Fairfax County leadership is sticking with plans for a sidewalk project near Justice High School that critics say is duplicative and would be destructive to the environment.
The Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) expects to begin work in June on 825 linear feet of 5-foot-wide sidewalk between Mansfield Road near Justice Park and the cul-de-sac at Peace Valley Lane in the Lake Barcroft area south of Seven Corners.
The project will also install a new crosswalk on the southeast leg of Peace Valley Lane at the cul-de-sac.
The $900,000 project has drawn criticism from some residents, since a sidewalk already exists on the other side of Peace Valley Lane adjacent to the high school. It was constructed in 2024 by Fairfax County Public Schools, fulfilling a request that had been made by neighbors in 2016.
Critics of the new sidewalk say it is unnecessary and will be destructive to trees and the ecosystem in and adjacent to Justice Park, owned by the Fairfax County Park Authority.
“No one in our surrounding communities ever imagined this [additional] sidewalk was still in the plans,” said Kathleen Brown, a resident of the Ravenwood neighborhood where the high school and park are located.
Brown is leading the campaign against the sidewalk, citing environmental concerns and arguing the funding could be used better for other transportation improvement projects.
“Given Fairfax County’s projected budget shortfall of $131.5 million to $163.8 million, why would nearly $1 million be spent on a duplicative sidewalk?” she asked in a March Falls Church News-Press opinion piece.
The opinion piece quoted Peter Jones, the lead for Justice Park’s volunteer Invasive Management Area program:
“It’s like they looked around for an old project to spend extra money on, found this, did no due diligence, cut and paste a new date on the old 2018 project plans, and then now go full steam ahead claiming any questions or push back from the community is in bad faith.”
FCDOT, however, maintains that a sidewalk on the south side of Peace Valley Lane is still necessary to support the level of pedestrian activity seen on the street for both the school and Justice Park.
“It has been a longstanding policy of the County … to provide sidewalks on both sides of a street,” FCDOT project manager Sonia Shahnaj said to FFXnow. “While the sidewalk along the north side, which was installed in 2024 by Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), allows for some connectivity, it forces pedestrians coming from the north/west to cross the street twice to reach the park on the south.”
The project will require the removal of two trees from Justice High School’s property, but the county will plant eight new trees in Justice Park. If construction starts this June as planned, it would be completed by September.
Mason District Supervisor Andres Jimenez, whose district includes the Justice High School area, said he doesn’t have any comment on the proposal for now.
Brown expressed disappointment at the lack of engagement by the supervisor’s office.
“Supervisor Jimenez’s office has been unwilling to meet with us regarding this sidewalk matter,” she said. “What is particularly disappointing is that Supervisor Jimenez lives in our Ravenwood neighborhood and extolled his environmental credentials while running for his office,” she said.
FCDOT staff held an on-site meeting about the project in early March, but there appears to be no inclination on staff’s part to revisit the plan to move forward with construction.
County officials executed a notice to proceed last October, which projected a springtime start of construction. The start date was pushed back at the request of Justice High School officials, who asked that work be delayed until school was out for summer.
The current start date is projected to be June 19, according to the county government’s website.
Online respondents to Annandale Today’s coverage of the March meeting expressed a range of views:
- “If the residents in vicinity of the park indicate they don’t need a $900K sidewalk and that money can be shaved off the budget or put to use elsewhere, it is a travesty that Supervisor Jimenez and Board Chair Jeffrey McKay won’t meet and discuss.”
- “Fairfax County needs a truly independent Inspector General to look into such waste of taxpayer funds and report it to the public, especially in view of the county’s $131 million budget deficit.”
- “Picket Jimenez’s office! It is unforgivable that he won’t follow what his constituents want and save money besides.”
- “I love Annandale but the one thing that I do find baffling is the seemingly universal opposition to sidewalks. I would welcome more sidewalks/pedestrian improvements for the area.”
- “So odd that they’re choosing to put in a sidewalk now, right before the stream-restoration project is planned for the creek in Justice Park. Why is there no coordination between teams to strategize on a complete plan for the site?”
- “Those of us who believe in protecting rare parkland and promoting fiscal responsibility are NOT opposed to sidewalks. We are opposed to costly redundant sidewalks that lead to nowhere, financial waste, county departments working at cross-purposes, and the blatant inaction by elected officials to respond to community concerns.”
The battle over the sidewalk comes five years after local residents and the Fairfax County Park Authority successfully fended off a School Board proposal to use portions of Justice Park to accommodate overflow parking at the nearby high school.
In 2022, FCPS leaders came up with a revised parking plan as Justice High School went through an expansion that added 47,000 square feet of interior space to school facilities.
The school expansion project was completed in mid-2024 without the need for taking parkland. It brought the facility — which was constructed in 1959 and called J.E.B. Stuart High School until 2018 — up to modern standards and addressed overcrowding issues.
A mention of resident Kathleen Brown’s name where she expressed disappointment in Supervisor Jimenez’s office has been corrected.
