Former courthouse now partial office space
Jan. 24—Since the construction of the new Sutter County courthouse in 2016, many have believed that the former courthouse located on Second Street in Yuba City has been sitting vacant.
While some portions of the building appear to sit empty, the old courthouse is currently split between Sutter County and the Judicial Council of California, General Services Director Ken Sra said.
Before the construction of a new courthouse, Sutter County Superior Court operated out of two buildings along Second Street in Yuba City. The old courthouse was referred to as Courthouse West and a second building constructed in the 1950s was referred to as Courthouse East, but now houses the Sutter County District Attorney's Office and the county treasurer and tax collector.
The original Courthouse West structure was built in 1901, but an annex adjacent to the building was added in 1961, Sra said. With the Sutter County Superior Court transferring to the new courthouse in 2016, a division of Sutter County Health and Human Services moved into the annex space, he said.
According to the Judicial Council of California Facility Services, the former courthouse featured three courtrooms handling all cases except for civil and juvenile. These cases were later addressed in the annex or across the street in Courthouse East. Plans for a new courthouse were later established after identifying security and accessibility issues with the former court offices, the Judicial Council said.
In 2008, Sutter County entered a joint occupancy agreement with the Judicial Council to share possession, occupancy and use of the former courthouse. Under this agreement, Sutter County owns the title to the building, but the Judicial Council has a nearly 83% controlling interest in the facility, Sra said. According to the agreement, approximately 4,200 square feet of the building is reserved exclusively for county use while the remaining 20,000 square feet is exclusive to Sutter County Superior Court.
Sra believes that portions of the property reserved for the Judicial Council are primarily used for storage, but due to the nature of the joint occupancy agreement, Sutter County does not have access to those areas. This transfer was also founded in part by the Trial Court Facilities Act of 2002, which shifted governance of California's courthouses from counties to the state.
Both parties are solely responsible for maintaining their portions of the building, but the Judicial Council is responsible for common areas that don't exclusively serve one party's area such as hallways, walkways, and certain restrooms.
"We occupy our area and we are responsible for maintaining that exclusive area. The courts are responsible for their exclusive use area, which is pretty much the entire old courthouse and another courtroom in the annex area, but we are actually leasing that from the courts right now," Sra said.
This former courtroom is currently leased to a portion of the child welfare division of Sutter County Health and Human Services. The division was formerly housed in a set of office trailers located on Live Oak Boulevard in Yuba City, but the trailers were removed due to a terminated lease, Sra said.
"Those people needed a place to call home, so a part of the staff went into a rented or leased facility on Butte House Road and part of them went to the annex, which at the time was not occupied," he said.
