City Hall Relocation Prep Work Is Back on the Agenda Wednesday
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Council members are heading back to the horseshoe on Wednesday to consider authorizing City Manager Kimberly Tolbert to conduct advance work on relocating Dallas City Hall and its emergency dispatch operations.
Mayor Eric Johnson requested the meeting Thursday evening, one day after the city council voted to shelve repair plans for the I.M. Pei-designed property at 1500 Marilla St. Emotions have been running high as officials seem poised to advance relocation efforts, with a healthy 9-6 majority signaling support for sealing the building’s fate: redevelopment.
Wednesday’s meeting starts at 8 a.m., and there’s only two items on the agenda. One would empower the city manager to enter into pre-acquisition agreements and authorize up to $2 million in due diligence spending to evaluate up to four downtown properties as potential relocation sites for City Hall. Another item would authorize $1 million to accomplish the same for emergency dispatch operations.
The money would come from reallocated American Rescue Plan Act Redevelopment Fund dollars dedicated to public safety and core government functions.
As many as 200 people signed up to speak earlier this week to weigh in on whether the city should dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars to repair the aging municipal building. While far fewer ended up speaking because of a dueling-meeting type of situation that played out across the day and into the evening, there was plenty of passion on display over the historic structure’s fate.
Preservationists and other opponents of relocation argued that City Hall remains a structurally sound and historically significant public asset deserving of repair. Meanwhile, business leaders and residents in favor of relocation stressed the potential for revitalization downtown if the site were to be redeveloped. No doubt plenty on both sides of the issue will come out next Wednesday, too.
The meeting will be held one day before a scheduled hearing on June 18 concerning a temporary restraining order on the city from proceeding with similar agenda items, which Council Members Adam Bazaldua (District 7), Paula Blackmon (District 9), and Cara Mendelsohn (District 12) claimed in a lawsuit were too vague and in violation of city rules and the Texas Open Meetings Act.
Mendelsohn pulled out of the suit before the TRO was ordered by a state district judge.
On Saturday, a special benefit screening of the 1987 film RoboCop, which prominently featured 1500 Marilla St. for its Brutalist design, will be held at the Texas Theatre on Jefferson Boulevard in Oak Cliff. Doors open at 6 p.m. The movie starts at 7 p.m. Proceeds will go to the Save Dallas City Hall Coalition, which has signaled its intent to file suit against the city if it moves forward with disposing of the building or fails to make certain repairs in the next month or so.
The nonprofit’s latest legal notice suggested that the city may try to gift the property to the Mavericks (assuming officials approve relocation and redevelopment) in a bid to lure the franchise away from the former Valley View Center site. Such a transfer of ownership would allegedly violate the Texas Constitution, according to the group.
“Public funds and city-owned land are not the personal assets of city officials to be handed out for private real estate development,” the group said in its formal notice to officials. “The City already owns a world-class arena in the American Airlines Center, and there is no legitimate public benefit in gifting an additional 50-acre site to a private entity that is already established in Dallas.”
Mavericks CEO Rick Welts has maintained that his organization has been unable to get into real negotiations with the city over the City Hall site since officials have yet to officially decide on the building’s fate. He has, however, previously said the team would prefer a downtown location.
