Local News
Travis County Courthouse Preservation Master Plan Approved
In a win for preservationists, the Travis County Commissioners Court took steps on Jan. 5 to ensure the historic Heman Marion Sweatt Courthouse gets the maintenance it needs.
A draft of the master plan was unanimously approved, which allots resources to maintain the building as an asset for the community, after voters defeated a proposal for $287.3 million in bond funds to build a new one in its stead.
“We’ve been working on this plan for a number of years,” Belinda Powell of the Travis County Planning and Budget Office recently said to Community Impact. “We were hopeful we’d be in a position to draw down some grant funds right away … but since [the courthouse] will still be fully occupied we have a little more time, and I think the team feels like that’s a benefit to us.”
Grant funding will be required to help keep the historic building from insolvency, and County Judge Sarah Eckhardt is expected to look to legal experts for guidance on what might be done with the land formerly set aside for new development.
“We are receiving a tremendous number of phone calls and suggestions from the private sector with regard to partnership [and potential] utilization of the block that we own,” she told Community Impact.
It is a win for both champions of lower taxes and historic societies concerned with preservation. While the vote to keep the building as-is was narrow to the victors, 50.73 to 49.27 percent — it is expected to be upheld as the county seeks a solution to funding for the courthouse.
