State funding for courthouse OK’d

Plans to build a new courthouse that will replace the current court facilities in downtown Sonora moved forward this week.   

Initial funding was authorized for the $70.1 million, 67,000-square-foot facility by the State Public Works Board on Monday. The move enables the state to proceed with site selection and preliminary plans, including architectural design. Construction is set to be completed by 2014. The facility would contain five courtrooms used for civil, criminal, traffic, juvenile and probate proceedings.
 

The funding announcement comes on the heels of the October approval by the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors to purchase roughly 50 acres on which to place a $253 million law and justice center. The center, to be located near the intersection of Old Wards Ferry Road and Highway 108, would be built out over 20 years and house a number of law and justice-related facilities. Among them are: a juvenile detention center, jail, public defender’s and district attorney’s offices, civil and criminal courts, and a California Highway Patrol office.

In promoting the law and justice center plan last month, County Administrator Craig Pedro pointed out the state was prepared to move forward with plans to build a new courthouse somewhere other than the center’s site if the county didn’t approve of the land purchase. But now, the state is free to use the center’s property, which county leaders expect it to do.

“They (the state) like our site and know the court wants to be on our site with the other justice partners but are required to identify at least two sites in case the preferred site were to fall through,” Pedro said.

The reasoning behind constructing the center, according to Pedro, is the county’s various law and justice facilities are inadequate to meet the current client loads and, in the case of the jail and two courthouses, don’t meet modern safety and security standards.

The Judicial Council of California, the rule-making arm of the state court system, has called the county’s current court buildings “overcrowded, physically deficient and significant lacking in security features.”

Tuolumne County Superior Court currently has two courtroom buildings: the historic 1898 courthouse on Yaney Avenue and a branch on Washington Street.

County leaders have considered using the facilities for other departments once the new courthouse is built, but a decision hasn’t yet been made.

County Clerk and Auditor-Controller Debi Russell said the historic courthouse would likely have problems complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which stipulates certain public facilities must be accessible to those with disabilities. That’s largely because the 111-year-old building doesn’t have an elevator.

“Maybe you could put a department up there that isn’t public-oriented,” Russell said.

So far, funding for only the courthouse and $21 million juvenile detention center appear forthcoming from the state, but County Administrator Craig Pedro expects most of the funding for the law and justice center complex to come from the state, around $160 million of the $253 million total price tag.

The funding for the new courthouse comes via Senate Bill 1407, now signed into law, which authorizes the issuance of up to $5 billion in bonds for purposes of financing, planning, design, construction, rehabilitation, renovation, replacement and leasing or acquisition of state court facilities. The measure also authorizes a variety of increases to penalties and fees as revenue sources for the bonds.