After studying numerous proposed concept plans for new Legislature space at three meetings held over the past month, the Legislature’s Capital Plan Review Committee today achieved a design recommendation to present to the full Legislature to move the process along to its next step.

After more than two hours’ discussion, the Committee voted 5-0 to recommend relocation of the Legislature to the second floor of the Old County Courthouse and a schematic design for the required renovation.  The proposed resolution also states that the Legislature plans to renovate and move into the space currently occupied by the Supreme Courtroom “as soon as is practical,” but no later the end of this year, and it directs staff to develop the budget for the renovations for final approval by the Legislature.

Chair Martha Robertson will next request a special session of the Legislature, so that all legislators can examine the options the Committee has reviewed to date, including but not limited to the Committee’s favored design.

The new space is about 60% larger than the current Legislature Chambers and offices in the Main Courthouse, which the Legislature has been directed to vacate to accommodate space needs of the New York State Court System.

While ultimately voting in favor of the resolution, Legislator Dooley Kiefer repeated that she could not support the design—which locates both Legislature Chambers and offices on the second floor—as more than a temporary solution.  She proposed an amendment, which after discussion was approved by a 3-2 vote, indicating that more space in the Old Courthouse may be required in the future to address the long-term needs of the Legislature for meeting and office space.

Robertson reminded her colleagues, “We’re not designing this building from scratch” and said small compromises are necessary to renovate the historic courtroom space to accommodate the Legislature’s needs and potentially avoid, at least for the present, the expense of constructing space to house the Planning Department and the Ithaca Tompkins County Transportation Council, at a cost of around $2 million.

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