Master plan orders up changes for Bay State courts
Old courthouses — including ones in Southie and Charlestown — could be shuttered in favor of new, state-of the art facilities under a draft master capital plan released yesterday.
The current court system has 97 facilities, and according to the draft plan, it would shrink to 75 courthouses statewide after a three-phase process that would take 20 years.
“This draft plan is first and foremost a statement of need to address the wide disparity of courthouse conditions across the Commonwealth,” said Paula Carey, chief justice of the Trial Court, and Harry Spence, outgoing court administrator, in a joint statement.
Boston could see significant changes to its courthouse landscape if the plan is implemented. During the first phase, a new 465,000-square-foot facility is proposed that would cost $330 million. That 31-courtroom facility would eventually handle cases that currently go to Suffolk Superior Court and South Boston District Court, according to the draft.
It would also be a destination for housing court and land court cases.
As part of the consolidation effort, Charlestown District Court cases would instead be moved to a renovated Edward W. Brooke Courthouse in downtown Boston.
District courts in Dorchester, Roxbury, West Roxbury, Chelsea and East Boston would all be renovated, according to the draft.
The plan proposes consolidating “outdated or lower volume courthouses” across the state into a series of so-called “Regional Justice Centers.” For example, a proposed Southern Middlesex Regional Justice Center would pull in cases that go to district courts in Somerville and Concord, and Middlesex Superior Court cases.
Courthouses will be vacated if the plan goes into action, but according to the draft, the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance “will require that a redevelopment plan is in place” for the facilities — some of which have historic value.