Council member Maxie Johnson had to sign a waiver to see the area underneath City Hall known as “L3”
DALLAS — The future of Dallas City Hall is still very much up in the air.
After hearing from engineers and even taking an extensive tour of the building himself, District Four Council Member Maxie Johnson leaves no doubt where he stands on the building itself.
“I believe, based off the experience of the engineers, it’s beyond life expectancy,” Johnson declared on Inside Texas Politics. “You have a lot of people that want to say save City Hall. My statement to them is we need a safe City Hall.”
Johnson was adamant that the fix isn’t already in and he reiterates no decision has yet been made about the future of City Hall, even as the talk grows that the Dallas Mavericks have a keen desire for the location.
City Council is expected to decide at the end of May whether City Hall will remain where it is and fix up the iconic, I.M. Pei designed building or relocate. And Johnson thinks the price tag will have the biggest say.
A recent report estimated that the cost to keep City Hall in its current building would be around $1 billion. That includes repairs and upgrades as well as relocation while renovations take place.
At the end of May, city staff will present an updated report that will provide more cost specifics and also include the potential price of moving to a new location.
Council Member Johnson expects the dollar figure for staying put to jump significantly.
“I’m expecting them to show significantly higher if we do a full gut renovation. If we’re going into the walls, you go into the wall, you’re gonna deal with asbestos, you’re gonna deal with unforeseen things,” he explained. “If you walk down the steps at City Hall, you’ve been there, there’s no rail for our senior citizens, for our handicapped. We’re not ADA compliant.”
There’s long been a myth that there is a hidden level beneath City Hall that even has a creek running through it. Johnson says that’s no myth. Known as “L3,” it exists and he’s seen it. And that’s the primary reason why he thinks the cost of staying is going to jump dramatically.
Johnson tells us he had to sign a waiver before he was even allowed to go down to that level. And he says the elevator doesn’t even list it as an option, instead only showing “L1, L2.”
“It’s like opening up a casket. And I looked in the hole I said, yeah, I’ve seen enough and they said no, you ain’t seen it. You gotta go down there. So, I went down there and even when you get to a certain level, the rails get very moist. I mean, it just made my whole body cringe. And then it just opened up to Old Mill Creek,” Johnson explained. “It was horrible. I don’t think I even have the words in my vocabulary to describe what I felt and what I saw when we went there.”