Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
<br />Purchasing and Central Services Director Pam Janes said that this is the final project <br />review in the approval of the expansion project. The Historic District Commission of <br />Hillsborough and the Board of Adjustment for the Town of Hillsborough have both approved this. <br />There are five conditions of approval from the Board of Adjustment. She noted a correction in <br />the abstract -instead of the bids being taken January 23rd, it will be February 8t" <br />David Taylor from Corley Redfoot and Zack made a PowerPoint presentation of layouts. <br />He said that the architect has met with about 20 different agencies or groups on this project, <br />and has received approval from the agencies in Hillsborough as stated above and other groups <br />have given input. He said that the basic conceptual plan has remained intact. The project <br />includes a 38,000-square foot addition on three stories to the existing new Orange County <br />courthouse. The project also includes a public market house, a set of remote toilets (on a part <br />of the existing Sheriff's Department building), a passive park with trails, the riverwalk, etc. One <br />of the five conditions from the Board of Adjustment was to make sure that the eastern end of the <br />trail was coordinated with the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust and the work that <br />will be done beyond the site. The other conditions include making the remote toilet accessible, <br />approval of the storm water plans by the Town's consulting engineers, a written plan for the <br />remote parking facility, and the building elevations dated October 18, 2006 are the final version. <br />The public market house is a 24-stall laminated pavilion. The Board has already pre- <br />purchased the laminated structure for this project. It will be an open structure with two stalls per <br />bay and adouble-loaded corridor down the middle. He went through some of the minor <br />changes that have been made by various agencies, primarily the Historic District Commission. <br />The dormers became more regular, the same types of setbacks have been retained from the <br />original conceptual plan, there will be a public pavilion and public information kiosk on Margaret <br />Lane, the dormers on the Sheriff's Office have become lined up with the windows below, and <br />the courtyard side has retained a curving curtain wall. There is an exterior staircase that is code <br />related for the courthouse because the courtroom currently does not have a code accepted <br />second means of egress. There will be a new security checkpoint in what is now the Criminal <br />Clerk's area, which will be a one-stop security checkpoint for the entire complex. <br />The architect will be meeting with the members of Orange County Public Works and <br />other Town officials, Department of Insurance, and Orange County Building and Inspections to <br />get input. This will be put out just after the first of the year, bids will be taken on February 8t" <br />and hopefully construction will start around March 15-April 1. The addition will probably be the <br />first thing built, taking approximately 16 months. The existing courthouse will still be in use and <br />most of the court functions will be moved off site. Then the existing courthouse will be <br />renovated. The plan is to get the farmer's market up and running by June 1, 2007. <br />Commissioner Gordan asked about the courtroom and David Taylor said that the <br />courtroom is about 2,400 square feet and the gallery space is enough far 70-80 people. It was <br />determined that the best arrangement was to maximize the arena area of the courtroom and <br />provide limited seating since there were two existing courtrooms, which would hold a significant <br />number of people. Commissioner Gordon said that she thought they were both going to be jury <br />capable. David Taylor said that they worked with Judge Buckner on this issue and after <br />reviewing the workload, it was decided that two jury rooms were not needed. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that there was discussion atone point about having the <br />courtroom be transformable into mare of a flexible meeting space. David Taylor said that this <br />can be investigated further. He said that it is difficult to move out the furniture that is in there. <br />Commissioner Jacobs would like to flag this issue so that the Board could make a conscious <br />decision to let this passibility go if it will not work. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that he read about the archaeological survey, but he has not <br />seen anything. Pam Jones said that some remarkable items have been found, but there is not a <br />