Dallas leaders are considering letting Fair Park First build a long-promised community park, with a new report from an advisory group and a briefing shedding light on the deal and where the project might lack clarity.

The nonprofit, Fair Park’s former manager, has more than $30 million in funding for the project but still needs a development agreement to construct the green space at the city-owned fairgrounds. Dallas City Council members are expected to consider the agreement Wednesday as millions in federal grant funding face a deadline.

Questions have swirled about whether Fair Park First is ready to deliver the park.

Everyone agrees that the promise to the South Dallas community should be fulfilled, council member Lorie Bair said Tuesday at a committee meeting reviewing the plan. She questioned whether the process was more important than delivering the park.

“I know that this has been a request that’s been a long time coming,” Blair said. “Can anyone here say that residents should not get what they’re looking for?”

Fair Park First has faced scrutiny since 2024, after nearly $6 million in misspent donor funds were disclosed. Last year, the city cut ties with the nonprofit and Oak View Group, Fair Park’s venue manager. The future of the community park project was left in limbo

A City Council committee was briefed on the new contract Tuesday. A decision on the agreement heads to the full council Wednesday.

Jason Brown, Fair Park First’s board chair, said that without a contract, Fair Park First has halted spending toward its next steps. More details would become available at the development’s next stage, he said. “We paused activity until we knew our fate,” Brown has said.

Task force review

The group reviewing Fair Park First recommended strong guardrails in a potential contract, according to its report.

The city’s Park Board president assembled the task force in December. In January, the City Council took oversight of the contract consideration from the Park Board as tensions grew over delays in the process.

The group’s report still went forward, finding that Fair Park First had advanced the project beyond the planning stage, with considerable work finished. The design and development stage of the park is complete.

Not everyone on the task force was convinced the nonprofit was ready to oversee construction. Ken Smith, president of the Revitalize South Dallas Coalition, said at the committee briefing that he wasn’t in favor of the consensus from the task force, adding that the group didn’t have important information needed to assess Fair Park First’s readiness.

“I don’t believe that we should make a recommendation,” Smith said.

The community park has been years in the making, part of a decades-long effort to repair damage after the city razed homes to build parking lots at Fair Park. More than six years of planning and community engagement have gone into the project, according to a presentation.

Following community input, the roughly 10-acre green space was to replace parking spaces at the fairgrounds near Exposition and South Fitzhugh avenues. It’s expected to include amenities such as playgrounds, picnic areas, a pavilion and fountain.

Task force findings

Fair Park First has demonstrated its fundraising prowess, but it struggles with the availability of financial information, the task force report said.

Members said they did not see a detailed source-by-source funding schedule. Details of the money that the nonprofit has on hand, versus the money donors pledged to give, are not fully documented.

The group also couldn’t get a clear sense of who would be in charge of what, although they noted the nonprofit was collaborating with experienced third-party vendors.

Vana Hammond, a Park Board representative on the task force, said Fair Park First presented a robust narrative, but it wasn’t quite an action plan.

“If you asked very pointed questions, we didn’t get very solid answers,” Hammond said.

Mark Jones, a task force member and CEO of Bonton Farms, said the group focused on the current situation, rather than the history of the park and fairgrounds, looking to find a resolution.

“There’s so many things that they are not ready to do because they don’t have the agreement,” Jones said. “When you factor in how far along they are in the process, it’s kind of like: If this happens, then this can happen.”

Brown said some requests couldn’t be addressed because the project wasn’t in the right stage. If an agreement is signed, Brown said, Fair Park First would move to its construction documents phase, which would get more “into the weeds” with a detailed plan.

Fair Park First finances

Fair Park First is just over $7.5 million short of its goal of raising nearly $40.7 million for the community park, according to the briefing.

So far, $33.1 million has been raised, with the nonprofit hoping to close the gap after an agreement is signed. Of the funding, Fair Park First has about $19.8 million available, with $13.3 million spent, briefing documents show.

Much of Fair Park First’s funding is promised. Pledges are expected to be paid over multiple years, some contingent on specific stipulations, nonprofit leaders said.

Fair Park First leaders have said they have tightened governance since the misspent funds were disclosed. On Tuesday, council members asked how the nonprofit could stick to its timeline or remain accountable.

Adam Bazaldua, whose district includes the park, said the push for the project isn’t because of the organization constructing it and that he believed the agreement had adequate oversight and accountability.

“This is about the South Dallas community, who has continued to be promised a better quality of life, more amenities and things that people have been afforded in all parts of our city,” he said. “This is an amazing opportunity with such great momentum that the last thing I want to do is pull the rug out from under the work that’s being done in the community.”

Terms of an agreement

The city would own improvements made at the fairgrounds, according to the presentation. Fair Park First would be responsible for all permits and held to a set of deadlines in the park’s creation. The nonprofit would give briefings to City Council, and the city may appoint a nonvoting member to Fair Park First’s board for financial oversight, according to documents. Additionally, Fair Park First would allow a city audit.

Council member Kathy Stewart, who chairs the committee that reviewed Fair Park First’s deal, said the agreement is structured with layers of accountability.

“It’s a good agreement,” Stewart said. “It does hold.”

Hammond, a task force member, said she hopes City Council members use the group’s findings as a caution, adding that there will always be unknowns in a project of this size, but “taking that out of the equation, there are still some underlying concerns.”

“As long as the council knows that and makes that decision with their eyes wide open, I think we did our job,” Hammond said.

Jones, also on the task force, said he hopes there is more transparency added to the project, which involves the community.

“Based on who they are and what they think they can do, who the team is that they’ve assembled, I think they should be given a chance to build it or not build it,” Jones said.

Staff writer Devyani Chhetri contributed to this report.

This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.