Stanislaus Court seeks public input on new Modesto courthouse

Stanislaus Superior Court officials have released the second in a series of online surveys seeking the public’s input on how to design the new $267 million courthouse in downtown Modesto.

The latest survey focuses on questions about jury duty, including accommodations for jurors and how jurors travel to the courthouse.

The courthouse is planned for a city block bounded by H and G streets and Ninth and 10th streets. The state’s latest timeline calls for construction of the roughly 300,000-square-foot facility to start in June 2018 and end in May 2021.

A public outreach meeting on plans for the new courthouse is scheduled from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors Chamber, 1010 10th St., Basement Level, in downtown Modesto.

The meeting will offer the public an update on the project’s progress and an opportunity for residents to provide comments to the project team. A summary of preliminary results from online surveys will be shared at the meeting, and the architects will give an update on the project’s design vision, goals and positioning.

Court officials anticipate posting a new online survey each month over the next five or six months, depending on the responsiveness from the public.

The information gathered from the public surveys will be given to the architect, who will incorporate the information into the design of the new building as much as possible. Court officials say they want to create a user-friendly building.

Online links to the surveys will be posted on the court’s website stanct.org, and the second survey is available now.

Executive Officer Rebecca Fleming has said the new courthouse will provide roughly twice as much space as the current downtown Modesto courthouse.

The new building will house all of the court’s operations, including civil court, which is currently housed in the nearby Merrill Lynch building, the traffic division on Floyd Avenue and the Turlock court that reopened last month and handles small claims and unlawful detainer cases.

Court officials also are considering ways to increase the public’s access by making more services available on its website as well as setting up kiosks throughout the county.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 4:49 PM with the headline "Stanislaus Court seeks public input on new Modesto courthouse."