Courthouse Renovations Update
For those of you who missed the June 1, 2016 public meeting on the Historic Fayette County Courthouse and want to learn more about the renovations, here are the final renderings of the project and information about the logistical changes coming during construction..
These final renderings are courtesy of K. Norman Berry Associate Architects and Deborah Berke & Partners.
The Historic Fayette County Courthouse’s exterior renovations are scheduled to begin in the 3rd week of July 2016. The initial fencing is already built around the site. Below are the upcoming landscaping, street, and parking changes you need to know about:
- The White Ash tree at the corner of Upper and Short has been removed. Unfortunately, the tree cannot be saved as it is infected with Emerald Ash Borer. The White Spruce at Upper and Main will be relocated to a nearby park to make room for construction. The project team plans to leave the Japanese Pagoda at Short and Upper and the Ginkgo tree at Main and the 5/3 Pavilion in place at this time.
- The footprint of the current fencing will grow to the bollards of the 5/3 Pavilion and to the sidewalk on Main Street after July 4, 2016.
- The Main Street sidewalk will remain open; the Short Street sidewalk immediate adjacent to the courthouse will not. The closed portion will be from the Market Street crosswalk to the Upper Street intersection.
- The current parking spots on the courthouse side of Upper Street between Short and Main will be unavailable. Those spots will be replaced by new spots 1 block northeast on Upper. Those spots will be in the right-hand lane of Upper between Church and Short, which will be for parking. The next block northeast on Upper (between Church and Second) will have its right-hand lane converted to a right-turn only lane. Traffic signals will be calibrated for the changing traffic pattern.
- The 4 parking spaces on courthouse side of Short between Mill and Upper will be unavailable during construction.
If you would like more detail on the Courthouse renovations you can view the May 24, 2016 presentation to Council by Jenifer Wuorenmaa by clicking here. It is item VI (c) on the work session agenda. Prior to that, she gave an update to Council at the August 18th, 2015 Work Session. You can view that presentation [item VI (d)] here.
