COURTS TO BREAK GROUND NOV. 1 CONSTRUCTION START SET AFTER 15 YEARS OF PLANNING.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - After more than 15 years in the planning, ground breaking for a new Antelope Valley courthouse at Avenue M and Sixth Street West is scheduled to take place Nov. 1.

The cost of the four-story, 15-courtroom project has soared from an estimate eight years ago of about $80 million to more than $109 million, in part due to changes in seismic safety laws and unanticipated costs to meet federal flood-proofing requirements.

``It feels great. The supervisor is so happy that we are finally moving forward with this much-needed service to the Antelope Valley,'' said Lori Howard, assistant chief deputy to Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. ``He is delighted. There is a lot of celebrating in the Fifth District.''

Construction is expected to take 18 months to two years to complete.

The board on Tuesday approved the environmental impact report for the project and OK'd spending the $109.6 million on the building. Final approval for the construction contract is set for Oct. 24.

Other factors contributing to the increased cost were the consolidation of Municipal and Superior courts, which required revisions in the design, and the price of steel and other building materials that went up, Howard said.

``The increase is due to unanticipated costs to meet (Federal Emergency Management Agency) flood-proofing requirements and for off-site costs that proved more extensive and complex than previously anticipated for this large and somewhat remote site . . .,'' a county report said.

The 380,000-square-foot facility will have 15 courtrooms and room for six more, along with a custody area, interview rooms and offices for the prosecutors and public defenders.

The current 37-year-old court facility at 10th Street West and Avenue J is notoriously overcrowded. In April 1998, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George called it one of the worst he has seen.

During the long wait for a new courthouse, court officials have had to improvise with what space they had. A judge's chambers was once part of a women's restroom, and jury assembly rooms and a janitor's closet have been converted into courtrooms.

For lack of room, all civil cases have been transferred out of the Antelope Valley, and half of the valley's criminal cases are heard in courts in Van Nuys or elsewhere.

A $4.1 million civil courthouse with four courtrooms built by the city of Palmdale is scheduled to open in January, which will mean the return of civil trials being heard locally.

The history of the courthouse project goes back to 1984 when the county master plan called for building several new courthouses to handle growth, including one in the Antelope Valley.

The county put the project on hold in 1994, citing declining revenue.

In 1998, a state audit blasted the county for mismanaging its decade- old courthouse construction program and criticized county officials for costly overruns on the Lancaster project.