Plano Tomorrow Plan thoughts from Planofuture.org

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Plano, TX 75093
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SYNOPSIS OF THE ISSUE - PLANOFUTURE -

FUTURE HIGH-DENSITY AREAS UNDER THE PLAN

Here are future high density areas identified by the plan or recent zoning actions. As shown by experience the city can choose to add high density development almost anywhere through a "planned development" zoning action.

Higher resolution here

OAKPOINT - The City's newest Plan for High Density Oakpoint - See Discussion and complete Graphic Here Ghigh.

Below a a summary graphic see a more complete discussion in the link above.

Discussion

The City of Plano has released is its Plan for the undeveloped acreage around Spring Creek Parkway and Jupiter Road. This includes the over 200 acres at Lavon Farm and other surrounding acreage.

We are concerned about the Plan’s excessive concentration of high-density multi-family development and the impact it will have on the surrounding neighborhoods. The Plan envisions over 3,500 housing units which includes more than 2,700 multi-family units to be added to this area. That is in addition to the over 1,000 multi-family units that already exist in this area. This seems to directly contravene the desires of the existing residents.

The city launched a “community engagement” project it labeled “Envision OakPoint.” Meetings were held with invitations to the public. The response of the community was clear – the vast majority of East Plano residents did not want to see an over-concentration of apartments. However, the city planners and the developer interests already had a vision in mind that includes thousands of new apartments. Their Plan ignores the wishes of the citizens and instead adopts vision the city planners wanted.

On Monday, eveing January 29, at 6 PM, there will be a joint meeting of the city council and city planning and zoning commission to discuss the Plan. We believe that it is important for these representatives to hear your comments in advance of the meeting. We suggest sending an email to the city council at the following address: citycouncil@plano.gov to express your concerns or disagreement with the Plan.

Send an email to City Council at citycouncil@plano.gov

Here is a link to a Letter old you can print out and sign. Then scan or take a picture of it and email it to city council at the above address. THis is just an example. It would be better to put a unique letter in your own words.

If you want a letter to copy and paste it into an email, click here instead

VOTE JUNE 10

Keep Plano Suburban
- Strong Neighborhoods
- Great Schools
- Limit High-Density Apartments
Stop Overcrowded Streets & Infrastructure

Fact Checks

1. DENSITY Plano's Leaders say we need to make Plano more dense by adding lots of high-density apartments. Did you know that Plano was already more dense than each of the 6 largest cities in Texas, including Houston, Dallas and Ft. Worth? See Here

2. Number of apartments. When we started the Plano Tomorrow Discussion in January 2014, the City had about 31,000 apartments. By January 1, 2017 there were 35,000 occupied apartments Plano, but zoning changes already approved mean an additional 10,200 can get built. This will increase the number of apartments in Plano to over 45,000 yet the plan is only getting started. Read the details here. This would increase apartments to almost 40% of the housing. Apartments are less than 20% in Frisco & Allen. They are less than 10% in Coppell, Colleyville, South Lake, Highland Park & Universtiy Park. Do we want to be more like them or like Irving?

3. Property taxes The city and the establishment candidates keep claiming that we should like high property taxes because ”businesses pay over 50% of the property taxes.” This statement is false. See the truth here.

4. Wait till after the Election. Developments that were deferred will be back. See the example here of Haggard Farms West. After citizen opposition, they withdrew the re-zoning request and have been biding their time until the Plano Tomorrow Plan was adopted, the citizens fell asleep and the city council council we re-elected for four more years.

SUNDAY's PLANO STAR COURIER ARTICLE

Read the article here Did you know the city said they would fight the ruling of the Court of Appeals by appealing the matter to the Supreme Court? The statement is in the article.

The City has already spent more than $200,000 in outside attorney fees trying to deny its citizens the right to vote. How much more will they spend going to the Supreme Court.

WHAT ARE THOSE APARTMENTS BY LA FITNESS OFF MIDWAY?

