It's becoming very clear that the plan to demolish and rebuild the State Capitol Annex on the east end is the most secretive public project the State has ever tried to slip by the people. The more I learn about this horrible process as it’s slides through the approval process, the more I want it stopped all together. In the latest issue of Sactown Magazine, Rob Turner does some digging and finds that this entire project is being done in seclusion, everything from the underground parking garage to $1 billion cost to build a modern Annex replacement. At this late date in the approval process, neither design for the Annex or the underground garage have been made public.
The whole plan is also ill-timed as the Governor said he wants to explore the possibility of 75% of state workers telecommuting after the pandemic ends. So now should be the time state offices rethink how offices function. Also, as mentioned in the article, the only reason the annexation is in such bad shape is because for 70 years the Legislature found it inconvenient to their calendar to do major upgrades to bring deficiencies up to code along with other improvements. There’s a name for this in the world of historic preservation: “demolition by neglect.” Owners who have neglected historic properties often argue that they need to tear them down because they’re not up to code even if they were the ones who didn’t make those upgrades throughout the life of the property.
I highly recommend reading “No Annexation WithoutRepresentation” in Sactown Magazine.
https://www.dgs.ca.gov/RESD/Projects/Page-Content/Projects-List-Folder/State-Capitol-Annex-Project
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