AUSTIN, Texas — Austin city leaders could move forward with a plan to move the Downtown Austin Community Court to a location that not everyone supports.
On Thursday, the Austin City Council will consider a $27 million investment to renovate the old City Hall building at 124 West Eighth Street. If approved, construction would start in September to make way for the Downtown Austin Community Court.
Currently, the court is operating out of One Texas Center and has been since August 2021 after the lease expired at its former location on East Sixth Street.
The West Eighth Street location was selected out of 27 options reviewed by the City, according to documents provided to the council.
But a key partner on many projects for the City – the Downtown Austin Alliance (DAA) – doesn’t support the new location.
“This is not a matter of NIMBY ['not in my backyard'], it's a matter of what is the highest and best use for that particular facility. But it's also a matter of what best serves Community Court and the community and clients the court is there to serve,” said Bill Brice, vice president of investor relations for the DAA.
The Community Court, established in 1999, primarily works through cases with defendants who are experiencing homelessness, according to the City’s website.
But Brice said that’s not the concern.
In May 2020, the city council approved a resolution that supported possible cultural use of the building, which is designated as a historic landmark in Austin.
“We believe that could be a great downtown cultural asset that is a more appropriate use for that building and to have in that part of downtown than it would be to have Community Court at that location,” Brice said.
In a letter to Austin Mayor Steve Adler and the city council, DAA President Dewitt Peart raised additional concerns about the process the City has followed.
“City Council’s approval to permanently locate Community Court in this facility without an open and transparent process would contradict the City of Austin’s practice of engaging its citizenry in decisions that ultimately affect the community that Community Court was created to serve,” Peart wrote in the Feb. 10 letter.
Read the full letter below:
In a City document, the explanation for that is because “administrative facility location selection is managed by City staff.”
The document also suggests the building could still be used as a cultural center, but on different floors and spaces of the building that aren’t occupied by the court.
“The right decision for the future use of that property could have significant positive impacts for downtown, for the city as a whole and for Austin's economy. We also recognize that rushing this decision and making the wrong decision for the use of that property could have significant negative consequences, both for downtown but also for Community Court,” Brice said.
The State Preservation Board has also sent a letter to the mayor and city council, opposing the site selected for the Community Court. The letter states in part that the City "did not consider the compatibility or suitability of the site for the court's constituency and the neighboring district."
Read that letter in full below:
Councilmember Kathie Tovo, who represents the downtown area, did not respond to requests for comment by the time this story was published.
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