Buyer's remorse lingers as old Redding courthouse razing nears

Supervisor Matt Plummer continues to have buyer's remorse over his vote a year ago to demolish the old Shasta County Courthouse, a Court Street fixture in downtown Redding for some 70 years.

But the District 4 supervisor also is realistic. He knows the votes are not there to stop the demolition, which is why on May 19 he was part of a 5-0 unanimous decision by supervisors to award a $760,000 engineering contract to GHD Inc. to prep the site for the $7 million project.

Demolition work on the three-story building, which was built in 1956, could start next spring, Interim Public Works Director John Heath told the board on May 19. In its place, the county will build a surface parking lot with 102 spaces.

In March of 2025, supervisors voted 4-1 to raze the building, vacant since early 2024 when the county's new courthouse across the street opened.

District 5 Supervisor Chris Kelstrom was the lone dissenter. "I'm sorry, I can't vote to tear the building down," he said at the time.

The vote came about three weeks after supervisors delayed a decision because they couldn't come to a consensus on which of three options to choose.

Supervisors ultimately decided that the county could not afford the other two more expensive options: Repurpose the courthouse with a small parking lot ($17.5 million); repurpose the courthouse and add a parking garage with 300 spaces ($78 million).

"By the time it came back to the board, I didn't really have a good option, so I begrudgingly went along with the effort to put in a parking lot and demo it," Plummer said.

The engineering contract was on the board's May 19 consent agenda, but Plummer pulled the item so he could ask Heath questions.

Plummer wanted to know if it still makes financial sense to spend $7 million on the demolition and new parking lot.

"I know we discussed this multiple times around a year ago in terms of tearing down the courthouse and I am still torn on it, in terms of spending the $7 million, or whatever it might be. So that is the kind of the question mark in my head," Plummer said at the May 19 meeting.

Plummer told the Record Searchlight that in the wake of the March 2025 vote to demolish the courthouse, he spoke to the city of Redding, the McConnell Foundation and Redding Rancheria. They discussed, among other things, seeking grant money to "figure a different way we can either pay for this or put in something like a park," he said.

The challenge using grant money for a park is that the county would have to keep it a park for a long time or possibly forever, Plummer said.

"So I was searching as much as I could to try to find something that would allow us to do the same thing but not have to pay that amount" or maybe find something else the county could do that would add more value to the project and maybe provide some revenue to the county, Plummer said.

The surface parking lot is considered an interim solution. Supervisors have suggested they will revisit the property after the demolition and parking lot is put in to talk about a more permanent vision for the site.

The decision to spend $7 million on the project comes at time when the county is faced with financial challenges with departments like the District Attorney's Office and Health and Human Services Agency.

At the time of the March 2025 vote, Supervisor Allen Long said the county can barely afford $7 million and characterized the other choices as throwing good money away.

"I appreciate the historic significance of that building, but I'm not hearing any way to work around this," Long said at that March meeting.

Supervisor Kevin Crye said at the time that the thought of demolishing the old courthouse "sucks," but the board has to make hard choices.

Kelstrom told the Record Searchlight on June 17 that the building is historic and the side facing Court Street is beautiful. But the air conditioning and boiler need replacing, the building is not ADA compliant, it has lead paint and it's full of asbestos, he added.

"We looked at every single option there was and every single time it was not viable to remodel it," Kelstrom said.

Kelstrom said what the board approved on May 19 was an engineering contract.

"Quite frankly, if the engineer gets in there and does an in-depth look, it might come back that it's viable to save," Kelstrom said.

But Heath said the engineering firm's job is to come up with a plan to demolish the building and do the post-demolition design for the parking lot.

"Some of the work has to be done inside the building before we start the interior and exterior demolition. There are some hazardous materials, there is asbestos, lead-based paint inside the building that need to be remediated," Heath said.

Heath did not know how long it would take to demolish the building.

On May 19, Heath told the board that the public comment period for the CEQA portion of the project is complete and "we are planning to bring the final EIR (environmental impact report) to the board for approval" sometime in June.

Meanwhile, John Dunlap, retired managing partner at Sharrah Dunlap Sawyer Inc., a Redding engineering firm, said in an email to the Record Searchlight that the county did not do enough to try and save the building and is enlisting community support. Dunlap does not rule out legal intervention.

Plummer said he appreciated the retired engineer's input in a response to a letter Dunlap sent supervisors.

"County public works estimated it would cost $73M to rehab the whole building and $17M to rehab the front part (the courthouse). I believe this is driven by significant hazardous materials remediation cost," Plummer stated in his email. "I don't think the County would be interested in selling a property that sits between our county admin buildings and our jail as it would break up our block of property."

Plummer said he doesn't plan to bring the project back to the board for discussion unless he has a specific better alternative. But he will continue to explore the possibilities.

He added that maybe someone like Dunlap, "who has a lot of experience with building development, can help us come up with a better solution."

David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly "Buzz on the Street" column. He's part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on X, formerly Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 530-338-8323. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Buyer's remorse lingers as old Redding courthouse razing nears

Reporting by David Benda, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

This story was originally published June 19, 2026 at 4:01 AM.