What is the Park Avenue Great Streets Project?

The City received a Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) grant of $6,630,000 as part of a VDOT Revenue Sharing agreement to make improvements to a section of Park Avenue. The total project budget is $11,510,000. This project aims to transform that section into a “Great Street,” defined as a lively attractive roadway that accommodates all modes of transportation while promoting social interaction, civic activity, and/or commerce.

There are many components to this project, including:

Undergrounding utility poles
Making this section a “Bike Boulevard,” a lower volume, slower street.
Reducing the speed limit to 15 miles per hour
Creating raised intersections with bulb-outs
Building raised crosswalks
Realigning the North Maple Avenue and Park Avenue intersection
Constructing gateway features at each end of the project
Improving the entrance to Cherry Hill Park
Improving the intersections of Little Falls Street and North Maple Avenue with the north side intersections with Broad Street.
Allowing for potentially moving the Farmers Market to Park Avenue

Park Ave One Page Image Summary Download

Where is it?

The area outlined in red in the diagram below shows the stretch of roads covered by this project. It includes Park Avenue from North Virginia Avenue to North Washington Street, and portions of Little Falls Street and North Maple Avenue.

What is the process?

The City is responsible for bringing different phases of the design process to VDOT for approval – an initial 30% design, followed by 60%, 90%, and 100% designs. VDOT’s focus is primarily to ensure that the Virginia standards are followed, because of VDOT’s funding contribution. Once VDOT approves the final design, the project will be ready to be implemented.

Any right-of-way land use will also have to be resolved, and that may involve the City acquiring small areas of public land. The City will place advertisements to solicit construction bids. Construction is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2026 and is expected to take two years.

No City Council or Planning Commission approval is needed for this project, though the City staff has provided updates to them and to other citizen boards, especially the Citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation (CACT).

What has happened thus far?

The City Public Works Department has chosen to contract with Volkert, Inc., for the design phase of the project. The City planning staff has the responsibility of coordinating the design review internally and externally.

The 30% design was completed and shared with the Planning Commission on April 6, 2022. Commissioners thought the idea of moving the Farmers Market to Park Avenue was novel and deserved airing with the community. Also, the design did not address how to make Park Avenue more bikeable by such means as reducing traffic and speed. The meeting video and documents are available here. Responses from various City departments are available here.

On August 1, 2022, the City staff held a community walking tour. Concerns raised included the relocation of the Farmers Market, the fate of mature trees, traffic structures, the street’s bikeability, and parking. The summary is available here.

At the Planning Commission’s March 15, 2023, meeting, Commissioner Cory Weiss said the planning body had yet to see the City contractor’s newly released 60% design, adding that significant public interest in the project had yet to be addressed. The commissioners were provided the 60% design for their April 19^th meeting, though they did not discuss it during that session. (Please refer to the post Park Avenue Great Streets 60% Design.)

The CACT has been the citizen body most involved in this project. During the CACT meeting on March 8, 2023, committee members discussed the recently released 60% design, focusing primarily on the feasibility of bike lanes.

Bike Falls Church has been actively advocating for more to be done to improve bikeability, including creating bike lanes. Volkert responded that there is insufficient width on Park Avenue for these lanes. The designer suggested discouraging traffic and slowing speeds instead – the Bike Boulevard concept, explained here.

Citizens also had concerns about the lack of trees in the design, damage and removal of mature trees, the costly and overly large bulb-outs, and plans to move the Farmers Market to Park Avenue. Their concerns are best captured in this letter from the Village Preservation and Improvement Society (VPIS). VPIS also criticized the lack of community, even City Council, participation in the process, see here.

In addition, the City arborist had multiple concerns about the 60% design. Arborist Charles Prince wondered why the new trees around the library had to be removed and said long-term maintenance issues have not been considered. He specifically opposed the brick paver sidewalks because of high installation and maintenance costs. Prince noted that installing brick pavers requires deeper excavation so that damage to mature tree root systems is more likely. (See Park Avenue Project Removes New Library Trees, Endangers More, and Arborist Says Brick Sidewalks Are Too Costly, High Maintenance.)

Where to get more information?

To view all Falls Church Pulse posts on the Park Avenue Great Streets Project, click here.

The City webpage provides an outline of the project and links to the 30% and 60% design documents. Because this Great Street effort does not require City Council approval, it has been more difficult to locate the information for this project, such as comments and videos of discussions.