Plano North January 2022

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Mixed-use development areas

Social and open spaces

This includes major school campuses, sport and recreational facilities, libraries, golf courses, private and public land, nature preserves, parks and trails. The plan prioritizes maintaining and upgrading city parks and facilities to serve the community.

These are medium- to highly dense development areas that contain shopping, entertainment, corporate oces, single-family homes and apartments.

These areas are meant to be pedestrian-friendly with high development standards.

Retail corners

The plan encourages redevelopment of some of these sites to reduce the square footage of retail. Retail centers are meant to remain lower-density areas and should be accessible by cars and pedestrians.

Moving ahead An earlier version of the guide, called the Plano Tomorrow Plan, was voted down by council in August 2020 after a lengthy legal battle. Some resi- dents voiced concerns that the earlier version was too focused on apartment development and increased density. Council then formed the 16-mem- ber Plano Comprehensive Plan Review Committee. Each council member was allowed to appoint two members to the committee. Charged with making revisions to the Plano Tomorrow Plan, the group members’ diverse backgrounds, and the input they received, made the plan stronger, Shockey said. Council unanimously approved the new plan in November following 15 months of work. Shockey said community engage- ment is a key aspect going forward. It can be updated when needed and resi- dents can provide consistent feedback. “We wanted to make sure that going forward, all parties have equal access to the process,” Shockey said. “The opportunity for [everyone’s] input is what pushed this thing to being a major success.” Plano resident Steve Lavine said the plan is not perfect, but it is a step in the right direction. “It certainly does not include every- thing I thought it should include,” he said during public comments at the Nov. 8 town hall. “But it is a great set of guidelines that we needed.” Day said the previous maps used for the Plano Tomorrow Plan were based more on policywhile the newmaps are primarily based on data. “It is intended to establish clear community expectations that help guide and manage development,” she said. “This plan is much more precise in what changes can occur and where.”

One example of that is in the plan’s redevelopment and growth manage- ment section. It states that in a request to rezone an area for a mixed-use development, no more than half of the proposed square footage should be used for residential housing. Being exible While the plan’s direction seems rigid, the mayor said it will be import- ant for city planners to evaluate each zoning case on an individual basis. That was the case on Dec. 7 when council approved a zoning change that will bring a large, mixed-use develop- ment tomore than 2million square feet of land owned by the Haggard family near the intersection of Spring Creek Parkway and Parkwood Boulevard. The request was submitted under the 1986 plan, but some residents and council members argued that approv- ing it would be inappropriate since the new comprehensive plan’s future land use map suggests that area is best used for open and recreational space. Council ultimately voted 5-3 in-fa- vor of the zoning change. Muns said that decision is an exam- ple of why it is important for the com- prehensive plan to be exible. “Let’s not assume that we are going to be too rigid; we need to make sure it benets the city” he said. The changing demand for oce and retail space in recent years, Muns said, is another reason the citymust have an adjustable plan moving forward. “We just want to make sure that we’re giving the city and future [councils] ... the exibility to make decisions on what the market demands,” he said.

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Doctors on the medical staffs practice independently and are not employees or agents of Texas Health hospitals or Texas Health Resources. ©️ 2022

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PLANO NORTH EDITION • JANUARY 2022