Courthouse Shuffle Set in Motion

Fredericksburg is two steps closer to a new courthouse, but it will still be some time before the local legal community abandons historic Renwick Hall for new digs down Princess Anne Street.

In addition to giving its, the City Council gave preliminary approval to relocate two city offices in executive plaza, the voter registrar and the parking deck office, to make way for the temporary home of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

Before work can begin, the City Council still needs to give final approval to a contract with First Choice Public Private Partners to build a new courthouse at 707 Princess Anne Street. That vote is scheduled for the December 12 meeting of the City Council.

The relocations will be the first move in a series of shuffles, demolitions, renovations and construction which are necessary to maintain the operations of a number of city offices during the project. Information contained within the contract lays out a specific schedule for the project, but the schedule begins only when the contract is finalized. Thus there is some discrepancy between events so far and the schedule as it appears in the contract, which features an optimistic assumed start date of October 1.

Regardless, once the contract is signed, the city will hold a notice to proceed/kickoff meeting and will begin drafting schematic designs for the new and renovated facilities. The Voter Registrar's Office and the Parking Office will begin their relocation immediately and will be in place by about March of next year.

In a process called preclearance, . If everything is in order, preclearance usually takes about 90 days. Localities in states with a history of repressing the political activity of minorities have to get the approval of the Justice Department before initiating any changes to voting procedures or operations.

Right after that, work will begin to transform the first floor of Executive Plaza into the interim home of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. Within a year of the contract approval, the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court will move to their temporary home in Executive Plaza and the city's Drug Court will move to rented space yet to be determined.

As those offices are relocated and refurbished., the city and the design build team will spend about nine to 10 months reviewing and finalizing construction plans. About eight months after the contract is signed, the renovation of the existing General District Court is scheduled to begin.

It will be about a year after the contract is signed before construction begins on the new 78,000 square foot court facility, and it will take another year to complete it.

Once that building is finished, it will still be another nine to 10 months until the renovations will be complete to turn the General District Court into the new home of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

The entire project is projected to be finished by late 2014 or early 2015.