[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 118 (Wednesday, June 19, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41735-41736]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-15363]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Office of Justice Programs

[OJP(OJP)-1357]


Supplemental Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact 
Statement (EIS) and Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for a New 
Juvenile Justice Facility in Alameda County, CA

AGENCY: Office of Justice Programs, Justice.

ACTION: Notice of intent (NOI).

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SUMMARY: This NOI is being published to provide additional information 
regarding alternatives that will be evaluated for the Alameda County 
(California) Juvenile Justice Facility project. The County proposes to 
develop a new Juvenile Justice Facility with an initial capacity for 
420 beds, five juvenile courts, offices for courts administration, 
probation, public defender, and district attorney, plus associated 
support facilities (approximately 425,000 square feet of floor area). 
Future expansion of the facility could accommodate 450 to 540 beds and 
an additional juvenile court (up to 460,000 square feet total). The 
Juvenile Justice Facility is proposed in response to serious 
shortcomings in the capability of the existing facilities located in 
San Leandro and Oakland, California, to serve the existing and future 
needs of children in the County. Existing buildings in San Leandro 
would be demolished and building space in Oakland would be vacated 
following completion of the new facility.

DATES: Two public scoping meetings will be held on Wednesday, July 10, 
2002, at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388th Ninth Street at 
Webster, in Oakland, California.
    An afternoon meeting will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. for 
interested and affected federal, state, and local agencies to identify 
major and less important issues, coordinate the schedule, and determine 
respective roles and responsibilities in preparation of the EIS/EIR. 
The public is also welcome to attend.
    The evening meeting will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The meeting 
will be conducted in an open house format which offers interested 
persons an opportunity to drop in at any time during the meeting to 
learn more about the project and the environmental review process. The 
intent of the meeting is to solicit comments from the public to 
identify those environmental issues that are most relevant or of most 
concern with respect to the implementation of the project and 
alternatives so that these issues can be analyzed in depth in the Draft 
EIS/EIR. Representatives of the independent environmental consulting 
firms preparing the environmental documents will be in attendance along 
with representatives of the Federal, State, and county governments.
    Comments may also be submitted in writing, identifying relevant 
environmental and socioeconomic issues to be addressed in this 
environmental analysis. Comments and information should be mailed to 
Mr. Michael Houghtby of the California Board of Corrections at the 
address listed below. Requests to be placed on the mailing list for 
announcements and the Draft EIS/EIR should also be sent to Mr. Michael 
Houghtby. The deadline for submitting written comments is July 19, 
2002.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Jill Young, Environmental 
Coordinator, Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, 
Corrections Programs Office, 810 7th Street, NW., Washington DC 20531, 
Telephone (202) 353-7302, Fax (202) 307-2019.
    Written comments should be directed to Mr. Michael Houghtby, Field 
Representative, State of California Board of Corrections, Corrections 
Planning and Programs Division, 600 Bercut Dr, Sacramento, CA 95814, 
Telephone (916) 322-7085; Fax (916) 445-5796. Each of the participating 
agencies will receive copies of the letters sent to Mr. Houghtby.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The proposed Juvenile Justice Facility is 
intended to replace the existing Alameda County Juvenile Hall, which is 
located in the hills of San Leandro, Alameda County, California. The 
existing facility was constructed in various phases with most 
structures dating from the 1950s to 1970s. It includes secure detention 
at the Juvenile Hall facility for 299 detainees, camps for low security 
detention, and the Chabot Community Day Center. The detention facility 
is constructed on a steep hillside in close proximity to the Hayward 
fault, an active earthquake fault with a potential for causing severe 
ground shaking with an estimated 32% chance of a major seismic event 
during the next 30 years. In addition, these facilities, which have 
been overcrowded, have or will soon exceed their useful, economic life 
and are in need of replacement, based on operational and architectural/
engineering evaluations. Therefore, the facility does not meet the 
present or future needs of the residents, staff or community and must 
be replaced.
    A juvenile justice system master plan completed in 1998 determined 
that the County needed to construct a new juvenile detention facility 
that would house up to 540 children at any given time. The facility 
would respond to the approximately 10,000 annual referrals for intake, 
of which 6,000 are admitted for detention in a given year. The 
estimated total number of beds required for a new detention facility 
was based on historical trends and projections, multiplied by a factor 
of 1.2 to account for peaking, classification and operational needs, so 
that the County could house youth in a facility that reflects the 
detainees' gender, age, and security risk, to avoid crowding, and to 
provide for long-term planning. The County Board of Supervisors has 
since revised the project to include 420 beds, with possible expansion 
to 450 beds.
    The Juvenile Justice Facility is funded in part by Federal grant 
monies disbursed by the California Board of Corrections. These funds 
total $33,165,000, and are part of the State's allocation from the 
Violent Offender Incarceration and Truth-in-Sentencing (VOI/TIS) 
Incentive Grant Program. The County would provide additional funding 
from bonds, certificates of participation, and the general fund. The 
total cost for the Juvenile Justice Facility is estimated to be 
approximately $177,000,000.
    The U.S. Department of Justice, the California Board of Corrections 
and the County of Alameda are preparing a joint Environmental Impact 
Statement and Environmental Impact Report (EIS/EIR) in order to satisfy 
the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and 
the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) concurrently. The U.S. 
Department of Justice is the lead federal agency under

