By Staff
May 20th, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
There was a lot of noise from the public when the construction of a new Court House was announced a few years ago.
The proposed building location was going to put the public at risk, children would somehow be harmed by the existence of the building; public transit wouldn’t be adequate.
The plans proceeded nevertheless.
Last evening at the Haber Recreational Centre the public had an opportunity to look at what was going to get built on a design, build, and leaseback plan. All there was to see was floor plan layouts – the actual structure design will come from the contractor chosen to build the structure. The numerous stakeholders will have significant input – will the public be asked what it likes? Probably not.
The city put out a Request for Proposals for a new building – the court house on Fairview Plains had reached capacity and there was no room to grow. The building iexpcted to be ready for operations late in 2018 – 2019 court cases are already being scheduled for the new Court House.
Site plan – the new Sundial community is being built on the other side of Walkers Line
The operation of Court Houses turns out to be a money making proposition for the municipal governments. When the province downloaded the running of Court Houses for provincial offences to the municipalities in 2001 a financial structure was put in place that had the revenues (they call it a surplus) shared between the Region and each of the municipalities. 50% goes to the Region with the balance shared by the four municipalities based on their populations.
Ground floor layout of the planned Court House
Second floor layout of the planned new Court House.
Provincial offences include Highway Traffic Act, Small Claims Courts, and by-law matters plus anything the Conservation Authorities wants the courts to decide upon.
Criminal offences will not be heard in this Court nor will there be any Family Law cases heard here.
Detailed design is now in the hands of the city – Burlington runs the court house on behalf of the Region and the other municipalities.
A number of contractors were pre-qualified and the city is now conducting negotiations to determine the best deal which will be reported to council who will make the final decision.
From the left, Craig Steens, city Project manager for the new Court House, Dr. Shie of Emshie Development and Franki Evans, administrator of Halton Court Services.
No contractor names have been released by Dr. Shie of Emshie Development showed up at the meeting last night to chat. He was the only member of the public who took part. Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster was in the room but she spent most of her time talking to the city arborist about the Emerald Ash Bore she was having problems with on her property
The Walkers Line – Palladium Way site the Court house is to be built on was originally to be the location of the Recreation Centre.
Young boys doing warm up exercises at the Haber Recreation Centre
Someone with the ability to and 1+1+1 and come up with a total of 5 – came up with the From the left, Craig Stevensidea of combining a library, a high school and a Recreation centre on a single site – the result is one of the most exciting places in the city for young people to be young people.
