DUFFERIN COUNTY COUNCIL tonight will be revisiting a staff recommendation for a 25,000 square foot administration centre adjacent to or connected with the existing courthouse on Zina St., Orangeville.

It appears the consideration of the council is one of whether or not the proposed space is needed, and whether taxpayers can afford the predicted $7 million for it in addition to about $3 million for a mandated improvement to Provincial Offences Act (POA) court facilities and a sally port for safe passage of prisoners.

The county expects to cover the costs of the POA and sally port through lease payments from the Attorney General. It expects to lease the entire existing courthouse to the AG for the criminal and civil courts at the Ontario and Superior Court level.

It has acknowledged that — possibly no matter what is constructed at that location — parking space would be inadequate under Orangeville's zoning laws. Indeed, parking is less than adequate even now.

The situation begs the question of whether the county administration should be at a site chosen more than 125 years ago when it was most likely surrounded by farmland and Orangeville was a small town of about 2,500 population.

Some time ago, we inquired about the feasibility of having a developer build for the county on a leaseback basis at a location where parking would not be a problem. Our information at the time was that such a proposition had been explored by county staff.

To our knowledge, however, no such proposition was brought to the attention of the council.

Given the inadequacy of parking spaces on Zina along with the need to provide dedicated POA facilities as well as more office space for the county itself, and considering that a $10- million structure could add $50 or more annually to the average property tax bill faced by Dufferin ratepayers, we would urge the council to delve more deeply into an alternative to building there, such as a leaseback in an existing commercial area.

Three potential sites in Orangeville that are developer-owned and boast large parking areas are the Fairgrounds Shopping Centre on First Street and the two newer commercial sites at Riddell and Centennial Roads.