Dallas Mayor: Codes to Charter Need Changed

Chief on the list of suggested changes is the method of property disposition, Miller told a roomful of brokers attending the North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors' meeting yesterday in the Hotel Inter-Continental Dallas at 15201 Dallas Parkway in Addison. Miller, with the commission at her side, will campaign to alter the disposition process so the city can realize fair market value instead of being forced to accept a property's appraisal based on an application date.

In Hillwood's case, the existing process cost the city an estimated $6 million at the closing table, according to Miller. "Don't blame Hillwood," she said, "blame city council."

The outspoken Miller says council wouldn't go along with setting up a board of real estate professionals to oversee the way properties are handled at city hall so she struck up a deal for an unofficial commission as the starting point for change. The first briefing will be made in the coming weeks.

Dallas' top leader, just back from a family trip to Italy, said her greatest challenge is to change public perception, near and far, about the city. "The downtown has to be successful and vibrant," she said, again advocating the need to get retail on the street and out of the tunnels. She said a recent visit from top execs of Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc. supported her stance. "Anything we have to do to get downtown Dallas revitalized, we're going to do," she said, adding that includes filing eminent domain, if necessary, to secure key parcels like 211 N. Ervay St., a near-empty building that a grassroots group would like to see razed and the site turned into a park.

Miller's quasi-state-of-the-city spring address left no stone unturned as she advocated changing the city charter to put more power into the mayor's hands to discussing the need for a pair of "signature bridges" by renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and a Trinity River project four times the size of Central Park--all steppingstones for changing perceptions about the "Big D."

"People all over the world think of two things when they think of Dallas: the Cowboys and Southfork," Miller said, "and that is my biggest challenge. If we don't change the world's perception, then your business will suffer.