UCI eyes courthouse

Alicia Robinson

Hoping to bolster its bid for a law school, the university has made a

pitch to have a $17-million state appellate courthouse built on

campus.

The school has proposed the court be built on a 2.5-acre site on

California Street adjacent to the University Research Park, where the

Irvine Co. earlier this month inked a lease with communications giant

Broadcom. UC Irvine officials are not releasing any other details of

the proposal they made Monday to the Judicial Council of California,

which decides where to locate state court facilities.

The school’s bid is up against one from the city of Santa Ana,

where a number of other county, state and federal court facilities

are located.

“We think that, as we studied the matter and what the appellate

court does, there would be tremendous benefit to our students and our

faculty to have such a facility on our campus,” Executive Vice

Chancellor Michael Gottfredson said.

Students could observe the judicial process and would have access

to the court’s library, and the court in turn could take advantage of

faculty and student expertise and the university’s libraries and

facilities, he said.

UC Irvine has been interested in establishing a law school and

previously submitted a proposal to UC system officials and the Board

of Regents, Gottfredson said.

The university already employs experts in evidence and legal

testimony and runs a criminology program.

Santa Ana’s proposal is for a 2-acre site next to the city hall

and a state office building, and the city would build a parking

garage for court visitors and employees to use, City Manager David

Ream said.

He declined to provide further details before the City Council

discusses a prospective deal for the courthouse at its upcoming

meeting Monday.

‘We submitted a proposal on it back in January 2004, and we’ve

been finalizing an agreement with the court administrative staff for

the last five or six months,” he said.

The city made its offer after Judicial Council members rejected

all 10 sites identified in a September 2000 site search, Ream said.

“They’d always tried to encourage a proposal by UCI,” he said.

“I think there’s a number of judges that have been very favorable

toward getting a proposal from UCI, so it’s not a total surprise.”

He expects the Judicial Council to consider UC Irvine’s bid

Monday. Whichever site is chosen will then need approval from the

state Public Works Board, which is expected to decide in March.

Calls to a Judicial Council spokesman were not returned Tuesday.