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Norman Avenue sidewalk feasibility study: staff recommends south‑side sidewalk with curb and gutter; open house set
Summary
City staff and consultants presented three build alternatives for a 0.6‑mile Norman Avenue corridor; the recommended concept is a south‑side 5‑ft sidewalk with a 6‑ft grass buffer and curb and gutter to minimize property impacts and drainage issues. An open house is scheduled tomorrow at Katherine Johnson Middle School.
Fairfax City staff and consultant Kimberly‑Horn presented preliminary findings from a Norman Avenue sidewalk feasibility study that originated from a resident petition submitted in 2020 and was adopted into the city’s two‑year transportation program in 2023.
Chloe Ritter, multimodal transportation planner, and consultant Megan Waring summarized data collection — survey, topography, drainage, tree inventory, utility locations, informal on‑street parking observations — and reviewed three alternatives evaluated for constructability, property and utility impacts, drainage effectiveness and lifetime maintenance costs: a north‑side sidewalk with curb and gutter, a south‑side sidewalk with curb and gutter, and a south‑side paved path with ditches.
Consultants recommended the south‑side curb‑and‑gutter option with a six‑foot grass buffer and a five‑foot sidewalk as the preferred concept because it minimizes property impacts on yards that sit higher above the road, reduces the need to relocate utility poles concentrated on the north side, and preserves or improves drainage by replacing open ditches with curb collection that ties into storm pipe. Waring said most of the proposed sidewalk alignment would sit within existing city right‑of‑way with very little property acquisition expected.
Ritter said outreach has included mailed letters to roughly 500 Cobdale households, in‑neighborhood signage and Engage Fairfax content; the petition had about 60% neighborhood support overall and approximately 68% support on Norman Avenue specifically. An online open house is scheduled for tomorrow and staff plans to return to council on April 1 with compiled feedback; if the council directs staff to advance the project, staff tentatively plans to pursue regional revenue‑sharing grant applications in late spring.
No final design decision was made at the work session. Staff emphasized potential tradeoffs — for example, removing some informal shoulder parking — and noted the feasibility study will quantify capital and operating costs, including a life‑cycle view comparing ditch maintenance to long‑term sidewalk maintenance.
