300% Increase Sought in Vista Court Space

San Diego County planners say they eventually want an 84-court complex in Vista, up from the 28 superior and municipal courts operating there now, but the 20-year construction master plan has one major caveat:

It will cost $260 million.

If the courts are eventually constructed, it would make the Vista complex the second largest in San Diego County--assuming, also, that a planned 143-court complex is eventually constructed in downtown San Diego.

But county officials, who unveiled their master plan to Vista city officials Tuesday night, say that, although the Vista complex looks great on paper, it’s just about anyone’s guess when construction at the 40-acre site will begin.

The primary funding for the expanded Vista courthouse is contingent upon Proposition A, the half-cent sales tax measure approved by a majority of county voters in 1988 to generate $1.6 billion for new courts and jails.

But opponents to that measure, saying it should have received a two-thirds approval--which it didn’t--have challenged Proposition A’s legitimacy, and the state Supreme Court is expected to decide the matter by mid-January.

If the state’s highest court upholds Proposition A, the first phase of the Vista courts expansion could be occupied by 1995 at the soonest, said Rich Robinson, a special projects planner in the county’s administrative office.

But, if Proposition A is struck down, the county--in the depths of its own budget crisis--would have to pay for the courthouse out of its own depleted bank account.

In that event, officials say, the county could only afford to build eight new courtrooms, at a cost of $25 million.

When the County Board of Supervisors decided that more courts should be constructed in Vista--versus Escondido, which wanted a piece of the action--they were figuring on the construction of a 51-courtroom complex to accommodate the region’s growth. The existing courthouse was opened in 1978 and is now bulging. Some courtrooms operate out of trailers.

But, after the 51-courtroom plan was proposed, planners devised a master plan calling for phased construction of 84 courtrooms. That plan, they say, will meet North County’s needs as it grows.

In an ideal world, said Robinson, the county wants the Vista courthouse to house 45 superior courts--contrasted with the 13 there now --and 39 municipal courts--contrasted with the 15 there now.

They would be built in four phases: the first, costing $80 million (in 1992 dollars), would add six superior and six municipal courts in a new building south of the existing courthouse, by 1995--if funding were available immediately.

The second phase, to be built over the ensuing five years, would add another building housing five superior and six municipal courts, at a cost of $23 million.

The third phase, five years later, would add 10 superior and six municipal courts under yet a new roof. And the fourth phase--20 years down the road--calls for the demolition of the existing courthouse and its replacement with a new building to house 11 superior and six municipal courts.

The plan also calls for several parking structures, costing $43 million.