Read about these and future Willow Bend Mall apartments here

MUSTANG SQUARE HIGH DENSITY REJECTED

It took a petition with 1,700 signatures and Herculean effort from Willow Crest and surrounding neighborhoods. It must be election season because most of the City Council is acting like it is listening (the Mayor and David Downs excluded). The city Council Voted 5 - 2 to reject Mustang Square in spite on the City's and P&Z's recommendation to approve the project. Residents believe the 3,000 apartments (including 830 under construction) within 1 mile in Plano plus an additional 2,500 units within 1 mile in Frisco (total 5,500 within 1 mile) are far too excessive for this area and will result in excessive crowding, and strain on infrastructure, traffic and schools. It appears that most of the city council finally woke up to "enough is enough").

See these stories

Pictures and summary from the meeting

NBC5

CBS11

Plano Star Courier

Plano TV recording (its over 4 hours long)

CITY LOSES APPEAL

City issues press release and posts to NextDoor with misleading information

THE POST BY THE CITY WAS A GROSS MISREPRESENTATION OF THE COURT RULING. The CITY LOST the appeal. The Appeals Court said the District Court correctly ruled that it has jurisdiction to compel the City Secretary to present the petition to the City Council as required by the City’s Charter. The City of Plano should be ashamed for trying to mislead the public about the Appeals Court’s ruling.

Read the Letter from the Citizens' attorney to the City's Attorney following the Court of Appeals Ruling. This letter demands that the City Secretary perform her duty based on the Appeals Court Ruling.

Read more here to understand the appeals court ruling.

Latest Update. On April 7, 2017, the Dallas Court of Appeals denied the City's motions for rehearing and reconsideration en banc, which leaves in place the Court’s prior ruling that the City Secretary must present the citizen petition regarding the Plano Tomorrow Plan to the City Council. The City City has said that the City plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, the deadline for for the City of Plano to appeal to the Supreme Court of Texas falls after May 6, 2017, the date of the municipal election. It is clear the city intends to use all of its time to appear to continue to drag this out and prevent a ruling before the election.

Here is the ruling of the Appeals Court of Texas.

Here is a DMN Article. It mostly gets the story right, but includes the City's sound bite that "the Appeals Court did not order the City Secretary to present the petition to council." That is because that Appeals Courts do not do that; it is for the District Court to issue the the order, which it will do. The article does state that the Appeals Court said it was clear that the City Secretary did not perform her duty.

MUSTANG SQUARE At CC on February 27, 2017, 7 PM.

The City Council will consider the Mustang Square development opposed by the neighbors on Monday February 27, 2017.

Link to MUSTANG SQUARE LETTER TO P&Z Feb 5 2017

BIllingsley floods market with apartments at Austin Ranch

Did you know that just outside Plano's border at Windhaven west of Marsh, Billingsley is planning 13,500 apartments in Austin Ranch? Right now there are about 3,000 - that means another 10,000 more.

Thankfully this massive development is just outside our borders, although many of these residents are crowding Plano's facilities like the Arbor Hills Park that adjoins Austin Ranch.

What Happens When the Toyota Dealership at Preston & George Bush moves?

See this graphic - 1,000 to 1,200 apartments.

Here are examples of recent high density development in Plano that concern us.

See the NBC5 news story of February 10, 2017

Here are more examples of recent developments that disappoint Plano citizens and do not live up to promised standards for high quality walkable mixed use developments.

PLANO FUTURE -

THE ISSUE -HIGH DENSITY RESIDENTIAL-
If you are unfamiliar with the issues surrounding Plano's Comprehensive Plan, see a summary of the issue below or see the attached letter sent in early 2015. Here is the Land Use Plan as adopted. As discussed below, it encourages and will allow the addition of high density residential almost anywhere that there is not currently a house. Although the Plan uses words like "generally not appropriate" in certain designations, it is clear that these weasel words will actually be used to allow high density residential throughout the city. This becomes apparent, when you compare to the original draft language proposed by the staff and then realize the Staff was only changing the words to make it less apparent what they wanted; they were not changing the meaning.

What was particularly troubling was that the city did a survey in 2013 / early 2014 of its residents about that asked questions about how the remaining available land should be used. Even though the survey had questions that were slanted to get an intended result, it was very apparent from the survey that the citizens did not want high density development. When the City presented its Plan in the fall of 2014, it claimed the survey supported the Plan. This was a complete distortion of the survey. See a couple of key survey responses here. These matters are discussed further below.

