Proprietor’s idea keeps planned courthouse downtown
Robbinsville – After a public hearing about a planned justice center drew scattered attendance, one local business owner is claiming his concept was “misconstrued” by the county.
David Artiss owns Mountain Manor Hotel on Ford Street. The property sits just below the location of the courthouse, serving as the ending of both a scenic overlook and pesky kudzu issue.
Artiss revisited a concept he first sketched out himself in October for the Graham County Justice Center, which would include the use of his property. Admittedly, he missed the public hearing in March – like many others who did not attend, Artiss says he simply was not aware of it, though it was advertised well in advance in The Graham Star – but presented drawings of his brainstorm to the board of commissioners at the April 18 meeting.
The county has only publicly discussed three sites for the justice center: the front end of the vacant Stanley Furniture/Oak Valley Hardwoods property on Snowbird Road; a plot of land on West Fort Hill, near the county’s Emergency Medical Services, senior center and transit base; and a simple remodel of the existing structure itself in downtown.
Artiss’ main idea was to incorporate the overlook as the front entrance – creating it on a 45-degree angle as a result – and implementing underground parking for use by officers who need to safely need to transport prisoners to and from the detention center inside the facility.
During his pitch, Artiss said he felt his concept has been “misconstrued” after seeing WithersRavenel’s sketch from the March meeting.
“Their drawing shows the building to be totally on Ford Street, and they put all of it on the flat area, so there’s so area for parking,” Artiss said. “Previously, I planned on the building being up the hill against courthouse square, which would keep plenty of area available for parking on the flat ground next to the hotel.
“They even put an elevated walkway, about 150 feet across. I don’t know who would use that, unless they want to make it a tourist attraction.”
Artiss also cited a pair of studies conducted in 2012 (“Reimagining Robbinsville,” by the UNC Center for Sustainable Community Design and the Asheville Design Center, in conjunction with GREAT) and 2015 (“The Gateway to Tomorrow Plan: Graham County).
“The bottom lines of both were the importance of maintaining municipal offices downtown, and that taking the offices away from downtown would cause downtown to suffer significantly,” Artiss said. “The main entrance should be on courthouse square and that’s what I intended.”
He later exalted how easy the parking could be for lower and upper-level courthouse visitors, from the lot adjacent to his hotel to county-owned property in downtown Robbinsville.
“This building is going to serve Graham County for many decades to come,” Artiss noted. “The present building has been there 80 years or something; whatever you put up now – designed in the right way – could be there for maybe a couple hundred years.”
None of the commissioners spoke during Artiss’ 10-minute pitch, but an update handed out from Graham County project manager Jason Marino said the commissioners and Moseley Architects are sitting in a “pause” until a location has been picked.
The project is noted on the report as 17.58 percent complete.