Marcus Annex Senior Center, one of four community centers that could be facing closure | Image by Dallas Park and Recreation/website

The Dallas Park and Recreation Department is considering more than $13 million in budget reductions for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, a proposal that could lead to the closure of four community centers, shorter operating hours at recreation and aquatic facilities, and reduced maintenance at City parks.

Dallas Park and Recreation Director John Jenkins presented the proposed cuts during a park board meeting as the City works through a broader budget shortfall tied to state property tax caps and voter-approved public safety funding priorities.

Jenkins said changes in Texas law limiting property tax revenue growth to 3.5% have strained the City’s finances, while voter-backed propositions directing more funding toward public safety have reshaped the City budget.

“That’s what the voters decided and rightfully so. Fifty percent of your revenues is going towards public safety. That’s reality, that’s a structural change,” Jenkins said, Fox 4 KDFW reported.

Under the proposal, the department would eliminate services at four community centers: the Marcus Annex, Teen Tech Center, Arcadia, and Umphress.

“This is not a partial reduction — this is 100-percent elimination of services at those locations,” Dallas Park Board representative Rudy Karimi said during a board meeting, NBC 5 DFW reported.

The proposal also includes reducing recreation center hours from 40 per week, limiting aquatic centers to 4 operating days per week, and delaying openings at Bahama Beach from Tuesday through Thursday. Other planned reductions would decrease litter collection and mowing frequency at parks across the City.

Jenkins warned that noticeable declines in maintenance could trigger complaints similar to those the department received in the 1990s.

“Let me tell you, all we received was complaints every single day about how bad the parks looked and more,” Jenkins said, per Fox 4.

At Kidd Springs Recreation Center in Oak Cliff, residents expressed concern about the possible cuts and closures.

“It’s a busy place,” said Lyndon Mitchell, who regularly plays games at the center, per NBC 5. “Terrible thing to hear that they might cut anything.”

Park board members discussed possible alternatives to lessen the impact of the reductions, including generating revenue through advertising on City park billboards and asking major park partners to absorb larger budget cuts.

Karimi suggested organizations such as the Dallas Zoo could temporarily take a deeper reduction than the currently proposed 3% decrease.

“I will say a negotiated reduction of even $3 million from the zoo’s management fee framed as a one-year shared sacrifice is far more defensible than the massive reductions in core services we saw earlier,” Karimi said, according to Fox 4.

Jenkins noted that the zoo has already voluntarily reduced its budget in recent years.

“We have world-class destinations with the arboretum and the zoo. We have built these things up, and we are proud of them in our City, and we can’t let them fail. So we have to get creative,” Karimi said.

Jenkins emphasized that the proposal remains in its early stages and could change before the Dallas City Council adopts a final budget.

“This is just the beginning, there’s a lot that [could] change between today and when the council approves the budget,” Jenkins said, per NBC 5.

Mitchell said residents hope City leaders reconsider the proposed cuts.

“Losing anymore would be hard, a lot of people — this is their lives, you know?” he said.