Travis County Commissioners Court will ask voters to consider an estimated $291.6 million price tag for a new civil and family courthouse this November.

On Jan. 27 the court voted unanimously to move the proposed bond referendum to pay for the courthouse from the May to November general election.

On Feb. 4 the court refined its project budget and voted to set the estimated price tag at $291.6 million. The court also voted to move forward with contract amendments with consultants to lower the escalation costs of the project.

Both 40-1 votesCommissioner Ron Davis abstainedcome after several years of needs assessments and community meetings, as well as related master planning efforts dating back to 2002.

[The] only thing I would like to say to the public is that this is in fact the largest brick-and-mortar bond initiative referendum that Travis County has ever taken on, Davis said. I think the discussion here has laid out a lot of things whereby we could eliminate a lot of doubt that may be in voters minds.

If approved and built as designed, the 14-story, 520,000-square-foot courthouse would include 28 courtrooms and a four-level underground parking garage.

In December 2010 the county acquired a site at Fourth and Guadalupe streets near Republic Square Park. Eleven months later the commissioners court approved a central campus master plan.

Staff briefed the court about construction costs as well as so-called soft costs such as professional services and inflation during the Feb. 4 meeting. The court also discussed alternate sites at Airport Boulevard and Palm Square at Cesar Chavez and I-35.