Architects have presented the plans for a Hall of Justice addition that would nearly double the size of the existing building and meet courthouse needs for the next 20 years.
The building comes with a hefty price tag -- about $82 million, including $65 million to add a seven-floor tower beside the original 1975 building, and $17.5 million to renovate the existing building into needed office space for court functions.
The architectural firm of Walter Robbs Callahan and Pierce found that long-term growth projections call for a 93 percent increase over 20 years in the space that will be needed by court-related agencies. Architects told Forsyth County officials that the core court functions -- superior and district courts, the clerk of court and bailiff -- are using 72 percent of the existing building and would account for 78 percent of the needed extra space.
A top concern that was not on the radar when the Hall of Justice was built is security. Chang-Ming Yeh, a planning consultant for courts who helped with the plans, said that though Courtroom 6A is the building's largest, with 3,500 square feet and a seating capacity of 202, it can't be used for criminal cases because prisoners would have to share hallways with the general public to get to the courtroom.
To improve courtroom security, the proposed addition moves all but two courtrooms over to the new addition and positions them in the building so that areas used by inmates, court personnel and the general public are kept separate.
The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners was briefed on the plan Thursday but probably won't decide until a February retreat how the building would fit in any long-range construction plans.
"We are going to have a lot of big decisions to make," said Commissioner Debra Conrad, who said she thought that the plans make a lot of sense.
"We have been working on this forever," she said. "Where we go from here I'm not quite sure."
The tightening of credit means that general obligation bonds -- if approved by the voters -- might be the only way to pay for the building if commissioners want to take quick action, County Manager Dudley Watts said.
Commissioner Walter Marshall is skeptical of the plans. He said that technological innovations may reduce the need for as much space as the plan calls for, and he indicated that safety concerns are overblown.
"You are more likely to be struck by lightning than to be hurt in the court system," Marshall said. "Given the state of the economy, this doesn't seem to be a real forward-looking plan because it talks about increasing space, not eliminating space."
Philip Toelkes, the county's trial-court administrator, said that the plans got a thumbs-up when people who work in the Hall of Justice learned of them at a meeting.
"Everybody likes it. It is a good plan," Toelkes said. "The security for the judges and court staff has always been a concern."
■ Wesley Young can be reached at 727-7369 or at wyoung@wsjournal.com.
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