Providing tax relief to residents while providing essential services like public safety and street repair is a challenge all city governments must navigate. With an aging infrastructure, Dallas has more needs than it can handle. On top of that, our city is facing his $3 billion shortfall in police and fire pensions, which benefit approximately 10,000 active and retired public safety employees.
Meanwhile, military pensions are in the red by $1 billion.
If ever there was a time to get creative with how the city manages its assets, it's now. That's why taxpayers should be encouraged as City Hall moves to monetize underutilized City-owned properties. Officials have identified 10 properties for potential redevelopment or sale, an important first step in getting a consistent idea of all city-owned properties. The real estate inventory can be taken into account when city officials develop a 30-year funding plan for police and fire pensions, which must be submitted to the Texas Pension Review Board by November.
In total, the city owns approximately 50,000 acres of land, which is managed by multiple departments. Last November, a City Council committee floated the idea of creating an inventory of all the city's real estate so officials would have a complete picture of the city's assets when making decisions.
In an April memo, Assistant City Manager Robert Perez identified an initial list of 10 properties. The list also includes Oak Cliff Municipal Center, where the city's development department is based. Service Center on Canton Street. The property is owned by the Dallas Water Utilities Company in Hutchins. Officials are also considering alternative uses for two libraries: the Dallas Police Department Automated Storage in West Dallas and the Dallas Executive Airport in Redbird.
Parts of the 10 properties are being evaluated while city staff identifies funding for brokerage services to understand options for other city-owned sites. One of the buildings, the fifth floor of the Dallas Municipal Court building downtown, could be used by the city's Housing Authority to shelter veterans.
During this process, city officials should consider ways to use these assets in creative and fiscally responsible ways. In some cases, that could mean selling the listed property rather than redeveloping it, especially given that city halls aren't always good stewards of redevelopment projects.
The city recently embarked on a similar plan to convert underutilized city land into parks. Like that plan, this effort to reuse city-owned land works best with greater visibility into the future costs of redevelopment and maintenance. Completing the real estate inventory with this additional data will help Dara city officials make important investment decisions while addressing the city's pressing pension issues.
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