Federal court project downsized as squeeze on dollars intensifies.

Plans for a new federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles are being scaled back and the timeline pushed out, apparent results of the deepening federal budget deficit.

To relieve severe overcrowding in the local federal courts, original plans called for consolidating all federal court activity in Los Angeles into a single 22-story, 1.2 million square-foot building at a cost of over $450 million. The courthouse is to be built on former state land that the federal government agreed to purchase two years ago at the corner of First Street and Broadway.

But the new plans now under discussion call for a 20 percent to 25 percent reduction in cost and square footage, and the timeline for completion has been pushed back from late 2008-2009 to 2010. The number of parking spaces also would be sharply reduced.

"We would have to downsize our project," said Alan Leslein, chief district architect for the U.S. Central District Court in Los Angeles. "We're looking at taking the square footage down from more than 1.2 million square feet to about 1 million square feet, with a corresponding reduction in the number of stories."

Although plans remain in flux, a spokeswoman for the federal agency charged with overseeing construction of the new courthouse confirmed the project is being downsized.

"In the past few weeks, we have had discussions about scaling back the project and have agreed to scale it back," said Bethany Rich, spokeswoman for the U.S. General Services Administration western region office in San Francisco. "We have yet to work out the details and design revisions with federal court administrators."

Rich said she did not know the full reasons for the scaling back, but said "the budget situation in Washington is probably a part of the explanation." The federal government faces a budget deficit of more than $500 billion next year as the Iraq war, anti-terrorism measures, a slow economy and recent Bush tax cuts have all taken their toll.

Expansion delays

Los Angeles has the most clogged federal courts in the nation, leading to delays of several months for many trials and severe overcrowding for staff. Court operations are split between two U.S. government buildings: the Edward Roybal Building at Temple and Los Angeles streets and the Spring Street Courthouse at Temple Street.

As a result, L.A. was placed at the top of the federal court priority list for a new courthouse in the late 1990s, when efforts to consolidate and expand these facilities into a single building began in earnest.

In 2000, Congress appropriated $35 million for the design of a new courthouse, and in early 2002 the federal government reached an agreement with the state of California to buy the site at First Street and Broadway that is now home to the earthquake-damaged vacant Junipero Serra state office building.

But since then, progress on the new courthouse has stalled. In his budget last year, President Bush cut all funding for new courthouses in Los Angeles and 18 other cities across the nation. At the time, the Bush Administration was still setting up the Department of Homeland Security and gearing up to spend billions of dollars for the invasion of Iraq.

In response to a lobbying effort from the California delegation--especially Democrat Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, who represents the downtown L.A. area--Congress decided to approve $50 million in funding for the L.A. courthouse. But that $50 million was set aside and has not yet been appropriated.

This year, the funding picture appears slightly better. In his 2004-05 budget, Bush has included $315 million for the courthouse. When combined with the $50 million already set aside, that would bring total funding to $365 million.

The courthouse funding proposal is now before the transportation treasury appropriations subcommittee, chaired by Ernest Istook, R-Okla. Istook last month raised questions about the $900 million Eastside rail project, which temporarily threw federal funding into doubt. But in late May, Istook reversed course and said he was satisfied with the merits of that project and Congress approved $490 million in funding.

Even if the courthouse funding survives the congressional budget process, the trade-off is a scaling back, which will keep court operations divided between two buildings.

"While a facility that consolidates all federal courtrooms into one building is still our goal, if the smaller design ... is approved, it will still be an improvement over the aging dangerous and inefficient courthouse that exists today," said Roybal-Allard.

"Our hope had been to have all court operations in one building," Leslein said. "Had we known this was going to happen, we probably would have chosen a site closer to the Roybal building."

Such a site had been under consideration but was dropped in favor of the slightly larger First and Broadway location.

Leslein said the scaling back means the number of employees the new building could accommodate would fall to about 1,000 from 1,300, meaning 300 employees would have to remain in the Edward Roybal Federal Building a half-mile to the northeast. Also, the number of parking spaces for employees in the new building would be reduced to 150 from the current proposed level of 340.

There are no provisions for public parking at the new federal courthouse, in keeping with security restrictions enacted after the Oklahoma City bombing.

Local officials consider the project a keystone of downtown's revival.

"As long as the courthouse gets built, it's still a net gain for the community, regardless of its size," said L.A. City Councilwoman Jan Perry, who represents the downtown area.