The Citizens see this Plan as an intent to Urbanize Plano and a threat to Plano's suburban environment that has made it a safe city with great schools and a high quality of life with a very diverse popluation. This is the reason most of us selected Plano as a place to live. The high-density urbanization is overcrowding our streets, schools, parks and infrastructure. Plano for 20 years stated that it had a design capacity of 270,000 people. We are now at 285,000 and have already approved enough additional projects to take the city to 300,000. We do not need to destroy what is good by continuing down this urbanization path. We do not want to be "just like Dallas."

APPEALS COURT HEARING NOVEMBER 8th UPDATE

On November 8, 2016, a hearing was held on the City's appeal of its loss in district court on its claims of immunity and that judicial review does not apply to it. We were encouraged by the hearing. Very little time was spent on the city’s arguments regarding immunity and jurisdiction. Instead, the Appeals Court justices focused their attention on the City’s claim that citizens cannot vote on the comprehensive plan. We take this as an indication the court did give much weight to the city’s arguments regarding immunity and jurisdiction. We believe there is a strong possibility the Court will rule on the merits of our case instead of just denying the city’s appeal and then sending our case back to district court to be heard. Each justice held his/her opinions close to the vest and peppered both sides with tough questions. We are cautiously optimistic about the outcome.

That said, it may still be some time before a ruling is made. Because it is a three-judge panel, they will spend additional time reviewing and discussing the parties' submissions and reflecting on the hearing before writing an opinion. This process can take months. Even though we would like a ruling as soon as possible, we understand we will have to wait until their opinion is issued.

Regardless, it was clear that the city and its two high powered outside law firms were having to stretch hard to make their case and the appeals court believes there are substantive questions and concerns about the city’s position. This is far from the slam dunk “it's impossible for citizens to vote” position the city portrayed to its citizens.

With the state and national elections over, it is time to begin ramping up for the Municipal elections to be held next May. It is apparent that real change will only come with a turnover in City Council. We are working on vetting candidates and are interested in any contact you have with potential candidates.

UPDATE of OUR RESPONSE to the CITY's FAQ.

The City has an FAQ posted on its website that attempts to refute a number of our statements and concerns about the Plano Tomorrow Plan. When it was issued, we immediately issued a statement pointing out that the City's lengthy FAQ was full of misrepresentations and misstatements. We have an updated point by point response that takes into account recent City actions and developments. The complete response may be found here and there is an accompanying discussion describing how we arrived at the estimated 40,000 apartments that could be added under the Plan. And here is the map of apartments added or approved since January 1, 2014.

PLANOFUTURE Testifies at Texas House Committee on Elections

On September 22, 2016, PlanoFuture testified about the petition process, the City's refusal to act and the Citizens' Lawsuit against the City. The Elections Committee is considering whether changes need to be made to state law to assure that citizens have a voice in their government. See a video of the testimony and read the comments submitted by PlanoFuture.

UPDATE on APARTMENT CONSTRUCTION in Plano.

Thank you to the many of you who wrote letters and emails to the City Council and P&Z objecting to the Commodore high-density apartments on Rasor. Although our neighbors were not successful; they lost by a vote of 3 to 2 in a meeting at which 3 council members were absent. One of the city councilmen asked that the vote be deferred until a meeting at which all eight members were present but the mayor would not have it. This high density development of an additional 500 apartments plus 350 already under construction will bring the total to over 3,000 apartments in this tiny area. This is far too much concentration of high-density apartments. Would you want this in your neighborhood? To help you appreciate our concern see the attached pictorial map of the development. Here is an example of a letter with the neighbor's objections. Weeks after this case P&Z approved another 450 high-density apartments at Mustang Square. The Citizens took the fight to City Council in Late February.

See also the attached file of recent apartment construction in Plano and examples of construction we do not want.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

DART's Cotton Belt discussion

See the attached opinion piece for a discussion of the city's spending plans for DART. The City is trying to influence DART to add the Cotton Belt Line. Although this discussion is long, it provides an interesting narrative on ridership and the city's monetary commitments to DART. Let us know what you think.

AUGUST 12, 2016 (updated Aug 22)

The City's proposed 2017 budget and escalating property taxes.

See the attached document for discussion of property tax increases being proposed by the city. The "1 cent reduction" is actually a massive increase. The document also discusses how the city is squirreling away money in "TIF" Funds and economic development funds to dole out to friends and favored causes. Our tax rate could be much lower and more important city priorities could be funded.

