Travis County May Stick Taxpayers With F1 Road Costs, Bill Oakey

This Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners will vote on a major set of road expansion projects near the F1 racetrack. This is Item #32 on the agenda, scheduled for 1:30. This item would have the taxpayers pay 100% of the cost for the roads using certificates of obligation,without voter approval! Below the agenda items, you will see a direct quote from the Circuit of the Americas from last year, offering to share the cost of the roads with Travis County.

You can review the agenda and the backup materials here: http://www.co.travis.tx.us/commissioners_court/agendas/voting_session_agenda.asp

Here is a breakdown of the F1 road projects, from Item 32:

CONSTRUCTION OF A FIVE (5) LANE ROAD FROM PEARCE TO STATE HIGHWAY 71 EFFECTIVELY EXTENDING KELLAM TO STATE HIGHWAY 71;
EXPANSION OF ELROY ROAD TO A FOUR (4) LANE ROAD FROM MCANGUS TO KELLAM;
A RESOLUTION FOR AN INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT WITH CENTRAL TEXAS REGIONAL MOBILITY AUTHORITY FOR PLANNING, DESIGN, ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE ROAD PLAN;
THE COUNTY’S INTENT TO ISSUE CERTIFICATES OF OBLIGATION TO FUND THE PLANNING, RIGHT-OF-WAY ACQUISITION, ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE ROADS; AND
DIRECTION TO THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE FOR TRANSPORTATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES TO WORK WITH THE CITY OF AUSTIN AND OTHER NECESSARY ENTITIES TO EXPAND KELLAM BY ADDING TWO ADDITIONAL LANES AND DISCUSS IMPROVEMENTS TO AND EXPANSION OF PEARCE LANE. (COMMISSIONER GÓMEZ) (End)
Please email, Facebook, and Tweet this info to everyone on your list and ask them to do the same. Ask them to come to:

Travis County Commissioners Court, 700 Lavaca Street, downtown

This Tuesday, at 1:30 PM

Last Year the COTA Entered Into Negotiations With Travis County to Share F1 Road Costs

In April of last year, the Circuit of the Americas offered to pay for the road improvements, and to seek a negotiated amount for reimbursement from Travis County.

Here is a direct quote from the COTA, from the Austin American-Statesman, dated April 5, 2012:

“We are proposing to start work on the road improvements now, with (Circuit of the Americas) paying the upfront expense. We are also proposing that Travis County would then provide COTA with a performance-based reimbursement for the county road improvements once they were complete. The percentage of reimbursement would be determined with county officials,” said Julie Loignon, a spokeswoman for the circuit.

From another Statesman article, dated Jan. 12, 2012:

“Both sides expect to work out a cost-sharing deal before long, but they say the project won’t be complete before the first race takes place Nov. 18.” And from the same article, ”Race organizers agree — begrudgingly, according to (F1 Attorney, Richard) Suttle — that the cost of the repair and widening of Elroy between McAngus and the track entrance should be split. The two sides diverge, however, on how much each side should pay.”

Memories have faded, the negotiations have been forgotten, the taxpayers get stuck!

Since last year those talks have been conveniently forgotten, and you and I, the taxpayers, may be stuck with the entire cost. Judge Sam Biscoe opposes the item, and Commissioner Bruce Todd proposes a Stakeholder Committee to review cost options. I could support Commissioner Todd’s very reasonable plan if there were no non-voter-apporved funding, and if he would simply add the cost-sharing negotiations with COTA.

Here is Commissioner Todd’s proposal: (See more details in the agenda backup).

I propose that the specific objectives of the working group should be to create a comprehensive roadway implementation plan to achieve the following:

A recommendation to the Commissioners Court 6 weeks from the inception of the group to include, but not be limited to:

1. Best alignments for long-term regional and local benefits

2. Potential phasing to provide immediate and long-term congestion relief for area residents

3. Funding sources including the evaluation of motel-hotel taxes

4. Funding and funding partners evaluated on the basis of direct economic benefit based on participation on roadway improvements

5. Partner participation including City of Austin (End)

You can call or email the other three County Commissioners using the links below:

Commissioner Margaret Gomez: (512) 854-9444, margaret.gomez@co.travis.tx.us

Commissioner Ron Davis: (512) 854-9111, ron.davis@co.travis.tx.us

Commissioner Gerald Daugherty: (512) 854-9333, gerald.daugherty@co.travis.tx.us

2012 Austin American-Statesman Articles, Showing COTA’s Willingness to Share F1 Road Costs:

Updated: 11:37 p.m. Wednesday, May 16, 2012 | Posted: 10:37 p.m. Thursday, April 5, 2012

Circuit of the Americas seeks assistance from Travis County for roadwork

By John Maher AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Circuit of the Americas officials are asking Travis County to pay for at least some new road construction in the vicinity of their $300 million racetrack and entertainment complex southeast of Austin.

The work would include widening Elroy Road to four lanes and the extension of little-used Kellam Road to Pearce Lane to create a new way to get to the track property.

