{"id":75740,"date":"2025-12-04T11:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T11:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/75740\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T11:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T11:50:09","slug":"annual-city-hall-tree-lighting-is-slated-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/75740\/","title":{"rendered":"Annual City Hall Tree Lighting Is Slated Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that time of year again in Dallas. It\u2019s time for Deck the Plaza, the annual tree lighting ceremony held outside City Hall on the paved civic space that\u2019s been enjoyed by residents since it was built in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for preservationists and those who hold dear what\u2019s been a mainstay of public gatherings in Dallas, the plaza would likely suffer the same fate as City Hall itself if officials determine it is more fiscally responsible to offload the property and relocate municipal operations than catch up on potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Karen Eubank for CandysDirt.com<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a little wishful thinking on social media about state law throwing a wrench in the works because of Akard Plaza (the facility\u2019s official name<\/a>, according to Dallas Park & Recreation). \u201cLand owned, held, or claimed as a public square or park\u201d cannot be sold without the approval of voters in a municipal election, per the government code<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some social media users have been pointing to this as a possible issue for prospective buyers who might want to transform all the space within the bounds of South Akard, Canton, Ervay, and Young into something like a sports arena or hotel and casino.<\/p>\n

Now, Akard Plaza is designated as a special-use area within the city\u2019s park system<\/a>. But that alone isn\u2019t going to be enough. State law includes a number of exceptions to the election requirement, including if the park is less than 2 acres. The plaza spans 0.1 acres, according to DPR. Other exceptions could also apply, like if the city used the proceeds of the parkland sale to finance a new park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s loopholes out there on top of loopholes that I\u2019m sure somebody will pursue,\u201d District 14 DPR Board Member Rudy Karimi told CandysDirt.com.<\/p>\n

Karimi said he\u2019s been advising preservation hopefuls that the parkland angle is no silver bullet. Even if the plaza was left out of the equation, City Hall by itself is valuable enough real estate with all the downtown revitalization<\/a> plans afoot. Pro-sale officials may not need to bank on offloading the whole space.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rudy Karimi<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much space for whatever redevelopment fantasies they have where they can literally say, \u2018OK, fine. You think we need to put the parkland sale up to a vote? We won\u2019t. We\u2019ll just keep it as parkland.\u2019 That\u2019s not going to stop them from any type of wild ambitions they might have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Of course, even if there was a vote, who knows how it could.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if things don\u2019t fall the way preservationists want it, I still think we\u2019re years away from any material change in that space,\u201d Karimi said.<\/p>\n

Akard Plaza is not mentioned in the resolution<\/a> that Dallas City Council adopted directing City Manager Kimberly Tolbert to explore relocation options and compare the costs to repairing 1500 Marilla St. However, one of the biggest potential repair costs involves the two-story underground parking garage located beneath the plaza, which suffers water penetration from above, where, of course, there\u2019s the fountain. Earlier this week, the city enlisted the Dallas Economic Development Corporation to oversee the task and present the findings early next year (more on this in our City Hall roundup this weekend).<\/p>\n

Deck the Plaza is scheduled for Friday evening. Those attending the tree lighting ceremony will be treated to live music and a fireworks show, with food trucks, giveaways, and activities for kids on site. Santa Claus will also be there, of course.<\/p>\n

Festivities start at 4:30 p.m.<\/a> Fireworks kick off at 7:15 p.m. to close out the evening. If you can\u2019t make it but would like to tune in for the ceremonies, you can watch live on the city\u2019s YouTube page.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s that time of year again in Dallas. It\u2019s time for Deck the Plaza, the annual tree lighting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[37391,37392,102,106,104,103,25604],"class_list":["post-75740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-akard-plaza","tag-city-hall-plaza","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-city-hall","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-rudy-karimi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}