LET THE CITIZENS VOTE!!

AUGUST 5, 2016

The Citizens of PlanoFuture have filed their response to the City's appeal of the district court's May 16th ruling. We expect the court to rule on the appeal around the end of the month. The full response can be found here. Below are a couple of excerpts of the response filed by Jack Ternan of the Ternan Law Firm (Note: Appellants = the City et al, Appellees = the citizens):

"This appeal was filed by Appellants solely to delay a public vote on the Ordinance. Appellees’ claims for mandamus and declaratory relief fit squarely within settled exceptions to governmental immunity. Appellants’ arguments regarding the merits of the claims are also without merit. Appellees request that the Court expeditiously affirm the Trial Court’s denial of Appellants’ plea to the jurisdiction so that the democratic process may proceed.

"With respect to the first issue, Appellants have not identified any jurisdictional defect regarding Appellees’ claims for mandamus relief. Government officials have no immunity from suits seeking to compel compliance with a ministerial duty. The City Secretary and members of the City Council have failed to comply with the ministerial duties in the Charter, and Appellees have sought writs of mandamus to compel compliance with the Charter. Accordingly, the Trial Court has jurisdiction over Appellees’ claims.

"Recognizing the frivolous nature of its jurisdictional argument, the bulk of Appellants’ brief addresses an issue irrelevant to the jurisdictional question on appeal—namely, whether Appellants will prevail on the merits of their affirmative defense to Appellees’ claims. In short, Appellants argue that a comprehensive plan is akin to zoning and, therefore, a referendum should not be permitted. However, the Supreme Court of Texas has made clear that only the Legislature (or charter amendment) can limit the public’s right to a referendum, and the Texas statutes governing comprehensive plans expressly preserve charter rights. Accordingly, to the extent the Court desire to opine on the merits of the case, Appellees prevail on those issues...."

JULY 5, 2016

Today the City filed its appeal of the district court's May 16th ruling. It appears to be a rehash of the same arguments already rejected by the court. By taking almost two months to file the appeal, the city is continuing to drag this matter out and wasting taxpayer money. The appeal is filled with arguments that are not relevant and seeks to make up in volume what it lacks in substance. If you have an interest in mind-numbing cites and irrelevant arguments, a copy of the 98 page appeal can be found here.

MAY 16, 2016 UPDATE - CITY'S MOTION DENIED

At the hearing today, the trial court denied City’s Plea to the Jurisdiction. Until now, the City Council’s excuse for failing to call an election on the Plano Tomorrow Plan had been the advice of counsel. Now that their counsel’s arguments have been rejected by a Court, the City Council has no excuse for continuing to thwart the will of the people. Unfortunately, they have chosen to waste taxpayer money by filing a notice of intent to appeal. We urge the City Council to end its fight against the people and to withdraw the appeal.

See the Dallas Morning News Article

FINALLY!! A COURT DATE!! Next Monday MAY 16, 2016

On Monday, May 16, 2016, the Court will hold a hearing on the City of Plano’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit. The City is trying to make us refile the lawsuit on procedural grounds in a different jurisdiction which would cause further delays rather than resolve the issue based on the facts and the law. Copies of the City’s plea to the jurisdiction and Plaintiffs’ response can be found Here.

Coppell Rejects High Density mixed use zoning - June 2016

Coppell City Council voted to amend the city's Comprehensive Land Use Plan and remove several areas of mixed-use residential designations that were in the original 2011 plan. See the attached article - it can be done.

Colleyville Citizens Throw Out City Council!

High Density Comprehensive Plan opposed by citizens. See article

Record Turnout in Colleyville Ushers in New Majority –

excerpts:

"By nearly a 2-1 margin, record voter turnout in May’s local election has retired three incumbents on the Colleyville City Council…despite hundreds of residents repeatedly attending council meetings in late 2015 to voice concern over high-density zoning designations, the council passed their new 190-page comprehensive plan five years ahead of schedule, in a 5-2 vote. Citizens were so upset they booed the council and promised change at the ballot box."

GET INVOLVED!

Plano's next election is May 2017 and we need to be prepared to act. It is time to start mobilizing. Email us if you are willing to get involved or know potential candidates.

Do we live in Caracas?

