New Stanislaus courthouse gets go-ahead to continue design development phase

Stanislaus Superior Court officials received good news Thursday in San Francisco: They can continue through the design development phase of the planned $262 million courthouse in downtown Modesto.

“We are pleased to be moving our project forward,” Judge Jack Jacobson, Stanislaus Superior Court’s facility chairman, said in an email while returning from a meeting with the Judicial Council of California’s courthouse cost reduction subcommittee. “The committee recognized the hard work done by the entire team for the people of Stanislaus County with a unanimous vote of approval describing this project as a model for future courthouse projects.”

The council is the policymaking board for the state’s courts.

The meeting allayed fears that the committee would demand as much as $4 million in upgrades without adding funding to the project. Stanislaus Superior Court Executive Officer Rebecca Fleming said that could have forced local officials to downsize the planned eight-story, roughly 308,000-square-foot facility, which will have 27 courtrooms.

Instead, the committee suggested some relatively minor changes that shouldn’t send architects back to the drawing table to make any drastic and costly revisions.

In July, the Judicial Council’s court facilities advisory committee announced that the funding for future courthouse construction across the state is in dire shape, in part because the state took about $1.4 billion during its budget crisis, which it has not repaid, and because revenue from court fees and fines that pay for new courthouses has fallen sharply.

The council in August announced that the courthouse projects would complete their current phase and then stop as the council and the courthouses worked on securing funding.

Judicial Council spokesman Blaine Corren said the council has requested additional funding from the Department of Finance and is waiting to see whether its request is included in Gov. Jerry Brown’s preliminary state budget, which will be released in January. He said it also has briefed officials with courthouse projects so they can advocate for funding with their local legislators.

The design development phase for the Modesto courthouse is expected to be completed by early July. The next step will be the working drawings. Construction could start in 2018, with the courthouse opening in 2021. But the phases beyond design development are based on the project securing the funding.

Fleming said the court will send out a letter to supporters to update them on the courthouse project’s status. She said another letter will go out in 2017 as the project gets closer to its next phase to garner support for that phase, including securing funding.

The new courthouse would replace the crowded, out-of-date downtown courthouse and let the court consolidate all of its operations into one facility. City officials also see the new courthouse as an important piece in the downtown’s revival.

This story was originally published December 2, 2016 at 4:46 PM with the headline "New Stanislaus courthouse gets go-ahead to continue design development phase."