By Deb Murphy
The Judicial Council of California approved the selection of a parcel at the corner of Wye Road and U.S. Hwy. 6, identified as “the Joseph site” for the new Inyo County Courthouse at its Friday meeting in Sacramento.
The site faces one more hurdle: negotiations with the site’s owner which will also need approval by the State Public Works Board, according to Teresa Ruano, supervising communications specialist for the council. The facility will be built on one acre of the 5.47-acre parcel, just south of the Ford dealership.
The 21,000 square-foot structure will include a courtroom, hearing room, improved security features and space for a self-help center, jury assembly and deliberation rooms, clerk’s area, a children’s waiting room, family court mediation and attorney interview/witness waiting rooms. The total authorized project cost is $24,204,000.
County court facilities in Bishop City Hall and the Historic Independence Courthouse will “be vacated” according to the California Courts website. Court functions in Independence will eventually be moved to a “proposed new modular courthouse” adjacent to the County Jail south of town.
Since the passage of the Trial Court Facilities Act of 2002, responsibility for county courthouses moved from the counties to the State of California, specifically the Judicial Council. The list of issues connected with both current court facilites is long and renovation of facilities not owned by the State is not do-able. So, Indy gets a modular sometime after 2022, the tentative date for completion of the new facility.
As the center of the county’s population, Bishop was selected as the location of the new courthouse nearly four years ago with the focus on city-owned land behind City Hall and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power land at the corner of Spruce and MacIver streets. According to the JC’s staff analysis, both sites “were pursued but experienced difficulties in acquiring.” LADWP withdrew the MacIver site and the City of Bishop site experienced “barriers that would delay project timelines by up to two years.”
Cost breakdowns for the new courthouse include $696,000 for acquisition, $1,234,000 for preliminary drawings, $1,636,000 for working drawings and $19,885,000 for construction.
A Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment turned up underground storage tanks on adjoining and nearby properties, noting impacts on shallow groundwater. The council will do a Phase II assessment to determine “whether or not these recognized environmental conditions are an issue,” according to the staff analysis.
What about the Slugs that live close to Pearsonville, and Olancha. think about the increased Carbon Footprint they will leave, Southern Inyo gets screwed again.
Did you read the article? The court in Independence is staying
It’s a pretty awesome building. Someone suggested maybe it could be a museum. All joking aside, I think that is a great idea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inyo_County_Courthouse
The historic building is pretty much done as a public meeting place unless someone comes up with the money to bring it up to modern codes. Probably millions.
There will STILL be a court house in Independence and in Bishop and cases will still be heard in both locations. Jury duty will still be in Independence. The only change is the building. The Independence Court House is a county building and is filled with mostly county offices. The… Read more »
ooooh a modular….just like Pahrump! I’m sure the whole town will treasure that with the same community pride as the current Courthouse building in 100 years.
What town?
How about any of them in Inyo County?
Maybe Judge Lamb and Stout got tired of driving thru their speed trap every day!
If my calculations are correct, $24,000,000.00 ÷ by 22,000 sq. ft. Puts it at $1,100 sq.ft. give or take a couple bucks. The losers of this deal, the landowner and the boys who got to do the drawings. 696k he got ripped off. 1,294,000.00 for the pre-lim drawings and 1,600,000.00… Read more »
Leave to the State to pay to much per square foot. You can blame union lobbyist and corrupt politicians in Sac.
This will make affordable housing even more difficult to find than it already is.
This is embarrassing! It really is. How many millions I mean millions of Americans would love to drive 45 miles everyday from Bishop to Indy knowing they would never sit in traffic jams? They would tell you you are the luckiest commuter alive. A new divided highway that offers views… Read more »
High Water ;…..I agree 100 % with you on this one !!!!
Yawn, 90 mile round trip is great simply because the scenery is nice? You must be retired and have time to burn.
Yawn, says the spoiled inyo county employee.
You claim to know where I work- you just deflated your comment altogether.
Lol! Like, I really know where you work! We all know I don’t. relax I think most of us understood what I meant.
Your sensitivity to my “claim” makes me believe that I’m probably right.
Lol! It’s irrelevant either way. RELAX
“proposed new modular courthouse” adjacent to the County Jail south of town.”
Key word “proposed”. Politico speak for “will never happen”.
Let’s call this new courthouse the Bishop City Courthouse, not a new Inyo County Courthouse. Did anyone really think state bureaucrats were going to pick a site anywhere other than where the judges and lawyers reside? It’s called job security. If Independence can weather the full-out assault by the City… Read more »
The selection of the site had nothing to do with where the judges and lawyers live, but everything with where the majority of Inyo County’s population lives and where the majority of cases are originated; Poverty Hills to Mono County line.
Courthouse should be built in Big Pine the population center of the county, Wye road and Highway 6 are almost in Mono county nearly as bad of location as the Bishop Cerro Coso college site. Town center like old Kmart site would make more sense than Wye road the opposite… Read more »
If you attended any of the meetings regarding this you would know that the old kmart was the courts preferred alternative, kmart Corp refused to lease/sell it to the courts.
obviously then it is a desirable site so get it, the government has authority to take a site if they choose and the old Kmart would be one of the few locations it is appropriate! as mentioned by others the Wye road site is a sprawl development totally out of… Read more »
Private property take on behalf of government is very difficult and usually ends up in court costing significant amounts of taxpayers money to litigate. The location on Wye Road and US 6 is zoned for this type of facility- it’s commercial. Also this corner is served by the local bus… Read more »
I disagree, governments exercise their power of eminent domain quite often. Most don’t go to court.
So how much pull did you have I’m all of this?