See this article from the WSJ on Venezuela. Does it sound like Plano? Trying to refuse the citizens' right to vote.

MARCH 7, 2016

The City of Plano filed a general denial of the legal action to compel the city to count the citizen petitions to require a referendum on the Plano Tomorrow Plan. A copy of the filing can be found here. A general denial is a standard response, which merely requires that we prove our case. The biggest take-away from the filing is what it does NOT say. The city offered no support for its position.

The plaintiffs will continue to move forward to compel the city to withdraw the Plan or allow the citizens to vote on the Plan. We will update you as this moves forward.

FEBRUARY 2, 2016 LAWSUIT FILED!!

A lawsuit has been filed against the City of Plano and Plano officials on behalf of several of our members. The suit aims to compel Plano officials to comply with their obligations under the City Charter in connection with the handling of a petition calling for a referendum on the Plano Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan. See the filing Here

Here is the Dallas Morning News Story

PETITION DRIVE IS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED!!

BREAKING NEWS January 20, 2016

Several members of our organization have retained the Brewer Storefront to provide legal representation in connection with the City of Plano’s refusal to comply with its Home Rule Charter in its handling of our petition for a referendum on the Plano Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan. This letter was submitted on January 20, 2016 to the city attorney and city council demanding compliance with the City of Plano’s obligations under the Home Rule Charter.

Donations now accepted for Legal and Other costs to require a VOTE on the Plan. Contribute by check and mail to:

Citizens 4Strong Neighborhoods

5913 Valleybrook Dr

Plano, TX 75093

or Click Here to donate online at GoFundMe.

See the article in January 24th Plano Star Courier here

See Monday's story on WFAA Here (Jan 25) (2 stories, play both)

See Sunday's KTVT Story Here (Jan 24)

and Monday's KTVT story Here (Jan 25) (Plano Faces Possible Legal Challenge)

Like us on Facebook/smartplanofuture

The City’s statements that we cannot petition for a referendum to allow the citizens of Plano to vote on the Plano Tomorrow Plan are FALSE, according to our attorneys. At the November 23, 2015, City Council meeting, the city secretary stated that she refused to count the Citizens' petitions on the orders of City Manager Glasscock and City Attorney Mims. We will be taking the city to court under a Writ of Mandamus to compel the city to count the petitions and allow the citizens to vote on the Plano Tomorrow Plan.

New - see the Dec 1st interview of the Mayor on Fox4 News here

We started a petition drive on October 24 and successfully completed it in two weeks time.. We needed 1,861 signatures to force an election on the Plano Tomorrow Plan. On Tuesday November 10, 2015 we turned in petitions to the City Council (c/o the City Secretary) with over 4,000 signatures - more than twice the required number. Thank you to the over 4,000 of you that participated in this effort. And to the hundreds more contacting us wanting to sign, we are sorry we ran out of time to get your signature; we only had two weeks to do this. The response has been overwhelming and gratifying.

Kudos to the 80+ Volunteers that stood out in the rain both weekends collecting signatures.

We will see what comes next but rest assured - we are not going away.

Link to story on NBC5

CITIZENS RESPOND TO CITY'S STATEMENT

We believe the city’s position regarding the inability to have a petition is based on twisted logic and is not supported by law and, if necessary, the citizens will prevail in court.

Instead of wasting time and tax dollars fighting their own citizens, the city council should be working with the citizens to listen to their concerns and amend the plan. The people of Plano have spoken loud and clear on this issue, beginning with the city's survey in the fall of 2013, the library meetings in November of 2014, continuing through the public hearings and forum in the first half 2015, in over 1,000 messages and letters and at the planning and zoning and city council meetings in September and October of 2015. The reactions of the Mayor LaRosiliere, City Manager Bruce Glasscock and the City Council have been to just ignore the citizens and pass the Plan anyhow. The reaction of the citizens has been one of increasing frustration and growing recognition that the city council is not interested in the people they were elected to represent.

Over four thousand voters signed this petition in a grass roots effort in two weeks time and they did this in spite of city threats and messaging that it would all be a wasted effort. It is time for the city council to listen. If council members are not interested in listening, they should step down and let others lead that are interested in following what the people they represent have to say.

Regardless of any litigation, the verdict is clear – Mayor LaRosiliere and the city council have LOST in the court of public opinion.

