Nevada County Superior Court Judges Letter Regarding Courthouse Study

Expensive Justice Hill and Members of the Court docket Services Advisory Committee:

Heat greetings, once more, from the Judges of the Nevada County Superior Court docket. As promised, we’ve got the next ideas relating to the three proposed choices mentioned within the draft “New Nevada Metropolis Courthouse Planning Examine” by HOK (the “research”).

First and foremost, we’re terribly happy that the Judicial Council and the Court docket Services Advisory Committee (“Cf AC”) acknowledge the essential want for a brand new Nevada Metropolis courthouse. As you already know, the research notes that our present courthouse is “thought of unsafe, undersized, substandard, overcrowded and functionally poor.” We urge CFAC to take fast motion to decide on one of many three courthouse choices throughout its 17 June 2022 assembly. The residents of our county deserve a modernized courthouse as quickly as that’s moderately doable.

Second, in our judgment, the best state of affairs for our group can be Choice Two, building of a state-of-the-art courthouse on the present downtown web site. Our downtown courthouse has been a historic, civic, cultural and financial centerpiece for Nevada County for over one-hundred and fifty years. Choice Two permits the court docket to have a extremely useful courthouse that meets all of the court docket’s area must serve the general public. Choice Two considerably improves security and safety for the courthouse in addition to accessibility for courthouse patrons. Choice Two permits the court docket to remain conveniently proximate to quite a few essential courthouse contributors (together with the District Lawyer, the Public Defender, the Probation Workplace and personal counsel) whose workplaces (and scores of staff) are situated within the core of Nevada Metropolis.

Moreover, possibility Two promotes the “area people targets” of sustaining a vibrant downtown Nevada Metropolis.

As well as, and of nice significance, we’ve got grave reservations about relegating this distinguished, public edifice on the coronary heart of our county seat to dormancy and potential decay for years to return. There’s a foreseeable danger that an empty, downtown courthouse might change into a blight for your entire group, with important long-term and adversarial penalties for Nevada Metropolis and Nevada County. We be aware, with concern, that there are presently two distinguished industrial/authorities buildings in or instantly proximate to the county seat (the Alpha Constructing and the Nevada County Well being, Schooling and Welfare buildings) which have been vacant and/or deserted for years. The continued existence of a downtown courthouse, in our view, is essential to make sure the sustained and long-term vitality of our county seat.

Third, we don’t suggest number of Choice One, renovation of the present courthouse. Merely put, any Choice One courthouse can be substandard and insufficient to satisfy the required wants of the group we serve. Because the research notes, the courthouse itself would have “unresolved useful points” and wouldn’t meet all the facility requirements ordinarily required for California courts. Furthermore, the positioning would have “inherent, unresolved safety, entry, and useful points.”

We acknowledge that CFAC should act as a steward for quite a few statewide capital tasks for the judiciary, together with ours, and that CFAC in the end should make its personal measured resolution of the suitable alternative given the totality of the related issues.

We respectfully want to underscore, once more, our ardent need that CFAC transfer ahead on one of many three choices throughout its June assembly; the time is now ripe for this important modernization of our Nevada Metropolis courthouse. Thanks for contemplating our solutions and for all the work you carry out for the good thing about our court docket, in addition to the judicial department as an entire.