County debates judicial sites
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com

County commissioners once again found themselves discussing the proposed judicial facility. Commissioners narrowed their list of potential sites down to six locations and attempted to sort through them at their committee meeting on May 29.

Commissioners weighed the pros and cons of each site, looking at its cost per acre and impact on county tax rolls. A new courthouse facility measuring approximately 150,000 square feet is tentatively planned complete with judicial and public parking.

Currently, commissioners are eyeing six different parcels with four grouped near Avalon, south of Milton, and two more east of Milton. One of the six properties is near the current county jail.

According to a presentation by county staff, some sites would be much more expensive to develop than others. Not including the building itself, staff estimated the potential site located near the intersection of Avalon Boulevard and Commerce road would be the most expensive to develop at over $1.1 million, while one property near the jail would be the least expensive at less than $450,000.

"Primarily, the reason the site just to the south and west of the jail is a little less is that pretty much all the utilities are there. It's pretty much a developable site," said County Administrator Hunter Walker. "The other three sites are roughly grouped in the 700,000 to 800,000 range and then the Avalon and Commerce Road site is $1.1 [million] primarily because the turn lane, intersection improvements and storm retention pond."

Although the jail site is estimated to be the easiest to develop, commissioners discussed the potentially negative consequences of removing such a large piece of land from their budding industrial park.

"Obviously, we want to try to protect all of our industrial land and continue to have it for industrial use. That'd be the ideal thing to do, but we don't always get to make the ideal decision," said Commissioner W.D. 'Don ' Salter.

After a lengthy debate about the various pros and cons of each parcel, Commissioner Gordon Goodin said developers who were interested in helping the county finance the future courthouse had contacted him.

"A group of land owners and people who finance projects have four pieces of property around the central part of the county that are along the major corridors," Goodin said. "They would put up all the front money and do a lease-purchase agreement with the county so that at some time, the county would own the building."

Goodin did not release the names of any of the interested parties. However, Goodin did say some members of the group specialize in courthouse and jail construction, real estate development and project financing. He also added the county would be able to set up a lease/purchase agreement to help pay for the proposed facility, which is estimated to cost over $40 million. To finance a lease-purchase plan, an area would be set up as a special tax district. Tax dollars generated by the district would then be re-invested into the development project, enabling the county to retire the debt faster.

Commissioner Goodin is now working with the unnamed parties involved to work out the details before presenting the full proposal to the remaining commissioners.