The city is hosting a community meeting later this month to talk about the state’s plan to put an eight-story courthouse down the street from City Hall.
“The Santa Clarita City Council has repeatedly expressed opposition to the proposed location and has worked to identify alternative sites that could better accommodate a courthouse while minimizing impacts on residents and businesses,” according to a news release Wednesday from the city. “Despite these efforts, the state Judicial Council has rejected the city’s suggested alternatives and has continued moving forward with its preferred location without meaningful collaboration with the city.”
The state’s chosen location for its massive legal edifice is the former home of The Greens, a long-since abandoned former miniature golf course at 26501 McBean Parkway.
The city is planning a community meeting 6 p.m. Nov. 17 at the College of the Canyons’ Performing Arts Center, ostensibly to let people know about the courthouse, remind residents that the city didn’t want it and tried to fight it, and then give residents an opportunity to complain about it as desired.
Carrie Lujan, communications manager for the city, was not available for a phone call Wednesday, but indicated via text message that the city is “focused on working with the court to find an acceptable solution.” She also acknowledged that the city has no public plan to stop the current siting, and that the state has indicated the city’s proposed alternative sites were deemed unsuitable by the Judicial Council.
When the planned Santa Clarita Courthouse was presented by the state’s Judicial Council at a community scoping meeting nearly a year ago, it was largely met with opposition from the 50 or so attendees.
However, as the Judicial Council stated then, the new courthouse has been identified as a high priority for years, due in no small part to the aging infrastructure, numerous maintenance problems and outdated features of the city’s current three-courtroom facility adjacent to the Valencia Library. Maintenance crews were seen replacing aging floor tiles just inside its entrance Wednesday.
The new structure is expected to address multiple needs for the regional court system: The idea is to consolidate the juvenile courthouse’s operations, as well as Santa Clarita’s three courtrooms, relocate several services currently offered in the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Downtown Los Angeles and create a multiservice justice hub for the Los Angeles County Superior Court’s North Valley District.
State officials in February announced an environmental impact report on the project was expected to be circulated to the community by fall of this year at the earliest.
That window has passed without a report.
The state’s Judicial Council did not immediately respond Wednesday afternoon to questions on the status of its nearly $42 million land-acquisition plan for the former mini golf course site.
The Judicial Council previously explained its site-selection process as having started with 35 properties within the Santa Clarita area, through discussions with the city and L.A. County, searching the state-owned property database and consulting with real estate brokers to ensure that all property opportunities could be considered for the project, according to a November 2025 email from the Judicial Council. “The properties were screened in accordance with Judicial Council policy and to confirm the site characteristics would support the selection for the project. Eleven properties were determined to be potentially suitable for the project. The property owners for these properties were contacted and a more detailed evaluation was performed.”
