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Former Dallas Mayors Mike Rawlings, Laura Miller and Tom\u00a0Leppert after a news conference in November 2024 on city charter propositions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chitose Suzuki\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
Former Dallas mayors Laura Miller and Tom Leppert <\/a>agree the next mayor needs more power at City Hall. On Friday, they sparred over whether City Hall itself should stick around.\u00a0<\/p>\n At a Greater Dallas Planning Council event, a discussion about reviving downtown turned into a lively debate over the future of the I.M. Pei-designed building: Should the city keep operating there or move and open the site for redevelopment?<\/p>\n Miller said the city could keep City Hall and develop the land around it for \u201cwhatever entertainment complex, markets, basketball stadium, whatever you want to go there.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Leppert questioned whether anyone would invest in that plan. \u201cAt some point it’s not what we want, it’s what the market wants, and we ought to listen to that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n It was a preview of the political maneuvering Dallas residents could see as separate petition drives get underway to collect enough signatures to put City Hall\u2019s future and the mayor\u2019s powers on the May 2027 ballot.<\/p>\n Miller backs a ballot measure <\/a>to require city operations to remain in the building. Leppert has joined former Mayors Ron Kirk and Mike Rawlings in a separate push to give the mayor more authority <\/a>over the city manager and the budget. The next mayoral election is in November 2027.<\/p>\n Both Miller and Leppert said the mayor should have a greater say in City Hall\u2019s direction, including how Dallas tackles vacant office towers, aging infrastructure and homelessness downtown. But they remain at odds on whether that work should happen inside the current building.<\/p>\n Miller: Build around City Hall<\/p>\n Miller said City Hall was built to last 100 years, not 30 or 40. She said the city could preserve it while developing roughly 47 acres of surrounding land<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n She challenged the city\u2019s repair estimates<\/a> and said the cost of demolishing City Hall also needed closer scrutiny. Miller suggested demolition could cost as much as $600 million, citing figures the University of Cincinnati examined for tearing down its tallest concrete building.<\/p>\n Miller, a former reporter at\u00a0The Dallas Morning News who was mayor from 2002 to 2007, said elected leaders should take more responsibility for revitalizing downtown and attracting business.\u00a0<\/p>\n Former Mayor\u00a0Laura Miller speaks during a news conference Thursday on a petition drive being organized by the Save City Hall coalition.<\/p>\n Shafkat Anowar\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n She urged them to pursue developers, landowners and public funding more aggressively and to build stronger partnerships with private businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cThe leadership is not chasing every developer, every landowner, every state and county subsidies they can get their hands on to do that kind of transformative work,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Related: Boilers, repair costs and the escalating fight over the future of Dallas City Hall<\/a><\/p>\n Leppert: Listen to the market<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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