Temporary Restraining Order Blocks Vote on Dallas City Hall

A Dallas County District Judge temporarily blocked the planned vote on the future of the Dallas City Hall building due to inadequate time for public notice.

In a Tuesday hearing, judge Eric Moyé ruled that the Dallas City Council will not vote following an emergency petition brought by council members Adam Bazaldua, Paula Blackmon and Cara Mendelsohn. Moyé decided that the trio “adequately pleaded claims” that Dallas violated the Texas Open Meetings Act, and did not give sufficient notice of the special meeting agenda. The City Council is now blocked with a temporary restraining order from voting on relocating or redeveloping the City Hall building at 1500 Marilla Street for 14 days.

Moyé’s ruling states that once the city manager is given the green light for redevelopment, they enter contracts that bind them to their word. The landmark I.M. Pei-designed brutalist structure is “an irreplaceable civic landmark,” he said, according to the Dallas Business Journal.

The restraining order is temporary, and will expire in two weeks’ time unless the parties agree on an extension, according to the outlet. Wednesday’s special meeting was up in the air before it began.

As the city deliberates what to do with City Hall, one of the options was decided for them. Dallas kicked the tires with the Dallas Mavericks, offering up City Hall as a potential future redeveloped stadium site. The NBA franchise isn’t barred from entering into negotiations with the city just yet, but has publicly committed to building a new arena and entertainment center at the former Valley View mall site, which is within Dallas city limits, but not in the downtown area.

The push to move City Hall’s operations out of the old building has a key supporter: Mayor Eric Johnson. Johnson recently called the building “obsolete” and favors moving city operations out over shelling out for repairs.

— Hunter Cooke