Mount Vernon review panel denies certificate for demolition of downtown buildings proposed for justice center

The Mount Vernon Planning Commission and Historical Review Committee on the certificate of appropriateness for 10–18 North Main Street and 6 East Chestnut Street resulted in a denial after members voted against moving the demolition request forward.

Don Wheat, the city's owner'representative with Pizzuti Solutions, told the commission the three buildings are functionally obsolete for a modern justice center and described structural, mechanical and safety problems that, in his view, prevent their reuse. "We view them as functionally obsolete from the same point of, being usable for any kind of an expanded justice center," Wheat said, and he added the city would "commit to salvaging any of those components for potential reuse, in Mount Vernon." Wheat also said one of the buildings has methamphetamine contamination that previously hospitalized workers and requires remediation.

The proposed project would relocate some city administrative functions to 236 South Main (the COTC building), temporarily house municipal court and related functions in the existing City Hall building, and then build a new justice wing connected to the City Hall footprint and a new parking configuration. Wheat described a two-step demolition and…