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A group of Seven Corners residents is urging Fairfax County to halt a proposed $1 million sidewalk through Justice Park, arguing that the project would duplicate an existing walkway, end before reaching Mansfield Road and disrupt planned environmental restoration work.

The dispute comes five years after residents of Ravenwood, Ravenwood Park and Lake Barcroft opposed a 2021 proposal to pave part of the park for a Justice High School parking lot. Following that fight, county officials pledged greater community engagement over future projects affecting the land, according to the residents.

Concerns resurfaced on Nov. 8, when volunteers removing invasive plants found survey markers and white tape in the park. Days later, a county sign announced plans for a sidewalk along Peace Valley Lane, with completion expected by spring 2026. The sign later disappeared after the project received local news coverage.

Opponents say the project’s original justification is no longer valid because Fairfax County Public Schools funded a sidewalk on the Justice High School side of Peace Valley Lane in 2023. That walkway, they contend, already provides the neighborhood connection residents had requested.

Residents say Fairfax County Department of Transportation staff initially described the new project as responding to a Ravenwood Park community request, then later said the agency was not acting on that request. They believe the design team may not have known about the 2023 sidewalk until surveyors visited the site.

A sidewalk that stops short

Transportation Priority Project 161 calls for a five-foot-wide, 825-foot-long sidewalk on the south side of Peace Valley Lane, along Justice Park. The proposed route would run parallel to the existing sidewalk across the street.

Critics say private property prevents the new walkway from continuing to Mansfield Road, leaving it to end at a park service road. Pedestrians seeking to continue their trip could then have to enter Peace Valley Lane.

The residents maintain that a marked crosswalk connecting the school-side sidewalk to the park, accompanied by appropriate signs, would improve access at considerably less cost.

They also argue that the project’s money could be redirected to more serious pedestrian gaps elsewhere in Mason District, including along Columbia Pike between Sleepy Hollow Road and Mason District Park.

Environmental projects collide

Justice Park is a 17-acre public green space established in 1961. It serves Ravenwood, Ravenwood Park, Lake Barcroft and other communities in the densely developed Seven Corners area.

At the same time the transportation department is pursuing the sidewalk, the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services is spending an initial $540,000 to design a restoration of a severely eroded Holmes Run tributary in the park. That work is intended to improve water quality and reconnect the urban forest with the floodplain, with potential benefits extending to Lake Barcroft and the Chesapeake Bay.

Sidewalk opponents say construction would affect a 20-foot-wide strip of parkland inside the planned restoration area. They contend that heavy equipment would remove mature and smaller trees, damage recently planted native vegetation and potentially spread invasive seeds.

The route would also affect land maintained through Fairfax County’s Invasive Management Area Volunteer Program. Local volunteers devote more than 450 hours annually to removing invasive plants and restoring native habitat in the park, according to project critics.

At a March 5 park meeting, volunteer program leader Peter Jones called the sidewalk wasteful and destructive. He accused the county of reviving old plans without adequately reassessing whether the project remained necessary.

Residents say FCDOT engineer Sonia Shahnaj repeatedly told attendees that money had already been spent on design and land acquisition, making abandonment of the project wasteful. Opponents reject that reasoning as a sunk-cost argument, saying prior expenses do not justify spending more to complete an unnecessary walkway.

Residents challenge the funding rationale

The controversy is unfolding as Fairfax County faces a cited $131 million operating shortfall for 2026. County officials have emphasized that the sidewalk would use capital transportation funding rather than operating money, while the stream-restoration design is funded through the operating budget.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay has said canceling the sidewalk would not affect the operating deficit. Opponents respond that both funding streams ultimately involve public money and argue that transportation dollars should be reassigned to a higher-priority pedestrian project.

The project traces back to plans developed around 2014 to 2018. Critics say its rationale should have been reviewed after the parallel sidewalk opened in 2023 instead of allowing an older capital project to proceed automatically.

They also dispute the idea that construction is inevitable. Although money has already gone toward engineering, environmental studies and land rights, residents believe remaining transportation funds can still be redirected.

Project opponents say their requests to meet with McKay and Mason District Supervisor Andres Jimenez have been denied. They also question how the sidewalk aligns with Jimenez’s environmental priorities as vice chairman of the board’s Environmental Committee.

The residents are calling for an independent inspector general to scrutinize county spending and coordination. Fairfax County has an Internal Audit Office reporting to the county executive and an Office of Financial Program Audit reporting to the Board of Supervisors and its Audit Committee. Critics argue that neither provides the independence needed to investigate projects such as this one.

With Fairfax County’s combined operating, capital, utility, debt-service and specialized-program budget totaling about $11 billion, the opponents say older projects should undergo renewed review before construction begins. They want the sidewalk canceled, its remaining money reassigned and Justice Park protected from further paving.