Escondido

Escondido redevelopment officials won approval Tuesday from the county Board of Supervisors to spend up to $50,000 on a study to determine North County courtroom needs if the money-saving “shared-court” concept were instituted.

The funds will be used to integrate the needs study with the concept of judges sharing courtrooms. A report will be brought back to the board within four months.

Supervisors did not give the city any guarantee that new courthouse facilities would be built in the downtown Escondido area--a proposal the city and Lusardi Construction Co. had advanced.

Previously, supervisors approved sending out letters to other cities and redevelopment agencies to solicit proposals to build new courtroom facilities to supplement the overcrowded Vista Courthouse. Escondido officials had sought exclusive county approval to construct a courthouse in the city’s downtown redevelopment area.

Lusardi Construction Co. of Vista offered to construct the superblock complex containing a courthouse, an office building, a new Times-Advocate newspaper building and a parking structure. Plans are on hold until the courthouse study is completed, company officials said.

Escondido redevelopment chief Marilyn Whisenand warned supervisors that the agency might return to ask for more funding for the study. City officials had estimated it would cost $500,000 or more.