Garland (WBAP/KLIF News) – Garland has dedicated a renovation of City Hall. The expansion includes more meeting space and a renovated façade.
The renovation is part of Garland’s development downtown. Across the street, a mixed-use facility is being built. Several years ago, an apartment building replaced a parking lot next to City Hall.
“Most of the buildings downtown are a hundred years old,” says Mayor Douglas Athas. “It was designed when people really did walk around, so it’s a walkable downtown. It’s always been a walkable downtown; it is what people design towns to be.”
Garland City Hall has been renamed for former Mayor William E. Dollar.
“It hasn’t sunk in, yet. I’m truly blessed and truly humbled by this,” Dollar says. “I’ve been a part of Garland for a long time. Grew up here, and it’s been my career.”
Athas says a focus on downtown is part of Garland’s to maintain its own identity. He says Garland has worked to become a hub for road and rail.
“People view us a suburb of Dallas, but we’ve never really been a suburb,” he says. “I just tell people we looked up one day and Dallas was uncomfortably close.”
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