Act TODAY to Protect Globally Rare Habitat from Destruction
Woodland, Philip Latasa
Time is running out. Your voice is urgently needed today to protect globally rare habitat during this very short comment period. We only have until 4:30pm on Wednesday, July 23, to oppose Segment 6 of the Cinder Bed Road Bikeway
The proposed segment threatens treasured wetlands that are found in only a few places on the entire planet. NVBA and its partners have been working to protect this extraordinary habitat, and you can help by adding your voice right now. This comment period for Fairfax County's Department of Transportation 5-Year Transportation Priorities Plan (TPP) presents one of the first opportunities in years to speak out.
You can submit your comments via Public Input. The website contains a pre-recorded overview of the TPP and space to submit online comments. Include your own personal perspective along with any of these points:
Please remove Segment 6 from the plans for the Cinder Bed Road Bikeway (TPP #109).
Projects in the TPP should be re-evaluated for both benefits relative to costs but also adherence to county policies, such as Resilient Fairfax. In this case, transportation projects should avoid wetlands, floodplains, and globally rare habitat.
This project’s costs have ballooned from $6.2MM (as listed in the FY 2020-2025 TPP Project List) to $18.05MM in just 5 years, in large part due to the extensive wetlands unknown at the time of the original proposal.
$7.4MM of this project (more than the total cost estimate from 5 years ago) is still unfunded according to the June 2025 Transportation Design Division report.
As the county faces increasing budget challenges, please invest our limited funds and tax dollars on active transportation projects with far higher benefit for the costs and no impacts to our most sensitive wetland habitats.
The Frontier Dr. Extension project (TPP #16) also will impact 20+ acres of forest just upstream from the proposed Segment 6 of the Cinder Bed Road Bikeway.
Current infrastructure already exists to provider the transportation connection between Barry Road and Newington Road that Segment 6 is proposed to serve. A better use of Fairfax County resources would be improvements, particularly on Loisdale Road's bike/ped infrastructure, to increase the comfort and safety of this current connection.
