor has resided & is living were not consulted or contacted.
And with FCPA needing to cede or give FCDOT & County officials permission to take land inside Justice Park — knowing the history here— did not think to engage the community as well? Where is our Mason Park board member on this?
This is Justice Park 2.0!
All this after Ravenwood Park Citizen Association wanted one sidewalk, clearly not a second sidewalk, while money in the County budget is sorely needed on other more pressing issues? After FCPS put in a sidewalk last year— this thing should have been deep-sixed!
This is a fiasco of epic proportions! And its price tag has jumped from $ 500 thousand to more than $1,000,000?
Let’s get this sidewalk project the subject of a community meeting — one that should have been arranged by FCDOT for genuine and authentic community engagement!
Many resident’s, in our community alongside High School and Middle School students, have devoted hours to remove invasive plants, plant native plants, clear trash and plant trees on the forested side of this amazing urban forest before & after the fight to save Justice Park from encroachment!
Can our Fairfax County leaders really plow ahead with a plan to uproot trees, plants and disturb an RPA tributary of Tripps Run without genuine community feedback?
Is this the legacy you want to repeat after County leaders removed Black families from their homes and orchards on this same land to create JEB Stuart Park and JEB Stuart School? This is a civics lesson at the front door of Justice High School. Let us know you’ve learned this lesson!
Preserve & elevate this hallowed ground!
Respectfully,
Kathleen A Brown
Ravenwood Citizen Association, VP
& parent of JHS grad 2024
IMA volunteer in Justice Park
Yet again, Fairfax County government bodies have failed to engage or communicate with local communities and residents regarding a nearly $1 million project ($1.23 million has been budgeted) in their neighborhood that unnecessarily impinges on parkland, namely a sidewalk that nobody currently needs nor wants nor has asked for. Yes, it was asked for years ago, but a sidewalk was ultimately installed on Peace Valley Lane on the school side for student and pedestrian safety, with crosswalks to the park, so why construct a parallel one? This is especially egregious after a number of those same bodies and others (FC Park Authority, FC School Board, Falls Church DOT, FC Board of Supervisors planning staff, etc.) created a fiasco four years ago by seeking put a school parking lot on precious parkland in an area of the county with little green space already. Fortunately, as a result of resident opposition, the park was saved from the parking lot, but here we are again, with a supposedly done deal on a redundant five foot wide concrete sidewalk on the same park land. When will they ever get their act together? Hopefully resident opposition to the project will prevail again and the sidewalk project will be scrapped. Those funds should be applied to other needed infrastructure in that neighborhood.
We are in absolute agreement with Jessica Swanson’s comments; we too are deeply opposed to FCDOT taking up much needed space in Justice Park along Peace Valley to build this expensive sidewalk. This is yet another instance in which staffs at both FCDOT and the Fairfax County Park Authority have failed to seek genuine community engagement about the project. If the FCDOT had reached out to our community and FCPA had exercised its responsibility as a proper steward to the park, they would have understood the community’s strong opposition back in July when the work plan was created.
We all value safety and pedestrian access, especially near our schools, but a few years ago, a sidewalk was installed on the opposite side of the street with crosswalks to address the concern for pedestrian safety.
How can using a million dollars to create another sidewalk along the same road be a rational use of tax payer money especially at a time of deep budget cuts? Justice Park has immense value to the community as a rare oasis in Mason District, a densely developed area with one of the highest socio-economic needs but the least green spaces in the county. For the past decade or so, many of us residents in the community have shown how much we value Justice Park by clearing invasive plants and planting native trees. We have engaged students in these conservation efforts.
We urge FCDOT and FCPA to reconsider this project– or at least pause it– to allow time for the community’s concerns to be heard and honored.
Ben and Kay Cooper
Two-three times a week, for the past 16 years, I have walked the stretch of Peace Valley Lane where a second sidewalk is proposed. It seems absurd and wasteful to install a sidewalk on the Justice Park side, when there is a new, fully functional sidewalk on the Justice High School side of the street.
Park users go into the park to reach the courts, fields, playground, and more. There is no need to walk along the Peace Valley Lane edge of the park.
In this era of budget deficits and program cuts, it is difficult to comprehend why a wasteful and environmentally destructive project is going forward.
I urge the relevant authorities to terminate this project.
totally wasteful and unneeded! $1M for a small stretch of sidewalk? I bet we could grab some of the fine short term laborers from the neighboring 7 Eleven and get this done for a fraction of the price. Why would this be a million dollar project?
Volunteers from all over Fairfax County have worked over 1,000 hours to protect parkland, remove invasive species, and plant native plants in Justice Park. To now lose parkland, mature trees and many native plants (as well as construction that will disturb soil and invite more invasive species) to build a redundant and unnecessary sidewalk is so disheartening. There is already a sidewalk on the other side of the street that meets the needs of pedestrians. $900,000 could be spent so much more effectively on invasive plant management in our county parks.
Hi Claire,
I totally agree with you and appreciate all your efforts to lead our student and community volunteers to remove the invasive species and expand our healthy pollinator space. We have made a lot of progress, and the environmental impact of this sidewalk seems significant both for the loss of mature trees, parkland (soil), native plants, and the hardscape that will take its place and bring a constant flow of road debris run off. I am not aware of any safety issues or concerns with having only one side of the street with sidewalk since the students only park on the side of the street with the sidewalk. It would be so nice to use those funds to make more significant inroads with the invasive plant problems in the county.
Byrdie Bullock