The site at 675 Lakeport Blvd. In Lakeport, Calif., where a new courthouse is proposed to be built beginning in 2012. Photo by Elizabeth Larson.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – State court officials hosted a meeting Wednesday evening to discuss the preliminary environmental document for Lakeport's proposed new courthouse.
About a dozen people – mostly state and county court staff, planners and architects, along with city officials and a few community members – gathered in the board chambers at the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport.
Laura Sainz of the state Administrative Office of the Courts, led the meeting.
Sainz is the project manager for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) aspect of the effort, and is in charge of accepting public comments, which are due by Sept. 22.
“Really what we want to do is inform the public about our proposed project,” she said.
The new 51,000-square-foot building – with a basement parking area and two stories – is proposed to be located at 675 Lakeport Blvd., she said.
The state did a study of all 532 court facilities and identified those of “immediate and critical need,” said Sainz.
“Lakeport happens to be one of them,” she said.
Currently, four courtrooms, judges chambers, and the court clerk's and jury commissioner's offices are located on the fourth floor of the Lakeport courthouse on N. Forbes Street, built in the late 1960s. A separate south county courthouse is located in Clearlake.
Sainz said the Lakeport facility lacks appropriate security and doesn't have a holding facility for prisoners.
“Things are pretty overcrowded here,” she said, with prisoners, attorneys and jurors all crowded together.
A project advisory group was appointed for the courthouse project. Sainz said the group – which included court staff, county and city leaders, and community members – came up with project objectives, including the need for a safe courthouse with four courtrooms, and increased court operational efficiency.
In addition to the fourth-floor court facility, there also is an off-site storage annex and a self-help center. Sainz said the goal is to locate all of those facilities at the new courthouse.
The new courthouse also would have other amenities that the current facility lacks, she said.
Those would include a jury assembly room, age-appropriate waiting areas for child victims and witnesses, secure holding areas for prisoners – who currently have to be marched through the hallways while handcuffed – and counters for court staff that are oriented for faster and more efficient service.
The building will be designed to have lower operating, maintenance and utilities costs, and would be paid for through the auspices of SB 1407, passed by the state Legislature in 2008. Sainz said the legislation increased court fees for both civil and criminal cases in order to pay for the new courthouse construction projects across the state.
The Wednesday meeting's main goal was to go over the draft initial study and mitigated negative declaration, Sainz said.
The project initial study covers several issues, including aesthetics, air quality, biology and cultural resources, geology and soils, she said.
Sainz touched on the major points of those concerns, including air quality and the dust and exhaust emissions that would be produced during construction, noise from construction and cultural resources.
She said cultural resources are listed as a potential impact on all of the state's courthouse projects. “We just want to make sure we have the proposed mitigations identified ahead of time.”
The area's biological resources include serpentine soils and special status plant species – Colusa layia, serpentine cryptantha, bent-flowered fiddleneck and Tracy's clarkia.
To mitigate the impacts, Sainz said they can do preservation off site, contribute to mitigation banks or support other sites where the plants are found. The Administrative Office of the Courts will work with the California Department of Fish and Game on the biological issues.
There also are potential impacts for nesting birds, which Sainz said can be dealt with by doing construction between Aug. 1 and Feb. 28.
Regarding transportation concerns, a traffic analysis revealed that the location is a tricky site in terms of access, with potential impact on four intersections – the northbound and southbound ramps on Highway 29 and Lakeport Boulevard, and the Bevins and Main Street intersections with Lakeport Boulevard, she said.
Sainz said the state is looking at mitigation options including contributing to traffic signals for those areas.
There also are issues with line of sight, ensuring public transportation goes to the location and making the site more accessible for pedestrians.
Sainz said the initial study and mitigated negative declaration are expected to be adopted later this year, with the parcel acquisition to follow early next year. An architectural team will produce drawings in 2012 and construction should start the same year. The new courthouse would open in 2014.
Andrew Britton, planning manager for the city of Lakeport, said city staff has reviewed the plan and is concerned about the lack of a hydrology study.
There's a significant lack of city stormwater infrastructure at the site, and lack of study on the issue “is a significant omission in our opinion,” he said.
Sainz said that the state will have to acquire the site before doing more detailed design work, including studying how to deal with stormwater.
Richard Knoll, Lakeport's community development and redevelopment director, said city staff has spent a few weeks going over the document. “One of the concerns is that we're dealing with a project description and a proposed project that is really quite vague.”
He said they don't know the building's precise footprint and where it will be located on the site. Conceptual plans released earlier this year aren't referenced in the initial study.
The 51,000-square-foot building may not be considered a major project in a larger area, but Knoll added, “in a community of 5,200 people, it's a significant project, it's a big deal.”
He said he believes the initial study downplays many significant impacts. The city plans to submit a 13-page response that will cover a handful of issues they want more closely considered.
The city also is considering amending its general plan to require a road right-of-way through the site, and may be asking the state to participate in building a nearby roundabout, Knoll said.
Sainz said that the Administrative Office of the Courts' perspective is that Lakeport is “the dream community to be working with” because it's looking ahead, and she said they will respond to the comments and partner with the community.
Terri Persons of the Lake County/City Area Planning Council said she had similar concerns as those Knoll raised, and said it also was important to look at the modes of travel people use to get to the new courthouse facility. She said there will be a lot of pedestrian traffic from the courthouse across the freeway to the fast food restaurants.
To view the draft initial study and mitigated negative declaration, visit http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/programs/occm/projects_lake_lakeport.htm, where the PDF of the 119-page document can be downloaded.
Sainz said the best way to submit comments is by e-mail, and can be directed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Comments are due by 5 p.m. Sept. 22.
Comments also may be submitted to Sainz's attention at Administrative Office of the Courts Office of Court Construction and Management, 2860 Gateway Oaks, Suite 400, Sacramento, CA 95833, telephone 916-263-7992.
A list of frequently asked questions about the courthouse project can be found at http://www.lake.courts.ca.gov/.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .
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