The state could reconsider renovating the existing Figueroa Street courthouse instead of building a new Santa Barbara Criminal Courthouse as part of an elaborate cost-cutting plan for the many projects funded by Senate Bill 1407, the Judicial Council of California decided Tuesday.
“The whole goal of all this of course is cost reduction, so they’re looking at how we can accomplish the goal of this project significantly less expensively,” spokeswoman Teresa Ruano said.
The current plan calls for a 97,266-square-foot courthouse with around a $152 million price tag, though the Judicial Council cut every project’s budget by 4 percent in December and canceled two smaller projects in Alpine and Sierra counties outright.
Senate Bill 1407 authorized up to $5 billion in funding new and renovated courthouses, but more than $1.1 billion of that has been taken into the state’s General Fund or redirected to court operations, so all projects have to cut costs, according to the Judicial Council.
The Santa Barbara project’s start date has already been delayed to spring 2015, and it’s unclear if the reassessment will push that further back, Superior Court Executive Officer Gary Blair said.
Blair said he doubts the project’s plan would change significantly even after being re-evaluated, since the 1954 building is not only undersized for today’s demand but lacks separate hallways for inmates to be moved between courtrooms.
The Administrative Offices of the Courts considered renovating the existing courthouse but found that a renovation and addition “would not provide adequate courtroom layouts or adequate security.”
Construction would disrupt court operations, take longer to construct, and relocating the six courtrooms and holding facility “would cost as much or more than constructing a new courthouse,” the AOC wrote. As Blair said, “You can’t operate a bunch of courtrooms while knocking down the courtroom next to it.”
The Hayward Properties at 1025 Santa Barbara St., adjacent to the court’s back parking lot, were purchased for the project so the new building would be constructed around the existing one, which would eventually be demolished to make an entrance plaza.
Negotiations are ongoing to purchase a piece of county Probation Department land and another small parcel near the back of the courthouse’s parking lot.
Plans for the new building include eight criminal courtrooms, jury assembly and deliberation rooms, staff offices, holding cells for inmates on each floor, and essentially a full-blown jail on the basement level for inmates in custody, Blair said.
The new Criminal Courthouse would also have a self-help center, a children’s waiting room, attorney/client interview rooms, a 240-space parking structure, and an entrance screening of all court users, which has already been implemented in the existing building.
Right now, County Jail inmates are bussed over for court hearings and have to be transported through public hallways, elevators and even city streets to both the Figueroa and Anacapa division courtrooms since there aren’t separate hallways from the Figueroa courthouse’s holding area.
It’s not uncommon to see orange-clad men and women in shackles being led across the street by bailiffs as a tour bus unloads onto the sidewalk.
“We’re just fortunate we haven’t had any major security incidents,” Blair said.
Thirteen of the SB 1407 projects will be reassessed, which can include reducing square footage, renovating existing buildings instead of new construction, evaluating lease options and cutting construction costs, Ruano said. The other 24 projects will have their budgets cut 2 percent to 10 percent, on top of the 4 percent cut in December.
Scroll down to read the state’s Frequently Asked Questions regarding Santa Barbara’s Criminal Courthouse project.
— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
Santa Barbara New Courthouse FAQ