By Kevin Falconer, Denton County Precinct 2 Commissioner
As the fourth fastest growing county in the country, Denton County has grown massively in the last few years. We now have over one million residents in the county and we’re growing by more than 90 people per day or 30,000 each year. As a result of that growth, Denton County must plan for future service needs to stay ahead of the curve. That includes the need for additional roads and infrastructure, but it also dramatically increases the need for space in our county facilities.
One example of that situation is our Courts Building on McKinney Street which is over capacity. We’ve already relocated our probate courts to temporary facilities, and with the recent addition of a new district court, we’re moving a district court to temporary facilities, too. Additionally, there is no longer sufficient space in the Courts building for judicial support services including the offices of the District Clerk, the County Clerk and the District Attorney.
Expanding the Courts Building would be extremely difficult logistically and it would be very expensive and disruptive to the courts. Alternatively, building a new courts building would be very expensive. As an architect with over forty years of design and construction experience, I understand that in today’s environment it is typically much more cost effective and quicker to buy an existing building and adapt it for reuse than to construct a new building.
Considering that situation, we took the opportunity recently to purchase an office building in Denton – the current Sally Beauty headquarters. We recognized that this well maintained, five story, 200,000-square-foot building at Colorado Blvd. and Brinker Rd. could serve beautifully as our new Civil Courts Building.
Since that purchase, we have been working diligently on the plans to convert the Sally Beauty headquarters into the new Denton County Civil Courts Building. In addition to the cost and timing advantages of this adaptive reuse, segregating civil courts from criminal courts offers advantages, too, since they are very different in their users and operations.
The new Civil Courts building will include:
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- Seven civil district courts
- Two probate courts and one associate probate court
- Expansion space for additional courts
- Space for departments that serve the civil courts including the District Attorney’s Office, District Clerk’s Office and the County Clerk’s Office.
- Space for the law library, offices for the judges and their employees, and space on the first level for the main lobby, jury assembly, security screening, community rooms and a cafeteria.
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With the opening of our Civil Courts building in the relatively near future, we will have enough space for all of the courts to operate efficiently with room to expand for decades to come.
This is a big win for the taxpayers, our employees and the users of the judicial system in Denton County!
Feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] or call my office at 972-434-7140.
