Cook County pauses judicial center project

Eight months after the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) was approved by the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the much-debated justice center plan has been put on hold.

A preliminary plan for the proposed justice center was presented to the board on Apr. 9, along with an estimated cost for construction of $27-33 million. During that meeting, the board expressed concerns over the cost, but ultimately voted to accept the initial plan.

At the meeting on Apr. 23, the board changed course, pausing the justice center plans. Instead, they began discussion about what other avenues to pursue to address the space and safety issues that the county faces.

County Administrator James Joerke told WTIP about what led to the county setting the project aside. Joerke said that the high estimated price would require financial assistance from the state and federal government. While the county did submit a state bonding request, even a full award of $8.7 million from the state would not cover enough of the project to make it feasible. Joerke said that the county investigated additional funding sources from the federal government. However, there were not enough large awards for this type of project for the county to continue with the plan. He said, “When that became evident, I really shifted my thinking about how we should be approaching this. And I think the board also feels that, you know, trying to put the full cost of that project onto the levee is just a non starter.”

Moving forward

While the justice center project is paused, the needs around safety and space identified in the CIP remain. Joerke said that the county is now looking at what other options there may be to address those needs.

Current options include:

• executing part of the judicial center plan focusing on making immediately necessary changes to the LEC
• making some security updates to the existing court facilities to address safety concerns
• renting or purchasing additional offices for county departments that require more space
• acquiring the trailer that Great Expectations School will be selling, and setting it up as temporary office space

Joerke said, “We are looking at everything that is available and trying to figure out if we can put those pieces of the puzzle together to serve our needs in the short term.”

WTIP’s Kirsten Wisniewski spoke to Cook County Administrator James Joerke about the change in approach to the planned justice center project and other agenda items from the Apr. 23 Board of Commissioners meeting. Audio from that interview is below.

Kirsten Wisniewski April 25, 2024