Romulus to build new 34th District Court building

Romulus is building a new courthouse.

The 34th District Court handles cases for Romulus, Belleville, Huron, Sumpter, and Van Buren Townships and Detroit Metro Airport, as well as weekend arraignments for Wayne County, work that brings some 149,000 people into the 26,000 square foot facility each year.

The new courthouse will be almost twice as large as the current one, 50,000 square feet, and will be two stories tall.  It will be located on the municipal campus on Wayne Road along with city hall and the library. The public can attend  a groundbreaking ceremony at 3 p.m. April 23.

The building is expected to be complete in August 2019 and will cost $17 million to construct. Those project is being paid for by fees imposed on users of the courthouse, not taxpayers, the city said in a statement.

"About five years ago, the court began assessing a $20 fee per ticket toward the anticipated debt reduction on the bonds that will finance the project through the City of Romulus," the statement said. "There will be no cost to taxpayers unless they get cited for a ticket."

The old courthouse was built in 1974, and city officials said  in the statement that the courthouse's business has outgrown the facility, with back rooms and closets turned into offices.

The Veterans Monument on site will be "disassembled, refurbished and reassembled" once the new building has been built. When the monument is rebuilt, it will offer more space to place the names of additional veterans, more than it can honor in its current form, the city said.