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The Legislature’s Capital Plan Review Committee heard a progress report last Friday from HOLT Architects on the Center of Government Study, that examines whether a business case exists for replacing three county government buildings in the current Courthouse complex with a larger, more efficient County office building.
 
The firm presented the committee with four options for review—which ranged from maintaining the current configuration, with building improvements, to selling the Old Jail, County Building C, and the Old Courthouse and replacing the Old County Library with a new, three-story Center of Government Building.  The initial analysis shows that, considering cost and projected savings, building new would cost as much as $8 million more, over 20 years. than improving or modifying existing structures.

Cost of the least ambitious alternative—which would move the Legislature into a renovated Old Courthouse, the Human Rights Commission into part of the first floor of that building, and Planning and the Ithaca Tompkins County Transportation Council (ITCTC) into leased space—would cost the least, an estimated $12.8 million.  The most expensive—in which all the other buildings would be sold and most offices, including the Office for the Aging (COFA), would relocate to the Center of Government Building—is projected at $20.3 million.
 
Two existing options drew the committee’s greater interest as a focus for further study.  One would have the County sell the Old Library site and add a two-story addition to the back of Building C, as a new location for Planning and ITCTC (with the Legislature and Human Rights moving to the Old Courthouse), at an estimated cost of $13 million. The other would sell all buildings but the Old Courthouse, and build a smaller Center of Government Building on the Old Library site—projected cost, $18.9 million.
 
Since only the new construction options accommodate a permanent home for COFA, the architects were asked to cost-out a new option that would expand a Building C addition to three stories, to house COFA, as well as Planning and ITCTC.  Legislator Mike Lane said he is opposed to any addition to Building C, a structure he characterized as “not substantial,” and said at this point he’d like to look at all options, including a new building on the Old Library site, as a long-term investment.
 
County Administrator Joe Mareane reminded the committee that the initial intent of looking at a potential Center of Government building was both to reduce fragmentation in County operations and bring stability to its facility needs.  He observed that both the options with the Building C addition and the less expensive new construction alternative would succeed in supporting those goals.
 
Committee members reached consensus on striking the “status quo” option, and directed the architects to come back next month with information on parking and zoning issues for all alternatives, as well as to  flesh out the new option with the two-story Building C addition.  They considered whether to eliminate the most expensive alternative for a new building, but delayed any decision on that until next month, when all committee members are expected to be present.
 
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