Johnson County officials marked the start of construction on the new nearly $200 million courthouse Thursday with a groundbreaking ceremony in Olathe. The seven-story building with 28 court rooms will replace the current facility across the street at Santa Fe Drive and Kansas Avenue. Completed in 1952, the current courthouse does not have facilities that allow inmates coming to court to be separated from the public, an issue that raised safety concerns. Moreover, the current facility is largely out of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Johnson County voters approved a 10-year, quarter-cent sales tax to fund the new courthouse as well as a new coroner facility in November 2016. The proceeds from that sales tax yield revenue for individual cities as well as the county.
After a series of public engagements sessions, project designers updated their plans for the facility, reducing the building height to make it more in line with the aesthetics of the surrounding neighborhood in downtown Olathe.
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