A key component of Travis County’s Master Plan – a massive realignment of workers, buildings and valuable real estate holdings – remains grounded after staff signaled on Tuesday that it wasn’t quite ready for takeoff. Before the County Commissioners Court during its weekly voting session was a proposed policy framework to help guide the county […]
Travis County Civil and Family Courthouse
The Civil and Family Courthouse is currently planned for a redesign with a bond proposal for a 14-story, 511,000-square-foot building with 28 courtrooms.
Posted inTravis County
County planners pledge to keep courthouse block “alive after five”
Anxiety is palpable this week at 700 Lavaca St., where Travis County officials and planners nervously wait as early voters cast their ballots to decide the fate of the $287 million Civil & Family Courts Complex bond. While the Travis County Taxpayers Union, with its late but not unexpected organized opposition to the bond, is […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: In so many words
Last week, the Austin Monitor reported on a press conference held by the Travis County Taxpayers Union to announce the group’s opposition to Travis County’s $287 million Civil & Family Courts Complex bond. Due to space constraints, we included in that story only a snippet of remarks made by the bond campaign’s manager, Genevieve Van […]
Posted inTravis County
In Travis County’s courthouse bond campaign, a challenger emerges
With less than a month to go before Election Day, the first organized effort to oppose Travis County’s $287 million Civil & Family Courts Complex bond has finally materialized. The Travis County Taxpayers Union, backed by Austin City Council Member Don Zimmerman, held a press conference at City Hall on Wednesday to urge voters to […]
Posted inLocal Government, Travis County
Travis County sells service station
The Travis County Commissioners Court has approved the sale of a prime piece of real estate on the outskirts of downtown Austin in a deal that is tied to the $287 million Civil & Family Courts Complex bond election. Last Tuesday, the commissioners voted to accept a $1.359 million bid for the county’s vehicle service station […]
Posted inAustin
Courthouse proposal gets shut down in committee
A city proposal to relocate the county courthouse from downtown to East Austin didn’t gain any traction at the Audit and Finance Committee on Wednesday, but it did spark a heated conversation. Though City Council Member Ellen Troxclair moved to approve the resolution, she did not receive a second. The resolution will not move on […]
Posted inTravis County
Swift backlash for Zimmerman’s courthouse idea
City Council Member Don Zimmerman’s idea to relocate the proposed Travis County Civil & Family Courts Complex to East Austin drew fire Thursday. After years of planning, Travis County Commissioners voted last month to place a $287 million bond on the November ballot in order to replace the 83-year-old Heman Marion Sweatt Courthouse downtown. Genevieve […]
Posted inTravis County
Commissioners set courthouse bond election
Travis County’s largest bond proposition in recent memory has officially graduated from the Commissioners Court to the much more challenging court of public opinion. In a historic moment that capped off years of planning, the commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday to send the $287.3 million Civil & Family Courts Complex bond question to voters this […]
Posted inTravis County
Aging courthouse loses pace with growing county
As Travis County commissioners march forward with a plan to replace the aging Heman Marion Sweatt Courthouse, denizens of that historic building are pulling no punches in their description of it. “It’s awful. It’s terrible. It’s undignified,” was the way Judge Darlene Byrne described it to the Austin Monitor and other members of the press […]
Posted inTravis County
Commissioners lower courts-complex price tag
Travis County voters will face a slightly smaller-than-expected bond proposition this November, thanks to last-minute trimming in the proposed Civil & Family Courts Complex budget. At the Commissioners Court’s regular voting session on Tuesday, county staff officially unveiled the new $287.3 million price tag, a reduction of about $4.3 million from the previous number that […]
Posted inLocal Government, Travis County
Lawyers boost courthouse campaign
Members of Austin’s legal community have given a six-figure jolt to the campaign for a new civil and family courts complex. According to campaign finance documents filed last week, the political action committee coordinating the effort says it raised $134,439 in the first half of 2015. The Community for Civil and Family Courthouse PAC’s disclosure […]
Posted inTravis County
Travis County shops for tools to blunt courthouse bonds
Travis County will host a forum for developers to explore options for a second, privately built tower on the block that would also be home to the proposed $292 million Civil & Family Courts Complex. The Commissioners Court voted on Tuesday to schedule the forum to span July 8 and 9 with an optional third […]