Relocating the Austin Community Court sparks concern

City officials want to relocate the Community Court to the lower floor of the Municipal Building, but some are saying the process is moving too quickly.

AUSTIN, Texas - The municipal building at the intersection of 8th and Colorado is where the original capitol of Texas once stood and is currently used mainly for accounting and IT staff.

City officials want to spend several million dollars and convert the lower floor into Austin's Community Court. The plan is set for a council vote on Thursday, but a letter from the Downtown Austin Alliance (DAA) was sent requesting the vote to be put on hold.

Bill Brice with the DAA told FOX 7 Austin the process has moved too fast. "This issue has been pushed through the City Council without a thorough, open, thoughtful public process. This is the community court and yet the proposed location for the court has in no way thus far involved or engaged the community to determine where it should be located," said Brice.

Business owners and residents who live near the site were led to believe the site was only going to be used to promote arts and cultural events. The idea of wedging in a court for misdemeanor offenders was a surprise.

"We believe that in correlation to our historic theaters, to our art venues, downtown, to event spaces that are adjacent to the old municipal court building, it's not an ideal place for community court and to suggest that the court could be located in the building and share that space for cultural use. We don't believe are compatible uses," said Brice.

Austin City Council member Kathie Tovo organized a Zoom meeting Tuesday night to discuss the plan. Security was one of the big concerns.

"Your literal words were, who are the victims in these crimes, it's the community. So it's the community is telling you that they don't want to be victimized," said downtown resident Andrew Templeton.

Among those who attended the call was another resident Lindsay Sander, who spoke to FOX 7 Austin by phone. "Either they misjudged the concerns or there was a deliberate attempt to thwart the community. I'm not sure which one it is, but either way it didn't go well and it's really frustrating. And that's probably a nice way of putting it. To listen to our council members who so prescribe to this community involvement public input. Got to get everybody's buy in. This is the best for the community. And then when you see an issue like this that they absolutely just railroaded through with no input," said Sander.

Tovo told the group she will recommend delaying the vote until early February. In a statement sent to FOX 7 Austin, Mayor Steve Adler said; "I support delaying the vote, at least a week."

Brice believes the discussion process needs to be longer than the one week, instead at least into March, which is much longer than what's offered by the mayor. If the discussion process is extended, the DAA wants something else to be reconsidered: the idea of a single location for the court.

" What we don't know right now is what are the needs that the court has? What are the needs of its clients? What are the space constraints or needs that it has? What about access to transportation? What about proximity to other homeless or social services or physical and behavioral health care services? All of these things need to be factored into the equation of what is the best location or locations for the court," said Brice.

A petition is now circulating to get the discussion extended. If that fails, FOX 7 Austin is told all options are on the table, including moving the decision into a Travis County courtroom.

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