Monterey County, New Fort Ord Courthouse

Monterey County, New Fort Ord Courthouse

The Superior Court of California, County of Monterey - New Fort Ord Courthouse project provides a new 7 courtroom courthouse of approximately 83,000 square feet in the Fort Ord area. It includes secured parking for judicial officers and approximately 280 surface parking spaces for jurors and the public, with solar power generation capability. The project will require acquisition of a site of approximately 3.4 acres. It will replace the existing the Monterey Courthouse and consolidate calendars/operations from the Marina and Salinas courthouses. The project will use the Design-build delivery method.

Gross Square Footage: 83,201
Total Courtrooms: 7
Current Authorized Project Budget: $174,684,000
Criteria Architect: Dreyfuss + Blackford Architecture
Design-Build Entity: TBD
Construction Management Agency: TBD
Fund: General Fund

Monterey County is served by multiple court facilities located throughout the county, with the court assigning cases to facilities based on case type. The Salinas Courthouse functions as the main courthouse and houses the court’s administration and jury commissioner office and handles criminal, prison, mental health, drug, and juvenile dependency/truancy cases. The Juvenile Justice Court, also in Salinas, handles juvenile delinquency cases. The Monterey Courthouse handles civil, domestic violence/harassment (restraining orders), family law, family support, and probate cases. The Marina Courthouse handles traffic, juvenile traffic, child support, and small claims. The King City Courthouse handles traffic cases.

The New Fort Ord Courthouse will replace the 5-courtroom Monterey Courthouse and consolidate 1 court department from the Marina Courthouse and 1 court calendar from the Salinas Courthouse. The Monterey Courthouse is overcrowded with more judicial officers than courtrooms. The lack of courtroom space limits the court’s scheduling options and results in operational inefficiencies and delayed access to justice. The building has many deficiencies, its systems are aging, and its seismic safety rating is in the very high-risk category. The project will relieve the current space shortfall, improve security, accessibility, and safety, and allow the court to collocate functions for operational efficiency.

The New Fort Ord Courthouse will accomplish the following immediately needed improvements to the superior court and enhance its ability to serve the public:

• Enhance the public’s access to justice by consolidating family law and civil operations and juvenile dependency calendar in one location, relieving the current space shortfall, increasing security, and replacing inadequate and obsolete facilities.
• Provide a safe and efficient branch courthouse that will provide service countywide and become the second largest and busiest court facility.
• Provide a new courthouse that is compliant with regulatory safety, seismic, accessibility codes, and Judicial Council space standards.
• Relocate seven court departments from existing unsafe, substandard, and overcrowded facilities.
• Improve operational efficiencies by consolidating case types.
• Replace the Monterey Courthouse, which is rated as a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) P-154 Very-High-Risk, seismically deficient building.
• Avoid over $7 million in future deferred maintenance expenditures.
• Optimize use of existing court facilities including:
  • Repurposing space in the Salinas Courthouse vacated by juvenile dependency (moved to the new courthouse) for consolidating annex offices and self-help services.
  • Repurposing space in the Marina Courthouse vacated by child support (moved to the new courthouse) for consolidating juvenile delinquency calendar/operations.
• Vacate 3 non-state-owned facilities: terminating 2 county joint occupancy agreements and 1 private entity lease.

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.

This project is currently in the Acquisition phase.

Construction is estimated to begin in December 2025 and complete in April 2028.

Images pending development of project design.

Pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”), the Judicial Council of California is required to analyze the potential environmental impacts of each of its proposed projects. California’s environmental review process under CEQA provides an opportunity for interested parties, government agencies, California Native American Tribes, environmental non-governmental organizations, and members of the public to participate in the CEQA process.

CEQA documents for this project are available via the links below.

• Scoping Meeting Presentation, September 7, 2022
• Notice of Preparation of a Draft EIR
• Notice of Availability of a Draft EIR
• New Fort Ord Courthouse Draft Environmental Impact Report, April 6, 2023
• New Fort Ord Courthouse Final Environmental Impact Report, August 2023

During the public review period for the Draft Environmental Impact Report, the Judicial Council will conduct a public meeting on Tuesday May 02, 2023, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the following location:

Seaside Community Center, Soper Field
220 Coe Avenue
Seaside, CA 93955