NEVADA CITY, Calif. January 24, 2024 – The Judicial Council of California is holding a public information meeting January 24 on the new Nevada City courthouse construction project.
The meeting will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Nevada City Courthouse, Department 6, 201 Church St.
It will also be streamed online (Webinar ID: 160 070 1815) and can be heard by phone at 669-254-5252 or 669-216-1590.
Pella McCormick, director of the Judicial Council’s Facilities Services office, will provide information on the new courthouse project, including the project background, site selection and next steps.
The new courthouse construction project will provide a new six-courtroom courthouse of approximately 77,000 square feet in Nevada City. The project will require acquisition of a site of approximately five acres, which will include space for secured parking for judicial officers and surface parking for the public.
More information about the project is available here.
Project information
The Superior Court of California, County of Nevada – New Nevada City Courthouse project provides a new 6-courtroom courthouse of approximately 77,000 square feet in the city of Nevada City. It includes secured parking for judicial officers and surface parking spaces. The project will require acquisition of a site of approximately 5 acres. It will replace/consolidate the court’s operations and courtrooms currently in the existing Nevada City Courthouse and Courthouse Annex buildings. The project will use the Design-build delivery method.
Gross Square Footage: 77,250
Total Courtrooms: 6
Current Authorized Project Budget: $178,418,000
Criteria Architect: HOK
Design-Build Entity: TBD
Construction Management Agency: TBD
Fund: General Fund
Background
The Superior Court of Nevada County occupies three buildings in two cities in Nevada County. The court uses a mixed service model with court facilities located in Nevada City and Truckee. In Nevada City, the Nevada City Courthouse and Courthouse Annex serve as the primary court location for court filings and all case types. The one branch court facility, the Truckee Courthouse, is located at the Joseph Government Center in the town of Truckee and serves the eastern portion of the county with all case types except for probate and juvenile dependency. Main administrative functions are housed in Nevada City, the county seat. Nevada County is geologically bisected by the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which presents challenges for access to court services during winter months.
The new courthouse project will replace and consolidate the court’s operations and courtrooms currently in the existing county-owned Nevada City Courthouse and Courthouse Annex buildings. The existing Nevada City Courthouse was constructed in 1864 and remodeled and expanded in 1900 and 1937. In 1964, the Courthouse Annex building was constructed and connected to the courthouse building. Both buildings are inadequate for public service and for the operational needs of the court. The court’s current space is unsafe, undersized, substandard, overcrowded, and functionally deficient. Square footage constraints have resulted in many deficiencies including a lack of an entrance lobby, insufficient space for security screening and jury assembly and deliberation, overcrowding of public and staff areas, and no separate paths of circulation for in-custody defendants from the public, jurors, and judges and staff. These deficiencies pose a safety and security risk to all facility users. The project will relieve the current space shortfall, improve security, accessibility, and safety, and allow the court to co-locate functions for operational efficiency.
For this project, acquisition will be required of site of approximately 5 acres in the city of Nevada City.
The New Nevada City Courthouse will accomplish the following immediately needed improvements to the superior court and enhance its ability to serve the public:
- Provide accessible, safe, efficient, and modernized courthouse to serve all county residents.
- Enhance the public’s access to justice by relieving the current space shortfall, increasing security, improving operational efficiency and customer service, and replacing inadequate and obsolete court space in Nevada County.
- Provide court operations in a facility with adequate space for greater functionality than in current conditions, including:
- Safe and secure internal circulation that maintains separate zones for the public, judicial officers/staff, and in-custody defendants.
- Secure, dedicated in-custody sally port to the courthouse and secure in-custody holding facilities adequate in number
- Adequate visitor security screening and queuing in the entrance area.
- Adequate spaces for jury deliberation and jury assembly with capacity for typical jury pools.
- Adequately sized public waiting areas.
- Adequate space for self-help area.
- Has attorney-client interview rooms.
- Has ADA accessible spaces.
- Has infrastructure to accommodate modern technology, particularly in the courtrooms.
- Facility with dependable physical infrastructure.
- Improve public safety by replacing court spaces in facilities in poor condition with aging systems and that are not in compliance with contemporary fire and life safety and ADA codes.
- Remove the existing Nevada City Courthouse (Very High Risk) and Courthouse Annex (Moderate Risk) from court service, which are rated as Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) P-154 seismically deficient buildings.
- Enhance the public’s access to justice by consolidating court operations into a single building and providing adequate onsite parking for jurors, visitors, and court users.
- Avoid substantial deferred maintenance and security system refresh expenditures.
This project is in the Immediate Need priority group and consequently is one of the highest priority trial court capital-outlay projects for the judicial branch.
Schedule
This project is currently in the Acquisition phase.
The Performance Criteria phase is estimated to begin in September 2026 and complete in December 2027.
The Design-Build phase—including Construction—is estimated to begin in December 2027 and complete in September 2031.