Travis County Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt said it isn’t clear exactly what the circuit is seeking and added, “This looks like a very ambitious business proposal that is having trouble meeting its financial obligation. And so they are looking to the county to subsidize a portion of their startup costs.”

The 3.4-mile circuit is scheduled to host its first Formula One Grand Prix on Nov. 18. That would be the first F1 race in the United States in five years, and it’s been estimated that as many as 120,000 fans could attend.

Travis County officials have previously expressed concern about transportation to and from the isolated site, saying traffic delays for that Sunday race could be as long as 12 hours. Circuit officials have not dismissed the potential problems but have estimated delays closer to three hours.

For months, the county and the circuit officials have debated who should pay — and how much they should pay — for an estimated $8 million in road improvements for the area.

The county has said that it would pay for resurfacing McAngus and Elroy roads. The work on McAngus has already begun. There is construction going on at Elroy Road, but according to Bill Farr at Cash Construction, that is for a 30-inch water line parallel to Elroy Road.

Farr said, however, that it might be possible for the work being done on the water line to be used as a base for widening Elroy Road.

Circuit officials would like more than a mile of Elroy to be widened, from McAngus Road to the track’s northern entrance. The circuit would also like to see the county pay for some of that widening, citing the potential economic benefit to the area.

The county has said it will pay to repave Kellam Road, if the circuit then extends that road to Pearce Lane, which connects with Texas 130. Kellam is currently a road to nowhere, passing by a few houses and farmhouses before coming to an end.

Currently, two tracts of land stand between Kellam and Pearce. Weldon Copeland of Rainbow Properties said someone with the circuit has an option to buy an 82-acre plot at Kellam’s end.

There’s also a more than 600-acre tract owned by the state’s General Land Office.

Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson has been one of the most vocal critics of the state’s pledged financial support for the race. However, on Tuesday the office’s School Land Board unanimously approved the sale of more than 6 acres of that tract — presumably enough for a road to be built if the financing can be agreed upon.

In his application for the development incentive, circuit President Steve Sexton wrote, “While we are asking for road incentives, you may still decide that the value of our proposal to county citizens is worthy of an abatement or rebate also.”

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Updated: 11:45 p.m. Wednesday, May 16, 2012 | Posted: 7:53 p.m. Monday, Jan. 9, 2012

Elroy Road to be widened, but not before first F1 race

By Ben Wear AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

With Austin’s inaugural Formula One race back on the schedule for this fall, Travis County and Circuit of the Americas have resumed negotiations over how to split the $5 million to $6 million cost of repairing and expanding about a mile of Elroy Road, a bumpy two- lane county road that leads to one of the track site’s two entrances.

Both sides expect to work out a cost-sharing deal before long, but they say the project won’t be complete before the first race takes place Nov. 18.

With that and other traffic challenges in mind, F1 attorney Richard Suttle said race officials have two consultants working on a “highly choreographed” plan to efficiently move the 120,000 people expected to attend the race southeast of Austin.

“I don’t think it’s possible for them and us to get everything worked out and get the (road improvements) designed, permitted and built by the time they have their first race,” said Steve Manilla , Travis County’s transportation and natural resources director.

Perhaps, Manilla said, the F1 group “could come in here with guns blazing to pay a premium price to get it done quicker, but I don’t see that happening.”

Travis County, even before the possibility of F1 racing in Central Texas emerged two years ago, had intended to spend about $5.5 million rehabilitating more than three miles of Elroy Road east of Texas 130. But the prospect of heavy traffic on the road — the track’s north entrance will be about a mile east of where Elroy crosses McAngus Road — changed that plan.

The track’s other entrance will be on FM 812 to the south — both FM 812 and Elroy have direct access to the nearby Texas 130 tollway — and that two-lane highway will be expanded to four lanes by re-striping the existing 44 feet of road, transforming its broad shoulders into traffic lanes.

Both sides now agree that Elroy Road should be expanded to four lanes in the milelong stretch between McAngus and the track entrance — Elroy is already four lanes west of McAngus to Texas 130 — and that a low, two-lane bridge over Dry Creek needs to be replaced with a higher, four-lane bridge.

The two lanes of Elroy, which are rippled because of the unstable clay soils underneath the road, also would be rebuilt and resurfaced.

The county will move forward with the pavement repair on the rest of Elroy Road east and south of the track’s north entrance, Manilla said, a project likely to commence later this year. And he said the county likewise will rebuild the two lanes of McAngus between Texas 130 and Elroy.

Race organizers agree — begrudgingly, according to Suttle — that the cost of the repair and widening of Elroy between McAngus and the track entrance should be split. The two sides diverge, however, on how much each side should pay.

The county, arguing that repairing two lanes is inherently less expensive than building two more lanes from scratch and that the new lanes will be on right of way purchased by the county decades ago, wants Circuit of the Americas to pay more than half.

“They’ve told us, no more site permits until we come to shore on this deal,” Suttle said. “I think we’re going to get there.”