Pace picks up on Johnson County justice center planning

IOWA CITY – The long-simmering campaign for a new criminal justice center in Johnson County is starting to heat up.

The county's criminal justice coordinating committee, which includes the county supervisors, members of the legal community and other community representatives, met Wednesday to talk about commissioning design work and scheduling a 2012 election date to ask voters to OK funding for the facility.

The county for years has been discussing the need for a new jail and court space to relieve the cramped and aging existing jail and courthouse, each located south of downtown. In fact, a 2000 bond issue for a new jail failed.

Since then, the potential cost of the project, the economic recession a few years ago and debates over where to build the center have stalled any major progress, at least until now.

“We've talked about it so long,” supervisors Chairman Pat Harney said, but we're “moving forward.”

The Board of Supervisors this month expects to send out a request for qualifications from architectural firms to do preliminary design work, with a goal of having a firm picked by the end of September and the work done by April.

That information would be used to campaign for a bond issue in August or November 2012.

Preliminary plans call for a $39 million bond, although the design work the county wants done would give a better sense of the cost.

An initial analysis has determined that approximately 108,000 square feet of space will be necessary in a first phase, including reusing 25,000 square feet of renovated space in the existing courthouse. Another 20,000 square feet could be necessary in a second phase.

The center would be built on the block south of the existing courthouse and east of the jail. The county has been buying property on that block and is in talks with the U.S. government about acquiring the federal parking lot there in exchange for replacement spaces, possibly in a county-built ramp.

As of now, officials are considering having either a special election in August 2012 or sending the issue to voters as part of the general election that November.

A special election could cost upwards of $80,000, which gave some officials pause. A November vote would be folded into the general election and also would surely see higher turnout.

No matter the date, supporters want to have several months before the election to campaign for the criminal justice center.

“We really need to jump on this to get people educated,” said Connie Champion, a member of the criminal justice committee and the Iowa City Council.