Acquiring some of the land needed for a new judicial center may require the county to file a lawsuit.

The county is considering condemning property to the east of the Western Grocery Building. The board will discuss whether it will authorize the county attorney Craig Nelson to take the legal action.

The 8,000 square-foot piece of land is currently owned by George Dress and, according to the county, is necessary for the new facility to have enough parking space for employees. The architect’s design shows the space providing 22 spots, which can substitute for the current parking lot to the west of the Western Grocery building.

Negotiations over the price of the land appear to be at a standstill. While Dress has been asking over $100,000, the county has been offering an amount closer to the tax assessed value of around $15,000.

State law allows the county to acquire private property for a public purpose. The process requires the county to obtain a judge’s decision after a hearing in open court, where both parties will present their legal opinions.

The land would be right next to the new jail, just walls away from the inmate cells, if the new facility were constructed as proposed.

The new judicial center will be built on top of the current Pearl Street, where county employees, mostly law enforcement officers, currently park their cars. Although the Sheriff’s department and the city police will have access to a new garage that can hold eight vehicles in a minimum design and up to 20 in a maximum, it is primarily dedicated to squad cars.

To mitigate the parking problem, the county started asking the city to construct additional parking lots with about 100 spots on city property at the southeast corner of College Street and Newton Avenue, and the Northwest corner of Pearl Street and Broadway.

The city has been reluctant to provide the lots, hesitant about using city-owned property and asking city taxpayers to bear the cost of providing parking spaces solely for the use of county employees.