Last night’s Dallas City Council vote did not call for a wrecking ball to be at the Marilla Street plaza ready to take down City Hall as soon as the sun rose this morning. But what the members sitting around the horseshoe voted for could clear the path to that type of drama.
After three hours of executive session, 62 agenda items and dozens of public speakers, the council voted 12-3 to direct City Manager Kimberly Tolbert to explore alternatives to the current City Hall building and conduct an economic analysis of the area. The move came amid a ballooning estimate of what the deferred maintenance on the building would cost to fix; what was once $80 million has now reached $350 million, and city staff have warned the costs of repairs could go even higher.
The council has agreed that the status quo cannot continue, but only a small faction seems to believe that finding the money to renovate the building designed by the renowned architect I.M. Pei should be the path forward. While council member Paul Ridley proposed an amendment Wednesday night that would have slowed the process by first directing a third-party firm to conduct an evaluation of City Hall’s needs, function and wear and tear before a real estate assessment is done, the motion failed. A second motion, which would have created a task force of outside professionals to review the assessments and make recommendations to the council, also failed…