Council approves demolition of courthouse, will construct new city hall in its place on State Highway 5

By Brandi Hart
McKinneyUpdate.com editor
Created at 11:55 p.m. on March 17, 2009

The six story courthouse that has been located at 210 S. McDonald St. for more than 30 years will be demolished as the city of McKinney will build a more energy efficient building in its place to serve as the new city hall.

The McKinney City Council approved the demolition of the courthouse building in a four to three vote on March 17 at the regular bi-monthly council meeting. Mayor Bill Whitfield, Council member for District 2 Gerlayn Kever, Council member at-large Pete Huff, and Council member for District 4 Ray Ricchi voted in favor demolishing the building, which the city owns. The motion also included proceeding with phase one of the new municipal center, or city hall, project. That includes building a $21 million, 45,000 square foot city hall that will be either a gold or silver Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design, or LEED building.

Kever said the city has an opportunity to do something special with the municipal center land and that renovating the building would be inefficient due to energy costs of the building as it is not energy efficient.

Whitfield said at a council retreat on March 12 that he was in favor of demoloshing the courthouse building as soon as possible and wanted to build a new, more energy efficicient building in its place.

"Give me a stick of dynamite and I'll blow it up," Whitfield jokingly said at the retreat.

Mayor Pro Tem Bill Cox, Council member for District 1 Gilda Garza and Council member for District 3 Travis Ussery voted against the demolition of the courthouse building and moving forward with phase one of constructing a new city hall.

Garza said she was in favor of renovating the courthouse rather than demolishing it to preserve its history near the downtown area, and in District 1. She wanted to preserve all of the building because it's been in McKinney for more than 30 years, and is located in the city's Historic District, near the downtown area.

The city owns the courthouse building and moved the municipal courts into the second floor of the building in 2008. The Collin County employees who currently work in the county's administration, human resources and GIS offices, and the Collin County commissioners will move out of the courthouse building in coming weeks and will move into the new County Administration Building that is being built on Bloomdale Road. Construction on the County Administration Building could be completed sometime in April.

The city staff will also present any contracts to the council prior to approval for any demolition, planning and construction associated with the municipal center project, said City Manager Frank Ragan.

"Tonight we're just looking for a thumbs up or thumbs down. There's a fork in the road now as the county employees will be moving out of the building," Ragan said.

Ricchi asked if it was at all possible to save a time capsule and cornerstone, which was placed in the building by a local Masonic lodge, during the demolition of the building. Former Assistant City Manager Regie Neff, who is working with the city as a consultant on the project, told Ricchi and the council members the staff would try to save the items.

In other news, the council also approved two meritorious exceptions for signage to be placed on two buildings in downtown McKinney that District 1 Council candidate Don Day owns. The council unanimously approved a meritorious sign exception to the city's sign ordinance for signs to be located above the fourth story windows of the expansion of The Grand Hotel at 114 E. Louisiana St. and for an attached, non-premise sign to be plcated for Rick's Chophouse, also on the expansion of The Grand Hotel. Day said the expansion of the hotel is almost complete and having the signs placed on the building will help people know where the hotel is located.

The council also unanimously approved a meritorious exception to the city's sign ordinance to allow a blade sign, or a sign that protudes from the building to be placed at the building where the Uptown store is located at 102 E. Louisiana St. John Kessel, the Executive Director of the city's Development Services Division told the council that the sign will be similar to the former Smith Drug Co. sign that used to be located on the east side of the square, in the former Smith Drug Co. store on Tennessee Street.

The council also tabled action on a request to rezone .64 acres from an agricultural district to a planned development to allow a cell phone tower to be located on the north side of Virginia Parkway, approximately 1,000 feet west of Hardin Boulevard. The applicant asked that the request be tabled indefinitely. The McKinney Planning and Zoning Commission previously denied the request before it was sent to the council.

Ricchi also asked Kessel if the city's sign ordinance needed to be reviewed, to which Kessel replied that there is language in the ordinance that might be confusing to people and could be cleaned up. Ricchi suggested that he and another council member meet with the city staff to discuss the sign ordinance at a future council workshop meeting.

Day attended the meeting, and was the only council candidate in the May 9 election, other than Garza, who attended the council meeting. The mayoral candidates and other council candidates attended a forum that was held by the African American Republican Party of Collin County during the same time as the council meeting.

Garza, Day and former District 4 Council member and mayoral candidate Brian Loughmiller were also the only candidates who attended the March 16 council workshop meeting, which is held bi-monthly on the first and third Mondays of each month.

For more information about council meetings, agendas and other city information, visit the city's Web site www.mckinneytexas.org .

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