Fairfax City Gets 3rd Option, Shorter Deadline For Controversial George Snyder Trail Project

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — While the Fairfax City Council has received a third option to consider regarding the controversial George Snyder Trail Project, it comes with a shorter deadline from the Virginia Department of Transportation.

The city had a June 30 deadline to decide whether to proceed with the trail project with the approved alignment or cancel the project altogether and pay VDOT $3.7 million in concessionaire funding.

During its May 29 work session, the council debated how to respond to VDOT, with Councilmember Tom Peterson advocating for more time to give the council and city residents a chance to consider the full fiscal impact of canceling the project. The trail plan has been under public review since the summer of 2018.

The council approved a motion introduced by Councilmember Anthony Amos directing staff to come up with two motions for the council to consider at a public hearing before VDOT's June 30 deadline.

Amos also wanted to ask VDOT if a third option was off the table, an idea supported by Peterson and Councilmembers Billy Bates, Stacy Hall and Rachel McQuillen.

In response, Fairfax City Manager Brian Foster told the council that city staff could send such a letter to VDOT, but he didn't think it would substantially change anything.

"I don't know that there's much to gain from continuing to try and ask to do something different than what they've already told us, that's different from the choices that they've given us," Foster said.

Alternate Plan To Circumvent Approved Trail's Environmental Impact

On April 22, the council voted unanimously to submit an alternate plan that would move the western end of the trail from an off-road path to an on-road path along the University Drive Extension, using wider sidewalks and shared-use paths. It would then continue along a section of Eaton Place and Fairfax Boulevard.

While this alternate plan would require widening existing facilities and shift most of the trail to Fairfax Boulevard, it would eliminate a substantial portion of the VDOT-approved design where opponents of the trail said the majority of environmental impacts occurred.

In order to meet VDOT's deadline on the third option, the city council must adopt a resolution at its next regular meeting on Tuesday, June 10.

On May 8, Peterson and Hall attended a public hearing hosted by VDOT and the Commonwealth Transportation Board on its Six Year Improvement Program. Peterson and several opponents of the trail spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, with the Peterson asking VDOT officials to give the city more flexibility to consider alternatives to the previously approved plan.

Three of the officials at that meeting were Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sheppard “Shep” Miller III, VDOT Commissioner Stephen Brich and Bill Cutler, VDOT's Northern Virginia District Engineer, who wrote the letter informing the city that it faced a June 30 deadline.

VDOT Gives City Council 3rd Option And New Deadlines

During Tuesday night's work session, Foster explained he sent a letter to VDOT after touching base with individual councilmembers to see if a majority of the council would support the third option.

"The reason I did that was to make our case more compelling, that if you give us this option, it's one that we're willing to take," Foster said. "Because at the moment, we only had two. ... Neither of the two options that they gave us seemed to have generated a majority of support from council."

Foster and Transportation Director Wendy Block Sanford each spoke to Cutler, explaining that the city would proceed with a third option in which only the western part of the trail would be built.

Cutler gave the city the followoing conditions and deadlines VDOT would need the council to agree to in order to allow for a third option:

• June 10: City Council resolution to formally endorse this option. The resolution needs to state the city supports this alternative and requests approval of the scope change from CTB with the understanding that there will be some payback required for design costs associated with the east part of the trail that will not be constructed.
• June 20: Materials due to CTB for July 15 workshop (assumes positive endorsement of RJACC and NVTA)
• June 26: RJACC endorsement (staff group to NVTA)
• July 10: NVTA endorsement
• July 15: CTB Workshop to discuss City request
• Post-July 15: City requests authorization to advertise in anticipation of positive CTB action in September
• Sept. 17: CTB action to endorse GST scope change
• Post-Sept. 17: Project advertisement (assuming positive CTB action)
• VDOT will perform a detailed evaluation of design costs spent to date to determine an exact repayment amount.
• For now, they are prepared to provide a "not to exceed amount" of repayment prior to the June 10 meeting. VDOT has indicated that they will work with the city on a repayment plan schedule that works for us.
• VDOT will send us a formal response in writing before the end of this week.

"They've opened the door and given us that opportunity," Foster said. "If we then turn around and don't take that opportunity, I think that will have a negative impact on our relationship. That was the whole reason I asked councilmembers, 'Would you commit to doing this as part of that?' And so they've agreed."

The Price Of Building Half Of A Trail

Although the city would have to return $3.7 million in concessionaire funds to VDOT if it decided to cancel the entire project, it would still incur costs if only half the trail was built.

"Our consultant has put together a cost estimate for the west half and what that involves," Sanford said, during Tuesday's work session. "His estimate for the total project cost is about $12 million."

The estimate included roughly $1.5 million in funds the city would still need to return plus $3,000 per year in maintenance costs until the project was completed. In total, that would mean an estimated $1,685,000 in direct costs to the city over 10 years.

Support For Building Full Trail Emerges: Read

At several points during Tuesday's work session, Mayor Catherine Read told councilmembers that they had not heard from a majority of the public about canceling the eastern part of the trail.

"When there was only a binary choice, suddenly we started getting a lot of emails from people in this community who decided they supported fully building the trail in the last two weeks," she said. "That was an interesting outcome of saying you only have two choices."

Hall confirmed she received 65 emails in support of building the full trail, adding those responses were generated by a petition.

It was unclear whether she was referring to the Change.org petition that the Fairfax City Citizens for Smarter Growth submitted. As of Thursday morning, the petition had 284 signatures from people who wanted the full project to be completed as designed.

"I am surprised that everyone has agreed that building half the trail is an acceptable alternative to an 11-year project that has a lot of staff hours, previous councils, an advisory board and previous mayors supporting building a trail that connects other trails in Northern Virginia, regionally," Read said. "This building half a trail dumps this shared-use path out in the middle of a residential neighborhood."

The George Snyder Trail was designed to connect to the I-66 Shared Use Path, which VDOT installed as part of the I-66 Outside The Beltway project. If the full trail were built, it would connect the county trail to the city's Wilcoxon Trail and ultimately the Gerry Connolly Cross County Trail near Thaiss Park.

Currently, cross-county trail users can access the shared use path from the south, using Picket Road/Blake Lane and the north via Jermantown Road near the county's Oakmont Recreation Center.

If the entire George Snyder Trail project were canceled, trail users, both from the city and county, would continue to traverse Jermantown Road and Blake Lane/Picket Road to access the cross-county trail.

George Snyder Trail Timeline

• Included in the 2012 and 2035 Master Plans
• Parts of the trail were built c. 2000 and will be incorporated into the new trail
• Included in the 2016 Strategic Master Plan
• Part of the Parks and Recreation Master Plan per Parks and Recreation Advisory
• Board (PRAB)
• 2019-2029: four advisory group meetings were held
• 2020 Public Hearing at 60% completion: Supported by speakers from PRAB,
• DMV Smarter Growth Coalition, Audubon Naturalist Society, Fairfax City Citizens
• for Smarter Growth, and the Fairfax Alliance for Better Cycling. Opposed by one
• business owner near the trail and two other citizens.
• June 2020: Trail included in the Northfax Small Area Plan to connect neighborhoods with nature with themes of “an ecologically sensitive place” an“stitching neighborhoods together.”
• A key idea of the Northfax vision is to bridge the divides between Northfax and the surrounding neighborhoods and to connect with the Accotink Creek watershed.”
• July 2023: 100% completion plans submitted to City Council (144 pages)
• January 2024: City Council rejected changes to the original plan and voted to stay with the existing plan. Property acquisition commenced.

Timeline Via Fairfax City Citizens for Smarter Growth

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