$50-Million Civic Center Structure for D.A. Sought : Government: Current building ‘is just bulging,’ Capizzi says. Supervisors also will consider expansion of courts in growing South County.

The Board of Supervisors will consider building a $50-million complex in Santa Ana for the district attorney’s office and expanding court operations in south Orange County, officials said Wednesday.

“This couldn’t have come a better time,” said Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi. “We’re jammed into the space that we have at the courthouse. The building is just bulging.”

Capizzi said that office space has been so limited for his attorneys in the Santa Ana courthouse that they sometimes have problems interviewing witnesses and at times have assigned two attorneys to work in tiny offices made to accommodate only one person.

“Prisoners in jail are entitled to more space,” Capizzi joked. He said he thought the new building would be “recognition that it’s a project whose time has come. We will be able to work more effectively and efficiently.”

At their board meeting Tuesday, the supervisors are expected to discuss expanding the South County courthouse and to select a developer for the district attorney’s building project.

The developer would finance construction of a seven-story building that the county would lease for about $5.5 million a year for 30 years. At the end of the lease, the county would have the option of buying the building for $100.

In addition to the district attorney’s office, the structure would house the grand jury administration, the victim-witness program and a cafeteria.

County officials said it would be built on the southeast corner of the Central Courthouse parking lot at Flower Street and Civic Center Drive. Lease payments would be made by a combination of general-fund money and district attorney funds.

County officials said they would also be able to redirect about $900,000 that currently goes to lease offices for the district attorney’s consumer protection unit and child abuse unit and for the court’s victim-witness office.

Without a new building, county officials estimate that by 2010 the county would have to spend about $2 million in leases to accommodate the district attorney’s growing needs.

County officials will soon look into plans to renovate the Central Courthouse when the district attorney, grand jury and cafeteria vacate it.

Under another proposal to come before the board Tuesday, the supervisors will be asked to consider expanding the South Court operations.

Originally, the county had hoped to build a new court complex in South County that would replace the courthouse at Crown Valley in Laguna Niguel.

But when bids from developers were opened, it became clear that the project, with an annual price tag of about $10 million for the next 30 years, was more than the county could afford.

Ernie Schneider, the county administrative officer, said he is prepared to recommend spending $5 million annually to expand the court in South County.

As a result, the board will be asked to either scale back the scope of the new courthouse complex or consider expanding the existing site, which would cost about $5 million a year for 30 years.

Court operations in South County have nearly doubled in the last decade, but office space hasn’t kept pace. Some operations are conducted in mobile trailers.

“I think both of these proposals are significant steps as they relate to addressing the criminal justice needs of Orange County,” Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said.