The decision to return the Oamaru District Court to its historic home, the 132-year-old courthouse on Thames St, ticks all the boxes, Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher says.
He said he was "really pleased'' with the agreement under which the main street courthouse would reopen by this time next year, after closing in November 2011.
He had been working on the agreement since he assumed the mayoralty in 2013.
"I have had my three bottom lines if you like: wanting to retain services here in Oamaru; wanting to ensure the building remains an important building in our main street, and be utilised; and that there is no net cost to ratepayers,'' he said.
"And I am confident that the agreement we have come to meets those bottom lines.''
Justice Minister Amy Adams yesterday announced the agreement with the Waitaki District Council.
Ownership of the courthouse would be transferred to the council, with the Ministry of Justice then leasing it for court services.
It was an arrangement Mr Kircher mooted as a possibility late last year.
After the courthouse was identified as requiring earthquake strengthening and was closed in November 2011, criminal court was transferred to Timaru for months, before it transferred in March 2012 to the Oamaru Opera House.
In August 2014, it was relocated to a "porta-court'' borrowed from Christchurch and situated in Humber St, where it remains.
Last May, the Otago Daily Times reported the ministry had spent about $600,000 on temporary court facilities, maintaining the closed courthouse and starting a sale process.
The ministry had also spent another $200,000 on assessment reports and a strengthening analysis of the building.
A 2013 ministry estimate for the cost of strengthening work, of up to $2million, seemed to put the work out of reach.
The ministry said it was a cost too high for a court that operated less than a day a week on average.
A previous independent report commissioned by Oamaru lawyer Bill Dean put the cost of strengthening the building to a new-building standard closer to $350,000.
He could not be reached for comment last night.
Ms Adams, said she had "seen and heard first-hand the concern that many members of the Oamaru community have for this building'' and noted Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean's advocacy for the Oamaru courthouse.
She said once the strengthening work was completed by the council, the porta-court would be removed.
The council had decided to strengthen the courthouse to at least 67% of the new building standard, she said.
The minimum is 34%. Mr Kircher said after the "nominal purchase'' of the courthouse, work would begin to ready the building for court services.
The work would be loan-funded and the council would use the money generated through the lease to the ministry to pay for the strengthening.
"We have put a lot of work on assessments and we have been working through the process of determining the exact work that needs to be done. The intention is certainly to get on to the strengthening as soon as possible and within that nine to 12 months we will have all that work done, including a bit of refurbishment, and that building will be used for hearings again.''
Ms Adams announced at the beginning of December last year that Cabinet had agreed to spend $15million to earthquake-strengthen, restore and upgrade Dunedin's 113-year-old courthouse, so it could operate as modern court facilities.
