Dallas City Council votes to explore new sites for City Hall

Dallas City Council members voted Wednesday to allow the city manager to do due diligence for the potential relocation of City Hall.

According to Dallas, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert may negotiate pre-development agreements on prospective sites and has appropriated up to $3 million in funds for that work. The vote was 9-5. Up to four potential properties have not been identified publicly.

"Today, the Dallas City Council took another major step toward doing right by our taxpayers," Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in a statement.  

The city said this is a "deliberate process to designed to give the City the information it needs to make a sound, fiscally responsible decision that better serves residents, supports staff, and supports Dallas's long-term growth."

Last week, city council voted 9 to 6 to reject a plan to repair City Hall.   

"Last week, a near supermajority of the City Council wisely chose not to pour what likely would have been over a billion taxpayer dollars into an obsolete building," Johnson said in a statement. "Now, as a result of today's vote, the City Council will be receiving even more details in connection with our relocation options in order to better understand what our future City Hall could be."

Council members also approved in a 9-5 vote relocating 911 operations and the Office of Emergency Management and Crisis Response to a more "resilient, purpose-built facility."   

Bizor Tolbert will present the options by the end of August to the City Council, which councilmembers would then vote on.  

"I'm really excited that we will be able to do the due diligence that people have been asking for," said Dallas Council member Gay Donnell Willis. "The numbers to renovate and repair this building are very high. They are just climbing with every deeper dive we do. So, I do think it is pulling us in a direction."

Council member Paula Blackmon said she and Council member Adam Bazaldua, who was not present for Wednesday's votes, are hoping a judge will void last week's vote because there wasn't enough notice to the public. Both council members believe the city manager and city secretary violated a judge's temporary restraining order preventing discussion on potentially relocating city hall. The judge will hold a hearing Thursday afternoon.

"I still don't know what the whole rush is," Blackmon said. "I don't know what is at play here. It's sad and confusing because I'm the decision maker and I don't know how it all unfolds."   

"It was just another step in the process," said councilmember Mendelsohn. "There is still a place to be able to say no. However, every step forward makes it harder to turn around."  

The debate has become a clash between preserving a distinctive, architecturally significant concrete landmark and unlocking the commercial potential of the land beneath it.    

"This deliberate process is designed to give the City the information it needs to make a sound, fiscally responsible decision that better serves residents, supports staff, and supports Dallas's long-term growth," Bizor Tolbert said in a statement.    

Former mayors call the building outdated

Former mayors Ron Kirk and Tom Leppert urged the council to prioritize downtown expansion rather than restoring the 47‑year‑old structure.

"It's just not a functional, workable building," Kirk said.

He added that if the city is prepared to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, it should "invest in a new vision and plan for this area," he said.

I.M. Pei's children urge Dallas to preserve City Hall

Sandi and Liane Pei, the surviving children of renowned architect I.M. Pei, are urging city leaders to preserve Dallas City Hall, which they describe as one of their father's most significant works and the only government building he designed.  

"City Hall is not just a building. It is really a symbol of its government," Sandi Pei said.   

The Pei family said the building is the only major work of I.M. Pei now facing possible demolition, and urged city leaders to consider its historical and architectural value before moving forward with relocation plans.