Dallas leaders to vote on new convention center height to save historic viaducts

DALLAS - A decision is looming next week for the Dallas City Council as members prepare to vote on whether to lift the newly expanded convention center back to its originally planned height to avoid cutting off two major historic viaducts from downtown.

However, a new memo from the city manager is warning council members against making that change, sparking concern among neighborhood residents who fear their daily commutes are about to be severely impacted.

Convention center height debate

What we know:

The Dallas City Council will decide at its meeting this Wednesday whether or not to raise the convention center back to its original height. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee requested the design return to the original plans so the Jefferson and Houston viaducts remain connected to downtown Dallas.

Under the original plan, the expanded convention center was designed to be tall enough for traffic to flow continuously underneath the building. However, after efforts to cut $500 million in costs, the building's plans were lowered by two stories.

The backstory:

In March, city staff proposed a plan to divert traffic from Jefferson Street onto the Houston Street viaduct due to the lowered design. Currently, Houston Street runs southbound over the Trinity River, and Jefferson Boulevard runs northbound into downtown.

Under the city's latest proposal, Houston Street would be reduced to just one lane in each direction. Jefferson Boulevard would be configured to have two lanes in each direction but would dead-end into the Reunion parking garage, south of the convention center. The city would eventually build a flyover ramp to connect it to Houston Street.

Financial warnings vs. neighborhood impact

By the numbers:

The Dallas City manager said the proposed redesign will cost $597 million and delay the convention center construction by a year.

She said that delay would cause more than $271 million in lost clients and another $1.4 million a month in future losses.

Local perspective:

While the city manager is focusing on the steep municipal and construction price tags, nearby Kessler Park residents are urging officials to look at the broader community impact. 

Neighbors said they hope the city calculates the potential economic impact to local homeowners as well as nearby businesses in the Bishop Arts District that could suffer if the area is plagued by constant traffic gridlock.

What they're saying:

Sarah Marguccio is among the neighbors working to sound the alarm for commuters before Wednesday's vote.

"We were surprised when we found out," Marguccio said. "We have a lot of people in District 1 who are employed in the Central Business District. I think their daily commute is going to be greatly impacted. Employers in the central business district, I don't think even realize how much their employees are going to be affected and the retention in employees, how easy it is to get to work every day. It's definitely going to bottleneck and increase traffic."

Marguccio also expressed frustration over how the plans were handled by city officials.

"The most frustrating part is really just the lack of notification to the residents, lack of education and awareness, no community meetings really for it up until here very, very recently," Marguccio said. "I think that with as many people that use it and as valuable as it is to our community that it should have been something that we were a part of the discussion from the get-go and not an afterthought."

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