WEST CHESTER - The Chester County Commissioners approved a lease agreement for a new location of Downingtown's District Court, ending a nearly six month relocation to West Chester.
At its meeting last Wednesday, the Commissioners approved a 10 year lease with River Station Land LP, to cost $5,135/month, or $615,200 over the life of the lease to house District Court 15-2-06 at one of the buildings at River Station, located at the corner of Boot Road and South Brandywine Avenue (U.S. 322).
District Judge Rita Arnold and her staff had been using the former hunting/fishing licenses office on the first floor of the north wing, with court cases being conducted in the former Courtroom #11, also on the first floor. It remains to be seen whether the court, which has been housed at the Historic Courthouse in West Chester will be moved into it's new location before the first of the year.
The developers had gone in front of the Downingtown Borough Planning Commission on June 15 to submit new plans for the site. An original plan, which would've involved one of two buildings becoming a maintenance facility for Krapf's Coaches school bus operations, had fallen through.
The mixed use development complex on the former Sonoco facility will also be home to a new building that will house the Downingtown Area Senior Center and the Downingtown Library. That project was the recipient of a $500,000 grant procured by State Sen. Andy Dinniman (D-19th) last year.
DOWNINGTOWN DISTRCT COURT HISTORY
The proposed location at River Station East will mark the 5th permanent site for 15-2-06 since the court was created in 1970 under the Constitutional amendments that created Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System and phased out the Justice of the Peace system, where each borough and township had two elected Justices of the Peace, while the City of Coatesville had elected one Alderman for each of the city's five wards. Even with the new district courts, those Justices of the Peace whose terms expired in 1972 and 1974 were permitted to complete their terms.
District Court 15-2-06 had been previously located at 441 Boot Road until late February, when the court was forced to move to West Chester due to odor issues from a nearby plant which had worsened in the months prior to the move. The court had been located on Boot Road since 2001, when it relocated from the former Jefferson Bank Center (now Mill Town Square) at Pennsylvania and Wallace Avenues, Downingtown.
The court had moved to the Jefferson Bank Center in the mid-1990's from the previous location, the Black Hawk Convenience Center, 703 East Lancaster Avenue, near the Downingtown/East Caln border. The move to the Wallace Avenue occured when 15-2-06 was split with what is now Thorndale District Court (15-4-02) in 1994.
Judge Arnold was elected in 1993 to the newly created seat as her predecessor, Harry Martini, an East Brandywine resident and former school teacher, took over the Thorndale court (which included Caln Township, that had been previously assigned to Coatesville District Court). Martini was appointed by then Gov. Robert Casey to replace C. Burtis Coxe, who had served 18 years as District Judge before his death.
Downingtown District Court was originally designated at 15-3-03 when the magesterial districts were created in 1970, and was originally housed at the Downingtown Borough Hall at 4-10 West Lancaster Avenue before moving to Black Hawk in the mid-1970's during Coxe's first term. The court was redesignated 15-2-06 as part of the 1980 district court restructuring that led to the creation of new courts in West Chester, Frazer, and Honey Brook.
Coxe, who had previously been a Justice of the Peace in East Bradford was originally appointed to the seat in 1970 following the death of Morris P. Seeds, who was a Justice of the Peace in West Whiteland. Seeds defeated Coxe in the both the Democratic and Republican primaries in 1969 and was elected unopposed in the following November. Seeds passed away in September 1970, less than nine months into his term.
The 15-3-03 court originally included Downingtown, East Bradford, East Brandywine, East Caln, Uwchlan, West Bradford, and West Whiteland. In 1980, West Whiteland and Uwchlan were separated into the new District Court 15-2-07, which was originally located in Frazer and now sits in Lionville (West Whiteland would be spun off into what is now District Court 15-4-03 in Exton as part of the 1993 reorganization). Birmingham was added to the court in 2003, having been separated from District Court 15-2-03 in West Goshen.
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