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Senate keeps Salt Lake court-complex planning money after tense debate; substitute bonding bill advances
Summary
Senators debated whether to fund a planning option for a consolidated Salt Lake City court complex and adopted a reduced substitute bonding bill that reallocates the package to buildings, transportation and water; an amendment to delete the roughly $950,000 planning/option item failed on a roll call.
Neil Stowell, identified in the session as director of the Division of Facilities, Construction and Management (DFCM), told the Senate the courts’ statewide master plan contemplates consolidating multiple Salt Lake County court facilities into a phased complex that could total roughly $80–84 million. “In the attempt to address, directly the aspect of the Salt Lake City … complex,” Stowell said, describing multi‑phase construction and land‑option planning.
Stowell said the approach is intended to reduce duplicated law libraries, staff and operating costs and to permit flexible courtroom assignments; he estimated the phased plan could save “something in the range of 15 to, I believe, $18,000,000 of hard construction cost” compared with building separate facilities over the same period.
Several senators pressed for detail about who supported relocation of juvenile courts and whether the preferred downtown site was within a redevelopment district. Stowell said the Judicial…
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