Chatsworth Site Is Top Choice for New Courthouse, Administrators Say

The Los Angeles Municipal Court has decided that the southeast corner of Winnetka Avenue and Plummer Street in Chatsworth is the best site for a west San Fernando Valley courthouse, a court official said Tuesday.

After Los Angeles County’s consideration of the site was disclosed two months ago, opposition surfaced in the residential neighborhood north of Plummer. Since then, court officials have met with the residents and discussed several alternative sites, including a lumber yard at Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Marilla Street in Chatsworth.

But on Monday, Deputy Court Administrator Robert Quist met with the residents again and told them that the court staff is firmly behind the Winnetka-Plummer site. The court plans to make a formal proposal to the County Board of Supervisors by the end of June, Quist confirmed Tuesday in an interview.

“The Winnetka-Plummer site, as we look at it, is the most suitable,” Quist said. The county plans to build a new West Valley courthouse with 18 courtrooms to hear a variety of cases, ranging from traffic and small claims to felony arraignments and preliminary hearings.

The favored site is a vacant nine-acre parcel owned by developer Alexander Haagen. Haagen has proposed building a courthouse that would be three to four stories high and would cost between $38.9 million and $43.8 million, according to county documents.

Residents of the neighborhood of single-family homes to the north have collected 1,000 signatures against the proposal and have sent about 600 letters to Supervisor Mike Antonovich, said Lee Dawson, one of the homeowners.

Dawson said the homeowners are not opposing a courthouse in the West Valley. They simply do not want one so close to their homes, he said. Residents are afraid of a negative effect on their property values, he said.

The county looked at 18 sites in all, and the Winnetka-Plummer site is the most accessible and most centrally located to serve the needs of West Valley residents, Quist said. All of the sites would have affected nearby residential areas in some way, he said.

“They have some very definite views,” Quist said of the residents near Plummer Street. “But our feeling is we need to represent all of the citizens of the West Valley.”

Dawson said the residents will take their case to Antonovich, who represents the area. Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson has already said the county does not need the city’s approval to build the courthouse.