UKIIAH >> A $144 million new Mendocino County Courthouse in Ukiah is rising alongside railroad tracks crossing East Perkins Street, the main corridor linking the commercial core of Ukiah to Highway 101.
A formal dedication Wednesday will mark the beginning of work on the biggest civic project in the county’s history. At high noon, city, county and state officials will gather at the historic Ukiah Train Depot to witness what has taken 20 years to become a reality.
It will take two years for construction crews to complete a public project that is expected to pump millions of dollars into the surrounding community and in effect, expand the commercial core of Ukiah with promises of new retail developments and infrastructure improvements.
“There’s no doubt that we are at a point in time where the decisions we make today will shape the future of our downtown,” said Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley.
The scale of the new courthouse dwarfs other private and public improvements, locally. The state funded project has been 20 years in the making.
The new courthouse will meet national standards for ‘green’ public buildings. It will replace a 1950s-era county-owned
which is out of compliance with safety, codes and deemed by federal officials as a high-risk building because of seismic concerns.
The Judicial Council of California, after years of delays, ranked the new Mendocino County Courthouse as an “immediate need.” façade of the new courthouse, which local critics describe as resembling a “barcode.”
State and local court representatives, however, believe that the perspective will change when the building is completed and surrounded by trees and native landscaping.
Superior Court Executive Kim Turner said the new courthouse will provide a fresh, invigorating look.
“It is a building that will help define Ukiah’s future,” said Turner.
The new three-story courthouse covers 81,169 square feet and provides seven courtrooms, court-related offices, a jury assembly room, attorney/client meeting areas, and separate and secure hallways for in-custody defendants. Adjoining property to the east is owned by the state’s Great Redwood Trail Agency.
The largest unresolved issue is the lack of space for the county District Attorney or Public Defender, two county offices whose daily functions are intertwined with the court system. The DA’s Office is currently located on the bottom floor of the existing courthouse. The Public Defender’s Office is currently located on School Street a block south of the existing courthouse.
The two county offices eventually may be relocated closer to the new courthouse if private developers step up to provide space or an existing county-owned building at Perkins and State Street.
What happens to the current courthouse when the courts relocate in 2027 is also an unresolved issue.
The county of Mendocino owns the building and site, but with an estimated $9 million in costs, bringing the near 75-year-old structure into compliance with current seismic safety and accessibility standards raises questions for local taxpayers.
Deputy City Manager Riley said, “There are a lot of pieces to put together, but it is a serious possibility.”
“For all the reasons that the (current) courthouse was deemed needing replacement and cost prohibitive to repair, it is unlikely that the county will continue it as a workplace,” said Riley.
Riley said she envisions a new Thomas Plaza occupying the historic heart of downtown where the courthouse now stands, with the current city-owned plaza site being developed for commercial purposes, adding an anchor at the southern end of the downtown core.
Plans to stabilize and clean up the landmark Palace Hotel, which recently garnered attention from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, were pending
Page & Turnbull, a San Francisco architectural firm specializing in historic preservation, prepared preliminary plans for such a project at the Palace before the then owner Jitu Ishwar scuttled a deal with local investor Minal Shankar.
Riley agrees it is too early to make pronouncements about ideas still on the drawing board, but “the possibilities are there. The next few years are going to be exciting times.”
Commercial realtor Todd Schapmire agrees downtown and the Perkins Street corridor seem poised for a new level of activity after years of languishing.
“I feel things are better than they were a few years ago when Perkins was a pretty drab entry into downtown Ukiah,” said Schapmire. Homeless issues remain, he said, “but even that seems a bit better.”
The city is investing millions of dollars in public grant money into infrastructure improvements in the downtown area, including a completed streetscape project and replacing of water and sewer lines and repaving deteriorating streets.
Even so, the scale of the new courthouse project and its cost dwarfs everything else.
The courthouse is a massive public undertaking utilizing a design/build program that gives the state complete control over what the community will live with for decades to come.
Whatever residents feel about the design or location, the new Mendocino County Courthouse promises to reshape the face of Ukiah from the downtown to the freeway a half mile away.
Deputy City Manager Riley said, while the new courthouse is a state project, city and county representatives have been “at the table for nearly two decades.”
“We recognize the importance of this civic anchor in the downtown, and we have expanded significant resources to help ensure that not only it remains downtown but that it is appropriately coordinated with our existing streets and infrastructure,” said Riley.
Perkins Street’s appearance will be improved and drainage issues that have long plagued the thoroughfare will be corrected.
Riley said new commercial development along the Perkins Street corridor are going to see major changes in the next 3 to 5 years she predicted.
Riley ticked off changes already under way, or will begin soon:
Ukiah’s loss of its redevelopment funding has hampered city development efforts since 2012, when state lawmakers ended local redevelopment agencies and their ability to hold back tax revenue from the state.
With the end of redevelopment agencies, Riley said the city’s “lane is more or less reduced to infrastructure.”
Still, that is positive, said Riley, in creating an environment that appeals to developers and investors.
“We are setting the table,” said Riley.
