THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608020219
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: By MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 133 lines
LILLIE M. HART, Chesapeake's chief clerk of the Circuit Court, spends her working days circumnavigating piles of boxed computer supplies.
Her secretary's once-roomy office is now a tight maze.
Storage rooms in this tan brick building are stuffed with election returns and browning city documents that, by law, must be saved. File cabinets are stacked on file cabinets.
In Hart's corner of the Circuit Court building, there is little extra room.
Offices here that once served one person now sit three. And one employee who has been here for a year has yet to find a permanent desk.
``Relief,'' said Hart, ``we've got to have.''
It's coming. The city of Chesapeake is making plans for the construction of a $27 million courthouse to house both the General District and Circuit courts as well as the Commonwealth's attorneys offices.
Plans call for ground to be broken next year and construction to be completed by the end of 1998.
The new facility is expected to double Hart's office space from 13,226 square feet to 28,171 square feet while offering a more secure place in which to work.
A new courthouse facility in Chesapeake, Virginia's fastest-growing city, is badly needed. As development has turned this town from sleepy haven to booming suburbia, the city's courts have seen a huge rise in cases without seeing a change in facilities.
The city's Circuit and General District courts are each expected to ask for a new judge's position to help with the increased caseloads.
``And they'll probably get them,'' Circuit Court Judge E. Preston Grissom told the council.
The number of court cases passing through Chesapeake have increased substantially in just the past nine years.
The number of chancery cases increased from 1,200 in 1986 to 1,497 in 1995; the number of criminal cases increased from 1,229 cases in 1986 to 4,210 in 1995; and the number of law cases jumped from 817 in 1986 to 3,100 in 1995.
The Circuit Courts building once served as the locus of local government in Chesapeake, with city offices and the courts sharing the same space before the construction of the current City Hall. The cafeteria was located where deeds are issued today. Courtrooms 2 and 3 served as the City Council chambers.
Plans for the new courthouse were revealed recently at a City Council work session, where it was learned that a costly glitch in plans will result in $5.4 million being added to the overall cost of construction.
The glitch occurred after a local consultant forgot to include nearly a third of the proposed building in preliminary plans.
Although reluctant, the City Council agreed to amend the already-approved capital budget to include the additional costs.
Thomas H. Westbrook, assistant director of public works, said the consultant left out holding cells and underground parking for judges. Westbrook also said the consultant, Hayes Seay Mattern & Mattern of Virginia Beach, also decided not to include a separate jury-assembly area in their original estimates used to determine the estimated cost of the project.
``The consultant made a mistake,'' Westbrook told the City Council at a work session on July 23, ``and we didn't catch it.''
The forgotten areas, including an increase in traffic court seating from 125 seats to 200, equal almost one-third of the planned 172,000-square-foot building, according to Westbrook.
The additional work is estimated to cost $5,362,100, boosting the estimated cost of the total project to $27 million. By comparison, Chesapeake's City Hall cost $16.5 million.
At that same work session, local judges were concerned that federal laws requiring new public facilities to be handicapped-accessible would not only add to the cost of the new building but also take up valuable space in their courtrooms.
The judges and other city officials had recently toured a new courthouse in Arlington, where the Americans With Disabilities Act was fully honored.
But as a result of stringently abiding by the law, some judges' chairs had hydraulic lifts on either side of the bench to accommodate a handicapped judge. Others said wheelchair ramps to witness stands had to be roped off to keep lawyers and others from tripping over them.
While the local judges felt it necessary to abide by the law, they and others asked City Attorney Ronald Hallman to investigate how stringent the ADA law needs to be applied to their new courthouse.
``It's a costly thing,'' said Grissom. ``And just to accept it as being the law is not good business. . . Until we get the answer to that problem, we don't feel you should go full scale ahead.''
The architects of the building - Hellmuth Obata Kassabaum of Washington, D.C., and Williams-Tazewell of Norfolk - both assured the council and the judges that their plans accounted for the ADA requirements.
Outside of these concerns, there is little debate over the need for a new courts facility in Chesapeake. The two separate buildings housing General and Circuit courts in Chesapeake are more than cramped, having been in use since before the city was chartered in 1963.
The new facility will be built at the intersection of Albemarle and Holt drives, across Albemarle Drive from the new City Jail, which is currently under construction.
Proposed as a four-story building, the new courthouse will hold the Circuit Courts on the top two floors and the General District Courts on the bottom two floors.
Eight courtrooms will serve General District courts. Six courtrooms will serve the Circuit Court.
Escalators, much like those used in the Virginia Beach Courthouse, will shuttle people from floor to floor. Courtrooms will be set up on a modular basis. To accommodate any future growth, room for additional courtrooms are part of the architects' plans.
The exterior of the building is expected to compliment the architecture and color of City Hall, with a pre-cast, off-white exterior and blue glass.
The main entrance will be at one corner of the building, at the base of a turret-like outcrop.
The building will only have one entrance for the public to help with security. Judges and prisoners will be brought into the courthouse in separate entrances.
Once constructed, the buildings housing the current courts will be razed, making room for a large grassy plaza.
In addition, Hart herself is expected finally to get a window in her office, something she's never had since she began working here in 1967.
``Some days,'' she said, ``I don't know what the weather is.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color illustration]
COURT ORDER
Architect's drawing courtesy of WILLIAMS-TAZEWELL of Norfolk
The building's foyer will be a vertical cylinder. The total project
is $27 million. By comparison, Chesapeake's City Hall cost $16.5
million.
Architect's drawing courtesy of WILLIAMS-TAZEWELL of Norfolk
Two views of the planned $27 million courthouse. Above, the east
elevation. Below, the north elevation.
File photo by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN
Judge E. Preston Grissom expects both Circuit and General District
courts to seek a new judge's position to help with the climbing
caseloads.
Lillie Hart by CNB