[[Page 41736]]

NEPA for the preparation of the EIS/EIR and the California Board of 
Corrections will be preparing the EIS/EIR under a provision of NEPA 
that allows an agency of statewide jurisdiction with responsibility for 
the proposed action (pursuant to the VOI/TIS grant) to prepare an EIS. 
The County of Alameda will be the lead agency under CEQA for the 
preparation of the EIS/EIR for the Juvenile Justice Facility and 
related projects as appropriate. The related projects include the East 
County Hall of Justice and the County Office projects at the East 
County Government Center in Dublin.

Alternatives

    A Notice of Intent for this project was published in the Federal 
Register on January 15, 2002. That NOI identified a proposed project 
site in Dublin, California, and stated that additional alternative 
sites could be identified during the environmental review process. The 
County of Alameda has since identified several other potentially 
feasible alternative sites for the Juvenile Justice Facility. The 
original site and the additional alternative sites now being considered 
are described below.
    No Action/No Project: The EIS/EIR will consider the No Action/No 
Project Alternative, as required by NEPA and CEQA. Under such a 
scenario, the existing Juvenile Hall and associated support facilities 
would remain in their present locations and no expansion or major 
improvements would occur.
    East County Government Center Site: The County of Alameda owns a 
vacant 40-acre site, known as the East County Government Center site, 
located at the northern terminus of Hacienda Drive in Dublin, 
California. The proposed Alameda County Juvenile Justice Facility 
project could be one component of that Government Center. Other 
projects on that site could include a new Hall of Justice (including 15 
to 19 adult courts and related functions in a 250,000 square-foot 
building) and other County offices (approximately 200,000 square feet).
    Pardee & Swan Site: The Port of Oakland owns a vacant 34-acre 
property at the northern terminus of Pardee Drive at Swan Way in 
Oakland, California. If the County were to acquire this site, it could 
develop a Juvenile Justice Facility similar to the plan for the East 
County Government Center site in Dublin. Existing juvenile justice 
facilities in Oakland would be vacated, the existing facility in San 
Leandro would be demolished, and all of the County's juvenile justice 
functions would be consolidated to this location.
    Glenn Dyer Detention Center: This site is a half-block area in 
downtown Oakland, located at 550 Sixth Street. It is currently occupied 
by the County's North County Jail for adults (also known as the Glenn 
Dyer Detention Facility). This facility will be closing in the coming 
months; therefore, the County is exploring the possibility of 
converting the eight-story facility into a juvenile detention center. 
The facility would not accommodate all of the planned court and office 
support functions, so some of the existing juvenile justice functions 
in downtown Oakland would remain at their current locations. The 
existing functions in San Leandro would be relocated to downtown 
Oakland and that existing facility would be demolished.
    Existing San Leandro Property: This 80-acre site is located at 2200 
Fairmont Drive in San Leandro, California. It is presently occupied by 
the existing Juvenile Hall, a day facility, and two detention camps. A 
new detention center, courts, administration, and other functions could 
be developed in an area that is currently occupied by one of the 
juvenile camps. The site conditions present certain constraints that 
could limit the size of the facility. Existing office and court uses in 
Oakland would be relocated to the new facility, and the existing 
Juvenile Hall would be demolished if this alternative were implemented.
    Size Variations: At any of the alternative sites described above, 
the County could develop a Juvenile Justice Facility that would 
accommodate fewer or more detainees. As the number of detainees 
changes, so would the number of courts and other associated functions 
and spaces, though not is strict proportion to the number of beds. The 
EIS/EIR will consider a range of sizes, from 330 beds (approximately 
the same size as the existing facility in San Leandro) to 540 beds 
(based on projections contained in the County's Needs Assessment and 
grant application).
    Additional Alternative: In addition to the Juvenile Justice 
Facility alternatives described in this NOI, the County of Alameda will 
be evaluating an alternative site for the proposed East County Hall of 
Justice as part of the EIR under its CEQA responsibilities. That site, 
known as the Transit Center Site, comprises 20 acres of land on two 
parcels located at Arnold Road and Dublin Blvd. in the City of Dublin, 
California. The two vacant properties could be used separately or in 
combination for the development of a 15- to 19-court building, parking, 
and plaza areas.

Deborah Daniels,
Assistant Attorney General.
[FR Doc. 02-15363 Filed 6-18-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-18-P