“…as mentioned by others the Wye road site is a sprawl development totally out of place and contrary to most current planning! just adds to the bizarre lack of planning vision of the Bishop area highlighted by ugly Main St, poor parking options and the lack of intelligent design of… Read more »
What’s going to happen to the other two court houses we already have?
Re-read the article, it’s pretty clear what will happen.
What about the people in far southeastern Inyo County, Shoshone, Tecopa, Charleston View? It’s already a hardship just getting to Independence, now add another 80+ miles to their round-trip. This is ill advised, at best.
You must not have read the article, the court in independence will remain.
What if you live in Darwin and get called for Jury Duty, or need to go fight a traffic ticket you got from the Sheriff? As it is, you’d already have to drive about 55 miles from Darwin. Now that it will be in Bishop, its going to be close… Read more »
Build the court house in Darwin
But that won’t happen because the Courthouse in Independence is going to remain and stay open- did you read the article? ……”Court functions in Independence will eventually be moved to a “proposed new modular courthouse” adjacent to the County Jail south of town.”
I’m not sure I’d want anyone from Darwin on my jury! 🙂 🙂
Trouble ;…Actually Darwin isn’t what it “used” to be,if you know what I mean….kind of a laid-back “hippie-type” place now…..artists and the like..They are saying Keeler is the “new Darwin”….if you know what they mean when they say that….
Maybe we can turn one of our extra court house”s into a brothel ?Or a poker house?
It would be a great museum.
For starters, get the Library out of the basement . Time to start looking for a plan to utilize the building and some grant funding for the transition . How about a partnership with County Schools. The important concerns of the Southern Inyo regarding the decision of the Court location… Read more »
EXCELLENT NEWS!! It’s amazing how sensible the decisions are when NOT decided upon by locals! 70% of Inyo County’s population lives north of the Poverty Hills and 80% of the court cases in Inyo County are generated in the same location; yet the “reasonable” citizens of Inyo County think that… Read more »
Short sighted GREED for a county that can’t even haul out the trash. And for all the employees that will work in the new building same on you for killing the only true court house Inyo will ever have.
Shhh. Hear that ringing? It’s the death knell for Independence.
I’m from Bishop and I think this is all wrong. First: the location in Bishop specifically is wrong: it is a mixed light industrial and commercial area on the edge of town that is not suited for this type of development and the resulting development, activity, and traffic it will… Read more »
Thank you Chris. I mean, it addition to all other issues with moving the courthouse out of Indy (travel time for people from the far reaches of Inyo County, etc), why on earth is it being placed on the edge of town next to a truck stop? What a wasted… Read more »
Jim : With your post,it sounds kinda like one of those “me,me,me” things.What about the people called for jury duty in Lone Pine,Olancha,Cartago,and what about the little town of Independence,and the little bit of revenue the historic Courthouse brings that town ?…your post reminds me a lot of when people… Read more »
Its time to make ‘Bishop’ their own little county… Little do they know that much of their city is ‘Bishop’ and a city which has nothing to do with the county… the outlaying is County. Leave us alone… We have the highest and lowest in the continental US.. We have… Read more »
Did you read the article? …..”Court functions in Independence will eventually be moved to a “proposed new modular courthouse” adjacent to the County Jail south of town.”
There’s your answer.
That’s twelve million per judge, guess I should spell that with a capital?
So all of us tax payers will be paying, out of the general fund, to transport each inmate, for every court appearance to and from the Independence jail? Some of us wanted to put this up as a ballot measure to get the voters opinion but we were sued by… Read more »
It’s amazing how sensible the decisions are when NOT decided upon by locals! Even if it was put up to a vote the majority of Inyo County voters (~70% live north of the Poverty Hills) the decision WOULD NOT be Independence. The tax payers (potential jurors) are paying out of… Read more »
Eastern Sierra Local: You say it’s amazing how sensible decisions are when NOT decided by locals. For example. The nearest Air Force recruiter who used to be out of Lancaster is now out of Fresno! Those smart people who know the geography said wow! Fresno is only 90 miles away,… Read more »
The nearest recruiter wouldn’t be in Fresno but Carson City.
And really, you don’t shop local when buying a car?
Read between the lines Jennifer and here is the future headline: “Jail to be relocated in Bishop due to cost of inmate transport.”
Na, Bishop is not buying the cow pies when they get the teat for free. We will hear how it’s unfair for them to take the jail, dire environmental impacts, violations of Fish and Game regs, lack of housing for employees, danger to their fair youth, etc. More likely we… Read more »
It is better to drive one crook to Bishop than have 14 jurors, court reporters, lawyers, judges etc all drive to Independence every day for a trial. In the vast majority of criminal trials the defendant is out on bail. It makes good sense to put the court near the… Read more »
Really ?….Let’s face it….In the VERY vast majority,the defendant gets out with a low-bail….the case is plea-bargined down to next to nothing….no trial..community service……and then when you check the Inyo County Sheriffs “Citizen RIMS” page a couple weeks later,there they are again….to start the procedure all over again….and again.
Check the county’s “General Plan”. County is going against what they encourage.
It’s a shame that we couldn’t have a civic center, oh, I don’t know, in the center of town.
Don’t worry, downtown will be moving north to follow the courthouse. There will be plenty of room for a civic center then.
Great news. I’m tired of driving to Independence for Jury Duty, wasting time, money, and fuel. Next, it’s time to move the County Seat to Bishop. Let’s get the petition moving…
Ya, screw anyone who lives in the other 10,000 square miles of Inyo.
Wow, almost three million for drawings alone. I should have stayed in school .