Update: The meeting has been canceled. Council member Laura Morrison's policy advisor Barbara Rush said in an email that it was due to a "public posting issue." A new meeting date has yet to be scheduled.
Earlier: Formula One event organizers will hold a public meeting downtown this afternoon to talk about and possibly take action on a deal authorized by Austin City Council last month. The council gave its endorsement of an F1 racetrack being constructed in southeastern Travis County, unlocking $250 million state subsidies over ten years.
The board of directors of the Circuit Events Local Organizing Committee (CELOC) has scheduled a 2:30 pm meeting at 100 Congress Ave., Suite 1300. You can read their agenda here.
Meanwhile, freelance reporter Jacob Dirr, who has been closely following the F1 developments, asks in a piece on CultureMap Houston whether the track can even be constructed in time for the first scheduled race on June 17, 2012.
The truth is Formula One pushers still don't have permission to start construction on any of the actual buildings needed to house a spectacle such as F1, all they can do is start pouring the track, build a couple of tunnels and keep pushing dirt around. They only received permission to start actual track construction, by the way, at the end of June, despite claiming construction was "under way" long before that.
Nevertheless, F1 organizers must be breathing somewhat easier after a lawsuit against the Texas Comptroller was formally withdrawn last week. The suit sought to block the Comptroller’s $25 million per year subsidy of costs related to hosting F1 events.
The Austin Business Journal reported on Friday that the city is considering annexing the area of the F1 race track. The track is located in southeastern Travis County but falls outside Austin city limits. Annexing the land could provide Austin with an estimated $13 million over 25 years in additional property tax revenue. But that money would come directly out of the pockets of the track owners.
