LAKEPORT – On Tuesday the state Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) released a list of three sites being considered for a new courthouse in Lakeport.

The potential locations currently being considered for the 50,000-square-foot, $71.7 million project include Martin Street near Bevins; 675 Lakeport Blvd., adjacent to the Visitor’s Center; and a portion of the Vista Point Shopping Center, also on Lakeport Boulevard.

“The site selection process is proceeding nicely, and we are very pleased with both the progress made and the collaboration between the AOC, our court working group, and our Project Advisory Group,” said Judge Richard Martin, presiding judge of the Superior Court of Lake County.

The three potential sites came out of an extensive site selection process conducted by the AOC, which manages the project, and the court.

Following the Judicial Council’s standard site selection policy, the AOC worked with the court to customize a set of objective criteria that will be used to evaluate potential sites.

These criteria were then validated by the Project Advisory Group, which represents the community and provides advisory input to the AOC and the court.

The new Lakeport Courthouse Project Advisory Group included Mark Brannigan, Lakeport Community Development & Utilities Director; community member Bill Brunetti; Kevin Burke, interim city manager and police chief, city of Lakeport; Lake County Public Services Director Kim Clymire; Lake County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox; District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington; Lake County Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Melissa Fulton; District Attorney Jon Hopkins; Lakeport Redevelopment Director Richard Knoll; Chief Bailiff Chris Macedo, of the Lake County Sheriff's Office; Judge Richard Martin; Sheriff Rodney Mitchell; Anne Ording, project manager, Administrative Office of the Courts, Office of Court Construction and Management; Rona Rothenberg, FAIA, senior manager, Administrative Office of the Courts, Office of Court Construction and Management; and Lake County Superior Court Executive Officer Mary E. Smith.

The project team ultimately considered 36 potential sites before narrowing the list down to the three short-listed sites, also endorsed by the Project Advisory Group.

The three most likely sites will be scored and ranked against the criteria in order to make the selection process as objective and thorough as possible.

Officials said it is important to note that the site selection process is still in its early stages, and it is possible that any or all of the current sites under consideration may not work out for any of a variety of reasons.

Should that occur, the project team may revisit other potential sites considered earlier in the process or new sites entirely.

Once a preferred site, and one or more alternate sites are selected and approved by the State Public Works Board, the project team will conduct an environmental assessment under the California Environmental Quality Act before acquiring a site.

Site selection and acquisition typically take between one and two years depending on the complexity of the required environmental assessments, but the project team will accelerate the schedule if possible.

The proposed project will house four courtrooms in approximately 50,000 square feet. It will replace the court's space on the fourth floor of the Lakeport Courthouse. This shared-use building, constructed in 1968, is very overcrowded and has significant security problems, severe accessibility deficiencies, and many physical problems, preventing the court from providing safe and efficient court services to the public.

The new courthouse project, with an estimated total cost of $71.7 million, was ranked as an “Immediate Need” in the judicial branch’s capital-outlay plan and is among the judicial branch’s highest-priority infrastructure projects.

It is among the first of 41 projects to be funded by Senate Bill 1407, which finances critically needed courthouse construction, renovation, and repair through a portion of judicial branch fees, fines, and penalties.

This fiscal year, the project was appropriated $2.6 million for site acquisition and preliminary plans. The AOC also recently announced selection of Santa Rosa-based TLCD Architecture and national firm Shepley Bulfinch to design the new Lakeport courthouse.

More information about the project is at: www.courtinfo.ca.gov/programs/occm/projects_lake_lakeport.htm .

The Judicial Council’s Site Selection and Acquisition Policy for Judicial Branch Facilities is at:

www.courtinfo.ca.gov/programs/occm/documents/site_selection_acquisition_policy.pdf .