The current site, a 40-year-old building that once housed a mattress warehouse, is old and rundown, and incredibly small, says Mayor Chuck Goedert.
The city leaders tried to entice state and county money for a new court, and even tried ideas to pair a new court development with neighboring cities such as Madison Heights and Hazel Park. However, those plans failed. With a faltering budget due to losing about 3,000 residents in the 2000 census, the city had no choice, says City Manager Tom Barwin.
"This seemed to be the best way to get what we wanted for the city," Barwin tells GlobeSt.com.
When the new budget is approved June 1, minor scofflaws will pay an extra $20 for every civil infraction. District Court Judge Joseph Longo suggested the increase, saying fees haven't been raised in nine years. Longo says he expects the increase could bring more than $108,000 a year for the city. A new courthouse would cost between $250,000 and $3 million, Barwin says, depending on which parcel the city buys and what design is used.
Ferndale is looking at three different proposals for the new court location. Currently the court is located on Nine Mile Road. One idea is to buy the land to the west of the courthouse, build a new facility and tear down the old building for parking spaces. Other ideas are to buy land at Bermuda and Nine Mile Road, or build onto the current city hall site across the street from the current court.
Goedert says the judge probably shouldn't have leaked out possible locations. "That will just make the owners jack the prices up, and hurt the taxpayers," he says.
Ferndale is actually copying an idea from Royal Oak, another popular Detroit suburb. The former Royal Oak district court halls, where Jack Kevorkian used to first plead his cases, are now empty; the city opened a new two-story modern court facility in February, complete with classrooms and a law library, on land behind its city hall. The new court was built entirely from a court-fee increase established in 1993.
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