Survey seeks input on parking lot in Justice Park – even though that proposal dead
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| Justice Park with Justice High School in the background. |
A survey from Mason school board member Ricardy Anderson revisits the controversy over whether a parking lot should be created in Justice Park to accommodate a forthcoming addition for Justice High School – even though Fairfax County Public Schools and the Park Authority both rejected the parking lot proposal.
Over a week after Anderson sent the survey to parents and others in the Justice High School pyramid, a link to the survey was sent to other people in the community who requested it.
Both FCPS and the Park Authority cited intense community opposition to reducing parkland as their reason for backing off the parking lot proposal.
FCPS announced at a community meeting Oct. 12 that it would proceed with the addition without an additional parking lot by seeking a rezoning and a parking waiver.
At that meeting and in her newsletter to constituents, Anderson said she would put out a survey because people complained about insufficient community engagement.
Related story: Fairfax County Public Schools to seek rezoning and parking waiver for Justice HS addition
The survey to community members asks whether people support or oppose two options for parking at Justice High School:
Proposal #1 – “(1) Use 1.1 acres of Justice Park for additional parking spaces. (2) Total of 394 proposed parking spaces, 67 of which were proposed at Justice Park. (3) Addition of a walking trail through Justice Park. (4) Addition of an outdoor classroom/picnic shelter. (5) Clearing of eight acres of invasive species to provide more usable/green space. (6) Completion of all project work by summer 2023. (7) Stormwater management that ensures the parking lot does not flood.”
Proposal #2: “(1) No changes to Justice Park or addition of parking spaces at the park. (2) Total of 355 parking spaces. (3) Rezoning will allow for additional square footage needed for instructional space for the addition. The rezoning will allow for educational use only. (4) Completion of all project work by fall 2024.
“Please be aware that Proposal 1 is no longer being considered by FCPS,” the survey states. “The Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA) rejected it citing community concerns. However, it is vital to have data documenting the feedback of the broader Justice High School community. This feedback will be shared with the FCPA.”
Related story: School board member seeks feedback on Justice HS addition
It should be noted that Justice Park already has an outdoor classroom and a trail. The other improvements at the park listed in Proposal #2 had been promised long before the Justice High School addition was proposed.
The survey seems to imply that if a parking lot won’t be built in the park, the park won’t be improved at all.
If FCPS had sought a rezoning and parking waiver at the beginning of the process, the addition would be much further along at the point, FCPS’s attorney John McGranahan acknowledged at the Oct. 12 meeting.
“We should have done things differently,” he said. FCPS didn’t know last fall that the Park Authority would reject the parking lot in the park. “If we knew, we would have been at this point a year ago.”
The survey closes Dec. 10. If you haven’t received a survey, request one here.
I completed this survey. I felt the wording was trying to "sell" proposal #1 over proposal #2. Maybe thats just me.
Also, from the article "It should be noted that Justice Park already has an outdoor classroom and a trail. The other improvements at the park listed in Proposal #2 had been promised long before the Justice High School addition was proposed."…was that supposed to be Proposal #1.
Oh, they totally did. I read it and literally laughed out loud at how poorly done the survey was.
Most of Fairfax County's surveys are just tools to get the questions asked. It doesn't matter whether the majority want something or not (see renaming Lee Highway), the deck is already stacked.
How specifically is this survey biased? It states exactly what the proposals are. Perhaps it should have said an “improved” outdoor classroom and trails? The current outdoor classroom is a bunch of benches in a semicircle. The #1 proposal includes building a gazebo as part of the outdoor classroom. The existing trail is overgrown and difficult to find. And while these improvements were promised long before the addition, they were promised by FCPA not FCPS. It’s ridiculous that people are angry with FCPS that the improvements to the park won’t be done if they are unable to use it for the school. Of course FCPS isn’t going to pay for the park improvements if they can’t use it. Stop blaming FCPS about the park and talk to FCPA.
Last night one of the SJP attendees accidentally posted to the group "I will take her to task for all of us. ;)" This type of aggressiveness and open hostility by some of the attendees makes these meetings painful and unproductive. As a parent of 3 Justice pyramid students, I am glad the survey was sent to the community. Even now, many people still do not know about the addition and the park. For over six months people have been complaining about the process and now they are angry about the survey. We need to move on and find a *realistic* and time-sensitive solution to this problem. It’s the teachers and students at Justice who are being punished.
What is this "group" you mention?
The survey was sent to the school pyramid, NOT to "the community". The community is larger than just those who currently have students attending a Justice pyramid school… and I say that as a parent of 2 justice pyramid students.
"It’s the teachers and students at Justice who are being punished." If you think they are being punished now, just wait until option 2 gets pushed through that adds the expansion – which removes an existing parking lot and adds capacity without adding any new "real" parking (striping existing parking so it "counts" is a book trick), leading teachers and students scrambling for parking.
I have previously posted that a compromise solution should be on the table. Such a solution could take the form of taking some of the reasonable input that has been provided for parking alternatives, such as angled parking on Peace Valley Lane, while also including a scoped down park parking lot parallel to the south part of Peace Valley Lane. Notably, the proposed lot that moved the basketball court onto current green space would be dropped from this proposal. 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.
We should not be stuck between two bad options. FCPS should engage those that opposed the park plan – especially NAACP and the SJP folks – and see if a substantially modified option like that would be amenable.
People should be angry but they should be angry at the incompetence of FCPS Facilities. For over a year Facilities have not communicated with the School Board, teachers, students, parents, surrounding communities about what the actual plan was and is for the expansion of Justice HS is. People have been asking Facilities to engage them about how to get the expansion done as soon as possible. Because of the many delays caused by Facilities people have been fighting and blaming each other for the delay in the expansion. Starting in 2017 Facilities did not plan for teacher and student parking for the expansion. They kept quiet all along because their plan was to take part of the park across the street for student parking. They didn't expect people to care about the park, but when the surrounding neighborhoods learned about it and said "NO" you can't take what little parkland we have in Mason District and pave over it Facilities was shocked! However, Facilities decided to bulldoze through anyway and put the parking in the park. So when the Park Authority said no to Facilities they were really stuck in their mess. To this day they/Facilities is still scrambling to figure out how to handle the parking. They are waiting for a parking waiver so they can finally submit their rezoning plan. Unfortunately, the expansion of the school is getting further and further behind in it's deadlines. Everyone should hold Facilities to account because they are wasting our bond money and affecting students' education. I believe Justice HS is probably not the exception but just another example of terrible planning by Facilities especially for Mason District. Common for Mason District because of our representation. Ricardy does not understand the land use process and that's the way Penny Gross likes it. Facilities knows how to appease Penny. Everyone knows Penny has to be the final arbiter but she doesn't want to be bothered by having to put real effort in getting a great outcome. Meanwhile Facilities continues to bumble along with minimal caring or effort put in for Mason District.
It was unclear about who could vote– each adult? One vote per child in the school system? But it made me very uncomfortable that you were required to put in your child's school identification in order to fill it out.
Wish there was an alternative. They basically acted in the dark to create the park improvement/paving option and when that was off the table, threw up their hands and said "let's just exempt ourselves from the regulations and then we don't have to actually increase any parking". I'm still waiting for the transportation and parking needs study… how can they assess parking needs without doing this???
We need a nice beautiful parking lot to replace that raggedy park. Dreamers need parking too. Think of it as storage equity. The lens of equity is clear. Take a look. It's not just about your nice walk from your rich home. Peace.
Much of the "park" across from Justice is a joke and just acts as a buffer for home owners who don't want to be disturbed. We are there freqquentlt and no one walks on the trail or uses the outdoor classroom.