Southold cools on Peconic Lane court plan as retrofit costs rise

A $4.6 million retrofit estimate pushed Southold farther from turning the Peconic Lane Community Center into a full-time Justice Court, just as the town was already using the former school as a temporary court site after a burst pipe damaged Town Hall.

At a May 6 work session, town engineer Michael Collins told the board that converting the building could cost about $4.6 million, while a new building could come in at roughly $4 million. Collins said the retrofit was possible, but not a smart decision, and that cost gap appeared to sharpen the board’s doubts about giving the court the entire building.

That matters because the Peconic Lane building is not a spare room waiting for a tenant. Southold bought the former Peconic school building in 2008, years after it closed as a school in 1997. Since then, the town has used it for Recreation Department programs, public meetings and emergency shelter needs. The town’s own shelter listing names Peconic Community Center as a primary general-population shelter, alongside Oysterponds School, Greenport School and Fishers Island School.

The issue surfaced after a sprinkler-system pipe burst in the Town Hall meeting room ceiling, forcing the Justice Court and other meetings to move to the Peconic Community Center. That temporary relocation revived a long-running question for Southold officials: whether the town should dedicate the building to court functions or preserve it for broader civic use.

Southold Town Justice Court handles thousands of matters each year, including vehicle and traffic violations, penal law offenses, parking violations, town and village code violations, landlord-tenant cases, civil cases and small claims. Landlord-tenant cases are heard on Fridays at 10:30 a.m. The town’s court-facilities guidelines also point to the need for courtroom-related spaces such as attorney-client conference rooms, chambers and clerical offices, which have fueled pressure for a more secure, purpose-built facility.

Even so, the board’s direction has been shifting. It had discussed the possibility of dedicating the Peconic Lane building entirely to the Justice Court at an April 21 work session, but by the May 5 session it appeared to have cooled on the idea. Southold has already been planning a new police station and future Justice Court on the parcel next to the current police department on Main Road west of Peconic Lane, and reporting in June 2025 said the town was moving forward with a new courthouse on the current police department site, along with a new police headquarters on a 3.47-acre parcel bought in 2023.

For now, the Peconic Lane Community Center remains a stopgap. The broader decision is whether Southold keeps one of its most flexible public buildings in community service or turns to a more expensive, longer-term courthouse plan elsewhere.