Revised design plans for a new Mendocino County Courthouse show a two-story glass entrance to an 82,000-square foot, seven-courtroom building whose estimated costs have risen to $150 million, according to the Judicial Council of California.
Construction is now scheduled to begin in May of next year, with completion tentatively set for August 2027. If all goes as planned, state officials in October will begin to secure necessary permits allowing the building of the most significant public civic project in 75 years in Mendocino County.
Shannon Riley, Ukiah’s Deputy City Manager, said she is engaged in bi-monthly meetings with court and county staff as plans for the new county courthouse firm up.
“Our engineering team is collaborating with their design and engineering professionals to help ensure proper coordination of utilities and streets” with the city’s planned revamping of Perkins Street, the main artery between downtown and Highway 101.
Court Executive Officer Kim Turner on Monday released a state update outlining the updated courthouse plans but deferred comment to state officials who are the “project managers.”
The new Mendocino County Courthouse is to be located on the eastern edge of downtown Ukiah on a four-acre site on Perkins Street abutting the historic Ukiah Train Depot and bordered on the west by abandoned railroad tracks.
Fentress Architects, a global design firm based in Washington, D.C., completed the latest courthouse revisions and prepared design plans that will be the basis for development of actual construction documents for the downtown Ukiah project. Hansel Phelps, an employee-owned construction company based in Washington state that has emerged as one of the nation’s largest, is the designated builder.
The Mendocino County courthouse project and a smaller $83 million courthouse development in neighboring Lake County are currently ranked as the two top “immediate need” court-related projects that are estimated to cost $2.3 billion statewide. The Mendocino and Lake projects are among the first to use the state’s new “design build” method, which calls for a single “design build” team to work on a project from concept to completion, according to the Judicial Council.
The new Ukiah courthouse will replace an aging 1950s era building that the state believes needs millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements, and security updates.
The fate of the current 1950s-era main courthouse, and an adjacent century-old limestone clad building fronting School Street remains uncertain. Ownership will revert to the county of Mendocino County when the courts move into the new courthouse.
The existing courthouse is a mishmash of offices and courtrooms, with elevator access limited to three of its five floors. Millions of dollars in deferred maintenance undermines the structural integrity of the 72-year-old building, which has been labeled a “high-risk seismically deficient building” by federal agencies. As it is, the current courthouse suffers from inadequate heating and cooling systems, inmate security issues, and “woefully inadequate” state and public parking even with city-owned parking lots in surrounding areas.
Relocation of the courthouse from its historic site in the heart of downtown, however, has raised larger community concerns about foot traffic for shops and restaurants dependent on courthouse visitors and employees.
It also raises questions about how other court-related offices are going to connect with the new courthouse, which will be located three long blocks away. Office space for the county’s District Attorney’s staff, currently housed on the ground floor of the existing courthouse, is not provided in the new courthouse plan, for example.
There has been talk of razing the existing courthouse structure that fronts State Street and turning the space into a new downtown square. The historic limestone clad annex facing School Street could be saved for other public use, according to proponents.
Locally, it is a dollars and cents issue that is fueling uncertainty surrounding the demise of the county courthouse downtown.
The city of Ukiah hopes a new courthouse will spur commercial and retail development along that section of Perkins Street but there is no longer a redevelopment agency to help finance any private development-related projects.
A plan to tear down the historic Palace Hotel located a half block north of the current courthouse, and rebuild a boutique hotel and retail complex on the site appears to be stalled after a state agency earlier this year rejected a bid by the Guidiville Rancheria and private developers to secure $6 million in special state funding to cover demolition costs.
At the county level, finances are shaky at best.
There has been talk that some scattered county offices could be consolidated in the old courthouse, saving lease and maintenance payments but the overriding question is how a financially strapped county could afford to bring the existing courthouse up to current building code and seismic safety standards.
Ick!
The new location is really not a good idea. Move all the country offices to the large property off the end of Orchard Ave. Everything could be there. Court House, jail, sheriff’s office, juvenile hall, probation, recorder, clerk and all the parking for visitors and jury members. And room for expansion for the next hundred years.
No solar panels? In Ukiah?