City officials have once again committed to a “deep dive” into plans to reuse the 50,000 acres of city-owned property, but there is no strategic vision and three different committees are evaluating the property.
These three committees — the Trust for Public Land, the Pension Task Force and the Dallas Economic Development Corporation — may also have different agendas for how city-owned property is used.
For example, the pension fund is facing a $3 billion deficit, and board members likely want to sell assets to put cash into the pension fund. It's unclear exactly how much of the city-owned property is parkland, but it is “important” and cannot be touched, officials said.
Council members on the Government Performance and Fiscal Management Committee, chaired by Chad West, have expressed interest in reusing city buildings as housing.
Housing does not seem to be at the top of Dallas EDC's scope of work.
At the October 23 GPFM meeting, in response to a question about how the EDC would value land for potential housing, board chairman John Stevens said: Go there. ”
dallas book of real estate
The issue of city-owned property remains on the agenda of GPFM's monthly meetings and was brought up again in the Nov. 14 discussion.
Assistant City Manager Robert Perez said department heads will soon submit an inventory of city-owned land under their jurisdiction, and a governance committee of executive leaders will search for potential opportunities. He said he would consider office space.
“We are aware that multiple groups are considering property in the city,” he said. “We make sure to take input from each group that is evaluating parcels and office space. Feedback from directors will now be scrutinized further. Typically, where land is held , it will be clearly stated that it is being held for future projects. Next time, I would like to hear more about the five-year plan, is it a subsidized project, and what is the content of the project? Additionally, we intend to explore lease agreements to see if there are opportunities to integrate leased space into existing city facilities where space is available.”
Creating and implementing a strategic plan will likely take two to three years, Perez added.
West said he wants to see a long-term vision that includes stakeholder input and can outlast the current administration.
“I think we need a plan and a codified procedure,” he said. “We're not going to tell you how to build it. It has to be a vision, something that will live beyond you and beyond us. Not just internal city officials, but taxpayers and the private sector.” I think it should be developed in collaboration with industry.”
Councilors Paula Blackmon and Carla Mendelsohn suggested tackling “low-hanging fruit” immediately instead of waiting two or three years.
“To be honest, I think we're so in the weeds on this issue that we were brought into this conversation because it wasn't really being addressed,” Mendelsohn said. said. “We're left with too many underperforming assets. We have to pay pensions. We need housing development. We need parks. A lot of city council members have told us these things. I’m sure you’ve heard about three priorities.”
Rather than looking at the entire portfolio at once, Mendelsohn said why not start with the Oak Cliff Municipal Center, which is vacant as development services and other staff move to Stemmons Freeway.
“There are some low-hanging fruit that can be sold or leased quickly,” Mendelsohn said. I hope it doesn't take him two years to plan it, but maybe at a retreat that you're holding, I'm going to sit down with this more detailed spreadsheet and say, “OK, this is what he's going to do that we know we can sell.'' 10 properties.'' Let's go get an appraisal. Once you understand how much we're talking about, let's have a serious conversation about pensions. ” If there are policies that inhibit action, they need to be addressed. ”
Reusing city-owned land as housing
During the Nov. 14 GPFM meeting, Mr. West referred to discussions that arose at the Housing and Homeless Solutions Committee meeting earlier that day.
“One of the concerns that came up was that there were no targets or numbers working on housing inequality,” he said. “The Child Poverty Action Lab told us what and how much we needed to build. [homes] we need it. Our Housing Policy 2033 does not contain a vision for what needs to be built. I think this strategic group should take the numbers that we need and say, “This is our available real estate. This is our available real estate.” How much can we use to fill that gap? ” It doesn’t even have a number because that part is gone and there is no strategic plan in place for this. ”
Councilman Jesse Moreno, who chairs the housing committee, said he is excited to see the discussion move forward.
“There are some packages that we have already identified,” he said. “He doesn't want to wait two years to get the work done, especially if he has outside experts to help.”
Perez explained that City Manager TC Broadnax shared some insight into what was done on city-owned land when he was in Tacoma, Washington.
“What I envision is incorporating some of the best practices that are being utilized in other cities into that executive order,” he said. “We know there's going to be some quick hits, so to speak. We know that [OCMC is] It will be a good project to watch for us. We are looking across the department to identify other projects that could be programmed in this area. [2024] hook up. We talked about redeveloping a fire station with housing, a rec center with housing, and some mixed-use projects. I think in the immediate or very near future, we're looking at projects that are packaged in bonds to actually secure funding to leverage public-private partnerships. OCMC will definitely be one of the projects considered along with other priorities across various departments. ”
