Talking about building a courthouse is becoming a fall tradition for Fredericksburg's City Council.
Just as they did a year ago, council members tonight will consider whether to move forward with plans to put courts on a Princess Anne Street site, this time at the current site of the fire station.
If they vote tonight to move forward, City Manager Beverly Cameron has told them they could expect to see a new courthouse open by June of 2014.
One year ago, council members were considering whether to move forward with plans to build a new courthouse on the post office site on Princess Anne Street. At the time, they were told the project could be complete by fall 2012.
Two years ago, council members were preparing to vote on whether to put the courts downtown or to consider another site off Lafayette Boulevard. At that time, the projected finish date for the courts was October 2010.
The courts plan that council members will consider tonight would take four years because it requires buying land for and building a new fire station, then building a three-story courthouse on the old fire station site and renovating the current General District Court building.
The all-inclusive price tag on the project is estimated to be $39.7 million, making it the second-most-expensive capital project in Fredericksburg's history, behind the more than $50 million the city spent to build James Monroe High and Lafayette Upper Elementary schools a few years ago.
The price tag is smaller than what was on the table a year ago.
The post office plan would have required buying land for and building a new carrier facility for the United States Postal Service. Council members scrapped that $47.1 million plan last winter in favor of exploring cheaper options.
They then hired the architectural team of Glave & Holmes and Perkins Eastman to examine building options for two city-owned sites that had already been recommended as court sites by another study the city had commissioned from Moseley Architects two years earlier.
Out of the most recent architectural study, Cameron recommended building on the fire station and General District Court sites two weeks ago.
Cameron said tonight's vote will signal to city staff whether they should begin working in earnest on the pre-development work this plan would require.
One of the most important tasks on that list is buying land for a new fire station. The estimated cost of that land is included in the $39.7 million estimate.
Cameron said the city has identified viable properties for this purpose, but city staff have taken only very preliminary steps in terms of talking to property owners.
Also high on the to-do list will be securing design contracts for both the new fire station and the new courthouse.
If planning begins now, architects have said a new fire station could be complete by February 2012, and work could then begin on the courthouse.
At some point during this work, council members will have to act publicly to appropriate money for both the land acquisition and the design work. Cameron said that money would be taken from reserves for now, to be replenished after the city sells bonds for the project.
The process of vetting actual designs for what these new buildings will look like is still as much as six months down the road, but both will at some point be up for public comment and approval in front of the city's Architectural Review Board.
Emily Battle: 540/374-5413
Email: ebattle@freelancestar.com
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WHAT IT INCLUDES:
Demolishing the fire station $39.7 million WHEN IT WOULD BE COMPLETE:If the city starts planning now, architects say a new fire station could open in February 2012, new courts in June 2014. WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE TAXPAYER:Fredericksburg will have to borrow money for the project. Debt service could be the equivalent of 6 to 10 cents You can download a Power Point presentation on this project from the city's Web site at fredericksburgva.gov. |