{"id":382911,"date":"2025-11-16T11:59:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T11:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/382911\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T11:59:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T11:59:14","slug":"election-day-shakeup-parkland-fee-compromise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/382911\/","title":{"rendered":"Election Day Shakeup, Parkland Fee Compromise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"398\" data-attachment-id=\"379531\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/candysdirt.com\/2025\/01\/05\/dallas-councils-january-briefings-development-code-updates-permitting-process-improvements\/city-hall-roundup\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/City-Hall-Roundup.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"640,398\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"City Hall Roundup\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/candysdirt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/City-Hall-Roundup-300x187.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/City-Hall-Roundup.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/City-Hall-Roundup.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-379531\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll spare you this weekend on the latest drama surrounding Dallas City Hall, as there isn\u2019t all that much. Needless to say, the rumor mill is still churning, and the anger is palpable in some spaces online.<\/p>\n<p>As previously <a href=\"https:\/\/candysdirt.com\/2025\/11\/14\/mayor-eric-johnson-this-has-always-been-the-dallas-story\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>, council members are giving City Manager Kimberly Tolbert the go-ahead to start scouting for possible new digs and to assess the cost-benefit of moving out of 1500 Marilla St. versus catching up on the building\u2019s deferred maintenance. Staff will report back to the Finance Committee in February.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/save-dallas-city-hall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a petition is underway<\/a> calling on council members to slow things down and commission a comprehensive assessment of the I.M.-Pei-designed landmark. It\u2019s nearing 4,000 signatures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDemolishing this architectural icon would be an irreversible loss for our city, erasing a landmark recognized worldwide for its form, engineering, and vision. City Hall is not just a building, it represents our shared history, our commitment to progress, ambition for excellence, and our reputation as a world class city,\u201d the petition reads.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, here\u2019s a couple other things that happened this week:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Say So Long to May Elections in Dallas<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a bid to improve voter turnout, council members voted unanimously to scrap Dallas\u2019 May elections and move them to November on odd-numbered years.<\/p>\n<p>Voters approved the change themselves when the proposal came before them as an amendment to the city charter, making the city council\u2019s vote somewhat of a procedural hurdle (unless a majority wanted to thwart the will of their constituents).<\/p>\n<p>While everyone\u2019s basically on board, there is some interesting fallout from the decision. Some folks at the horseshoe will technically be termed out come June 2027 \u2014 Mayor Eric Johnson, and Council Members Jaime Resendez (District 5), Adam Bazaldua (District 7), Paula Blackmon (District 9), and Cara Mendelsohn (District 12). They\u2019ll be staying on serving an extra several months.<\/p>\n<p>As for everyone else, they\u2019ll be adopting a budget and making board and commission appointments not long before an election.<\/p>\n<p><strong>City Council Splits the Difference on Parkland Fees for Two-Bedroom Unit Construction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dallas City Council set a new parkland dedication fee schedule on Wednesday, increasing how much developers have to contribute for the acquisition of land for new parks \u2014 albeit by a more modest amount than staff advised.<\/p>\n<p>Under the previous ordinance, multifamily developers paid a flat fee of $457 per one-bedroom unit and $917 per two-bedroom unit. Staff recommended a rate of 1% of Dallas median family income for a one-bedroom, which bumps the yield up to $677.60, and 2% of Dallas MFI for a two-bedroom, which puts the contribution at $1,355.20.<\/p>\n<p>Council members landed on a compromise after a tie vote (6-6) failed to adopt the Dallas Park &amp; Recreation Department\u2019s proposal for multifamily. Instead, they went with a lower rate for two-bedrooms: 1.75%.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough last night\u2019s vote was disappointing, this is not the end of the road for Parkland Dedication Fees,\u201d Dallas Park &amp; Recreation Board member Rudy Karimi posted on social media. \u201cThese policies can and should be revisited, and I have no doubt they will.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Karimi had been working to raise awareness about parkland dedication fees after the City Plan Commission recommended <a href=\"https:\/\/candysdirt.com\/2025\/11\/10\/will-push-to-incentivize-housing-construction-come-at-the-expense-of-dallas-parks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">rates below what the development community itself had suggested<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019ll spare you this weekend on the latest drama surrounding Dallas City Hall, as there isn\u2019t all that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":207595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,14841,173987,178229,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-382911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-city-hall","11":"tag-november-elections","12":"tag-parkland-dedication-fees","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115559267344182258","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}