The Summit County Council is contemplating some upgrades to their existing facilities, and possibly even some new development on their property along the Highway 40 frontage road.
At their last meeting, the Council considered a bond issuance, up to $20 million, to finance those upgrades.
The county acquired the Florence Gilmor parcel, along the frontage road, in early 2019. Council Member Roger Armstrong said they have always considered the property for some of the county’s pressing needs.
“When we initially bought the property, we reserved a piece of it as a developable parcel. I think we’ve always known that we’ve got some county needs. I think expansion of some of the services that you see at the Richins Building. There’s a necessity there. The County Attorney’s Office is choking at the Justice Center. The Sheriff is, I don’t know where they’re storing all their evidence at this point. But they’re incredibly cramped with their needs at the Justice Center.”
Armstrong added their discussions of what to do with the Gilmor property got derailed by the pandemic.
He said that possibly there could be commercial development there.
“I think we talked about when we bought the property, we expended open space monies for that parcel, and we talked about the possibility of, at some point in the future, it could be something that might be developed. And we would likely, I would think, rather than the county getting into the commercial-development business, probably seek a buyer to develop it. But I think there are many, many, many hurdles to get past before we do that, the first of which would be subdividing and zoning and then actually sitting down and analyzing the county’s needs.”
County Council Member Roger Armstrong.
