The pancake house swap was concocted between the town and county four years ago during a heated dispute over the new justice center.

The county wanted to move the justice center away from downtown, but the town wanted it to stay. The county at one point wanted to build the justice center in Hazelwood, but the tract was zoned industrial and the town wouldn’t grant a waiver for the non-industrial use.

The county then threatened to move the justice center out of the town limits completely. Waynesville Alderman Gavin Brown, who is also an attorney, filed an injunction stopping the county from moving the justice center outside the town limits of the county seat. To convince the county to keep the courthouse downtown, the town gave the county $1.5 million to go toward construction of the parking deck. In return, the town got the pancake house building, which was valued at $218,000.

The county technically should have turned the building over to the town by now. The deal specified the town would get the building when construction on the justice center was finished, which was three months ago.

County Manager Jack Horton said the county would love to hang onto the building for a couple more years to house county offices while the historic courthouse is being renovated. But Horton said that would be too much to ask.

“We were actually planning on giving it to them before now,” Horton said. “If the town needs it, we’ll obviously move out.”

The building currently houses the appraisers in charge of property revaluation that takes place every fours years. They are six months shy of that four-year deadline and moving would be inconvenient right now, Horton said.

“But if push comes to shove, we could relocate them on pretty short order,” Horton said.