By Austin Petroski
[email protected]
New additions to the Johnson County Courthouse are on the Johnson County Board of Supervisors’ minds once again.
On Thursday, the supervisors discussed a courthouse-entrance project, a planning and zoning public hearing, and a proposal to amend a current ordinance to change the name.
The courthouse addition would be designed to create a secure entrance in which officers and detainees could proceed through as an alternative to the main entrance. The addition would cover around 700 square feet and the entrance would include a metal detector and scanner before those could enter the west door of the courthouse.
All doors will have access controlled by key cards. The addition would also be monitored by cameras and will be able to be viewed from numerous locations in the courthouse.
Michael Kincaid, the construction manager of the project, said it would cost $283,000. He also noted the structure will not disturb the building’s foundation.
“The attachments will be small we will not penetrate the stone walls, and no structural changes will be made to the courthouse,” Kincaid said.
Kincaid noted that the addition would contain its own heating and air conditioning in addition to the capacity of the entrance.
“We could probably have 60 people easy on the north side of the building. It’s more of a walk-through area than a retention area,” said Kincaid.
Johnson County Supervisors Rob Sullivan and Pat Harney said they were concerned about whether the addition would alter the structure of the courthouse.
“I appreciate that they do not need to affect the foundation,” Sullivan said.
Kincaid said that if the proposed project is passed at the next meeting, and construction starts in November, the addition would be finished by Feb. 5.
The supervisors also considered amending the Johnson County Unified Development Ordinance to change the name of “Rural Cluster Zoning District” to “Rural Conservation Zoning District” in order to better reflect the intended uses of the areas.
“We want to make clear what open space can be used for in these areas,” said Josh Busard, an assistant administrator of Planning and Zoning of Johnson County.
He said residents were having concerns about what could and could not occur as part of the zoning district.
He said he felt that changing “cluster” to “conservation” would better clarify the purpose of the area.
Supervisor Janelle Rettig said that the board wanted to make clear what is able to happen in these areas.
“We wanted to make it clear that you can grow food on this,” she said. “People wanted to know why they could have animals on green space in these areas.”
Busard said the area allows for one animal per acre, but most of the lots are not going to be greater than two acres. He said that the current ordinance is not very clear.
The amendment was slated to be waived from three readings; however, the supervisors decided that it would not be waived because of people possibly having issues with the change.