MORGAN HILL
– Reservations were voiced loud and clear at Thursday night’s
public workshop on the county courthouse proposed for the downtown
area.
MORGAN HILL – Reservations were voiced loud and clear at Thursday night’s public workshop on the county courthouse proposed for the downtown area. Neighbors of the Creekside area, east of Butterfield and near El Toro School remained unconvinced that the center will not irretrievably change the neighborhood – for the worse.
The City Council voiced some reservations at a workshop earlier in the day but liked the building’s look better than at the design’s previous outings.
On Wednesday, the council will review the draft environmental impact report) on the Santa Clara County Justice Center project and take more public comment.
The neighbors denied that the center would enhance the area or reflect Morgan Hill’s current architecture.
“This building looks like it belongs at First and Hedding,” said resident and courthouse neighbor Andy Walton, referring to the county building in downtown San Jose.
“This building will change the feel of our downtown,” said Nancy Domnauer, another neighbor.
Many nearby residents have opposed the courthouse since its location was announced.
Project Manager Alicia Flynn introduced architects Chuck Drulis and Mallory Cusenbery, who went head to head with the neighbors concerned also with drainage, parking and the center’s security. Drulis asked for photos the neighbors brought showing the site flooded from the December rains.
“Will prisoners be released at the courthouse?” asked neighbor Jacqueline Cortis.
Both Flynn and Judge Kenneth Shapero, a Morgan Hill resident who would hold court in the new building, assured her that prisoners are only released from the downtown (San Jose) jail and never from the courthouse.
“They are transported back to the jail in San Jose or Milpitas,” Shapero said, “for processing and paperwork.”
Flynn also reassured the neighbors that prisoners will arrive in the morning in a jail bus that will enter a secure, enclosed “sally port” between the two buildings. Prisoners would be unloaded underground.
The 80,000-square-foot, $40 million, two-building center is planned for Butterfield Boulevard and West Diana Avenue on a site next to the railroad tracks and south of the Caltrain park and ride lot. A smaller one-story building on the north would house district attorney, probation and public defender offices.
Six courtrooms, a holding facility for prisoners, jury rooms and related offices would occupy a 35-foot high building on the south side.
The center is designed with two separate buildings because the state plans to take over the court system by 2007 and, Carruth said, an already-divided center would ease the transition.
The City of Morgan Hill agreed to contribute $7 million of its Redevelopment Agency funds to the courthouse project in return for the county not challenging, legally, the extension of the city’s RDA. The county is abandoning the San Martin courthouse because it has outgrown the site and the existing building is so riddled with mold inside and out that it had to be closed.
Another workshop on the courthouse design has been set for Wednesday, April 9. If the present schedule is followed, the justice center will be occupied by December 2005.
