LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Nearly a decade after it originally was supposed to be built, the project to construct the new Lakeport courthouse finally appears to be ready to get underway.
The courthouse project is scheduled to begin the “design-build phase” in November, said Blaine Corren, Judicial Council of California spokesperson.
Corren said that phase, which includes construction, is expected to be completed in May 2026. Completion previously had been anticipated in February 2026.
The 45,300 square foot courthouse will be built at 675 Lakeport Blvd., next to the visitor center.
The building will have a main entry floor where four courtrooms and offices will be located, as well as a lobby and waiting area, and a lower floor, or a basement, where the clerk's office, administration, self-help office, jury assembly area and building support will be located.
There also will be secure parking for judges and staff, 100 public parking spaces and solar power generation capability.
It will replace the Lakeport Division Courthouse, the 15,332 square foot space on the fourth floor of the current courthouse at 255 N. Forbes St., along with a leased records facility.
The architect is Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners, with AECOM selected as the construction management agency. The design-build entity selection process is underway, the Judicial Council reported.
The Judicial Council’s Facilities Service office explained that the design-build phase starts when the design build entity — the architect, engineers and contractor team — is selected and provided with a notice to proceed. They first design then obtain permits before building the project.
This design-build phase ends with the completion of construction, the agency reported.
The project’s price tag is approximately $73,134,000, surpassing original construction cost estimates.
“It’s gonna happen,” Lake County Superior Court Judge Michael Lunas told Lake County News.
“It’s reality at this point. We’re past all the ifs and maybes,” he said.
The project has faced many ifs and maybes over the last 14 years.
In July 2008, the state Administrative Office of the Courts submitted 18 trial court funding projects to the state's Department of Finance, with Lakeport’s courthouse included as an immediate need facility because of its crowded conditions and safety issues.
The Judicial Council purchased the building site for a new courthouse in 2011 and it had appeared ready to go forward, with the state at that point anticipating construction would begin in spring 2013 and be completed in late 2014.
Throughout that time, Judge Richard Martin had championed the effort to get the courthouse built, working through endless meetings and a process to select the site.
“We were ready to go,” Martin told Lake County News in an interview this month.
However, the state’s budget crisis that was triggered by the Great Recession, and several years of funding and budget shortfalls, led to the project being placed on hold.
In an August 2019 feature titled “California Courthouse Construction, Explained,” published on the Judicial Council’s website, Corren explained, “The state’s fiscal crisis caused many construction projects to be cancelled or delayed. Beginning in 2008, more than $1.4 billion in court user fines and fees originally designated by the Legislature for court construction were borrowed, transferred to the state’s General Fund, or redirected to help fund court operations.”
“We were standing there with nothing to do for years,” Martin said.
However, the project did finally get back on track several years later.
In late 2019, the Judicial Council approved an updated courthouse priority project list that put Lakeport’s courthouse at No. 1 out of 80 projects statewide.
Ahead of that decision, Lunas — then presiding judge — and Lake County Superior Court Executive Officer Krista LeVier sent a letter to the Judicial Council supporting the methodology used for that list and saying that it should be the basis of funding decisions.
In the No. 2 spot on that priority list is a new Ukiah courthouse in Mendocino County, with a new $15 million one-room courthouse in Clearlake at the No. 6 spot. All of those projects were included in the “immediate need” category.
The original price tag for Lakeport’s courthouse was $70.8 million. When the updated courthouse priority list was issued in 2019, the estimated cost for Lakeport’s slimmed down project was $51.2 million. Since then, construction costs have risen rapidly, with the estimated cost increasing by more than $22 million for a total cost of more than $73.1 million.
Martin, who retired in 2017, said he put everything he had into the effort and was bothered by how it was put on hold.
However, he said it’s good news that it’s getting started now.
For more information about the process and to see the current project diagrams, visit the Lakeport Courthouse page on the Judicial Council’s website.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Process to build new Lakeport courthouse set to get underway in November
- Elizabeth Larson