SAO PAULO (AP) — Rio de Janeiro Olympic organizers said Thursday they have all the construction permits needed to begin building the golf course, but a separate land dispute continues to be a threat.
The 2016 Olympic organizing committee celebrated having the permits, which allow “construction work to begin as scheduled.”
However there is still no resolution to the long-running dispute between two groups that are contesting ownership of the land, and no timetable on when the case will be settled.
One of the owners has repeatedly said he doesn’t want a golf course built in the area, and should the courts rule in his favor, that could derail plans for the construction, which was initially expected to begin last October.
Rio organizers have been dismissing the threat of the land dispute, however, saying that the current owner has provided all the documents assuring the city that he currently owns the land.
“The course will be built by the land owner recognized by the Rio de Janeiro Land Registry,” the 2016 Rio committee said in a statement. “There is no court decision preventing the owner from building the course at the site.”
The organizing committee said it has been keeping the International Golf Federation informed of all developments.
“We have been assured by the Rio 2016 organizers that there are no problems,” said Malcolm Booth, an IGF spokesman, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “The granting of the permits to start construction of the course gives us additional confidence that the work is now starting and that things are moving in the right direction.”
Organizers had already started clearing the land where the course is expected to be built, but until now they were still missing some of the permits that would allow the construction to start.
“We are very pleased to take another important step forward in the golf course project,” 2016 Rio committee Carlos Nuzman said. “We will continue to work very closely with course designer Gil Hanse and the International Golf Federation to ensure we deliver an excellent course for the world’s finest golfers to enjoy at the 2016 Games.”
Hanse — the American who won the course design bid over Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Greg Normal and others — has already relocated to Rio with his family to oversee the project.
Earlier this year, the International Olympic Committee was notified by a court official in Rio de Janeiro of the ongoing legal dispute involving the land where the course is expected to be built, and Royal & Ancient chief executive Peter Dawson earlier this week admitted that “it has been a worry with all the delays” involving the permits.
The course, expected to be built at the Barra neighborhood, where most Olympic sports will be located, will mark golf’s return to the Olympics in more than 110 years. The sport was dropped from the games following the 1904 St. Louis Olympics.
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