It was a busy week in Dallas, with some big votes from the Dallas City Council including one on food trucks and another on the Dallas Convention Center.
Here's what happened in Dallas this week:
Go food trucks
The city council passed an ordinance making life easier for food trucks. That includes allowing "fifth wheel" vehicles to be accepted as food trucks, meaning it no longer has to be a self-driving vehicle, it can be a trailer or cart.
The city council also marked down the fees and removed restrictions on where a trailer can operate. Trailers previously had to pay a fee every time they set up, versus food trucks that pay for an annual permits.
Restrictions on what can be served have been loosened. Previously, food trucks could serve frozen, breaded, and fried chicken and seafood, the only exception being raw fish items like sushi or poke. Now, the only requirement is that food trucks meet health code standards.
They've created a few pilot zones to allow trucks and trailers to operate without fees including Pacific Plaza downtown and Kiest Park in Oak Cliff.
The Brimer Bill
The Dallas City Council approved a resolution allowing for use of the Brimer Bill to fund the expansion of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, as well as improvement projects at Fair Park.
In a statement, Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax said that the appeal of using the Brimer bill would mean no increase in property taxes.
The Brimer Bill is a decades-old bill that created funding for stadiums, convention centers, and entertainment districts, and was amended in 2021 to allow financing of Fair Park.
Assuming voter approve, which they almost always do, the City of Dallas will initiate a new hotel occupancy tax at a rate of 2 percent. Make the tourists pay for it. The maximum hotel occupancy tax rate imposed from all sources in the City of Dallas would be 15 percent of the price paid for a room in a hotel.
Convention Center updates will include elevated ballrooms with downtown views, opening Griffin and Lamar Streets to natural light, and reconfiguring Lamar Street to create a central lobby and "an enhanced pedestrian experience."
An expected $300 million for Fair Park will renovate Cotton Bowl Stadium, Fair Park Band Shell, Fair Park Coliseum, Music Hall, the Automobile Building, and Centennial Hall.
Silver Line action
Beginning this weekend, both north and southbound HOV lanes of US-75 will be closed for construction of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Silver Line bridge in Richardson on Friday and Saturday overnights, from 9 pm-5 am through July 24, 2022.
Northbound lane closures will begin just south of Galatyn Parkway in Richardson and extend to the President George Bush Turnpike (PGBT). Southbound lane closure will start in Plano, north of Plano Parkway, and extend to Galatyn Parkway.
Located along Spring Creek just north of Renner Road in Richardson, the bridge will link the CityLine/Bush Station, which also serves the DART Red and Orange light rail lines, to the UT Dallas Station, which is currently under construction.
The 26-mile DART Silver Line project, operating on the historic Cotton Belt Corridor, will extends between DFW Airport and Shiloh Road in Plano.
