2025 in Review: Garland Voters Reset the Path

Garland voters reset the City's path in 2025, approving the four-item, $360 million Grow Garland bond program and electing Dylan Hedrick as the first new mayor in six years.

The bond propositions passed May 3 focused on streets, economic development, cultural arts, and parks and recreation. Voters were told the investment would happen without impact on the City's tax rate, which the City Council ensured in September when approving the City's 2025-26 budget.

On the same ballot, voters approved two-year terms for Council members Carissa Dutton, Ed Moore, Chris Ott and Joe Thomas Jr. Voters returned to the polls to elect Hedrick in a runoff and Garland's 38th mayor took the oath of office June 17.

Meanwhile, we continued to cut ribbons on projects from the 2019 Build Garland program:

• Holford Recreation & Aquatic Center, our City's single largest investment in parks and rec, ever
• Central Library, a new star in our Downtown core
• West Garland Library, doubling the size of its predecessor

And we added a little something different on the corner of Fifth and Main streets. The state's largest cowboy hat builds on Garland's official bragging right as The Cowboy Hat Capital of Texas. The City's continuing commitment to public art also included new murals created along Duck Creek and on Miller Road.

Also in 2025, Garland residents continued to take advantage of the revitalized public spaces Downtown to have a little fun. We gathered for:

New programs in 2025 included:

• Increased homestead and senior exemptions for homeowners
• WeCan, which addresses the health and safety hazards when people live in spaces not designed for human habitation - not a solution to homelessness, but a necessary response to the ongoing crisis
• Garland Forward, a 20-month process toward a new comprehensive plan
• Restore & Respond, a proactive code strategy to improve response and clean-up times for common violations such as overgrown grass, trash, debris and minor fence repairs
• Two new City Council Committees -- the Fire and EMS Stakeholder Committee and the All Abilities Committee -- plus expanded Garland Youth Council membership.

Thanks again, Garland residents, for your support because we couldn't have done 2025 without you. And there's so much more to come in 2026, including cutting the ribbon on the newly imagined Surf & Swim, progress toward a new senior center and two new fire stations, and the anticipated completion of the Texas Department of Transportation's $1.7 billion 635 East project to improve mobility in Garland's busiest freeway corridor.