PAC Set up - Donations gratefully accepted.

We are fighting the City's contention that the petition is not allowed. We believe this is an illogical interpretation of the law and we have engaged legal counsel to prepare to contest this position. You can donate to our PAC - Plano Citizens 4Strong Neighborhoods, 5913 Valleybrook Dr., Plano, Tx 75093. (by check)

We have also set up a GoFundMe page to accept donations.

Message to Plano Homeowners -

Here is a link to the Channel 5 NBC news story (Oct 1) the Plano Star Courier (Oct 10) and DMN (Oct 9). More articles here

Join our email list to show your support and be kept up to date or send an email to committee@planofuture.org

Like our facebook page /smartplanofuture to help spread the word and get status updates.

City Council VOTE (October 12)

Thank you to 1,000+ that sent messages to the city, the 320+ who showed up for our cause at Monday's (Oct 12) City Council meeting, and especially the 85 of you who signed up to speak. Your comments were outstanding. They can be viewed plano.gov/planotv or this link (Item 3, parts 1,2,and 3). We were disappointed by the vote on the Plano Tomorrow Plan and we have heard your frustration loud and clear. Mayor LaRosiliere pushed hard for the vote. In spite of the City and Chamber of Commerce blasting out thousands of emails they had very few common citizens to speak in favor of this. Of the few who showed up in support, most were part of the city power structure - the developers, and former mayors who said trust our leaders and support the Plan but it was apparent that they had never read the Plan.

WHAT'S NEXT October 14.

We are committed to keep up this effort to see that we get development that makes sense and is accretive to city and to our schools. It is clear that there is a high level of frustration that we were unable to get many of the changes we believe are essential. A group, which includes several citizens that have been involved with PlanoFuture, have formed a separate organization for the purpose of starting a recall petition. Many have expressed an interest in this. That group, ProtectPlano.org, has created a website and facebook page (facebook/protectplano) for their effort.

CITY RESPONDS WITH MORE MISINFORMATION OCTOBER 9

We understand the city has responded to emails and to today's advertisement with more information.

Since November 2014 we have asked the City to state how many apartments could be added under then Plan in each of the desginated areas like "Compact Complete Centers," "Regional Centers," "Transit Corridors," etc. They have steadfastly declined to do so. How can you call it a plan if you can't tell us what it means to future development? We also asked them to cap the number of apartments that could be added.

See the attached document that estimates the number of apartments that could be added under the plan and backs up our number of 40,000. Just like the plan, which is intended to be the long term outlook, this is the estimated number that could be added over the term of the Plan.

Other misinformation being spread by the city. The city says it has had contact with 4,000 residents about the plan. The City does not tell you that the overwhelming majority objected to the land use plan.

The city has over 31,000 apartments currently in operation and thousands more approved and on the way. To make it look like less, beginning in 2015, the city changed the reporting in its Annual Housing Study to call 5,000 of those apartments “urban units” – as if that is something different than apartments. Is that intended to mislead the citizens?

We have provided a map of and listing of the 10,000 apartments added / approved since January 1, 2014 since the city keeps trying to say it is only 5,000 to 6,000. (see below).

For years, the City told Plano citizens that the population would max out at 270,000, which is its population today. Beginning in 2014, the city began to increase this number. The City Manager has repeatedly stated in 2015 that city will grow gradually over the 20 years to 295,000 – but they have already approved enough new housing to reach 295,000 in the next few years without all the additional “urban units” and dense mid-rise apartments in the Plano Tomorrow Plan.

Today in its refutation, is the first day the city has ever used 300,000 for a future population (and statements make it clear they were no longer talking about in 20 years). How much will it be tomorrow?

Over 700 citizens sent letters since mid September in opposition to the Urbanization and Dense Apartments proposed by the Plano Tomorrow Plan– this passed the 1,200 mark in total during the past year including many Homeowners Associations representing more than 10,000 citizens. About 300 people attended the P&Z meeting on Monday September 21, 2015 to express their opposition.

Send this letter / email to City Council, September 2015

Here is a Word Version to copy and paste into your email or a PDF version to print and scan and mail - email to planning and zoning. Note: you can print it out, sign it and take a picture with your phone and email the picture to P&Z. See the Send a Letter link for text you can cut and paste directly into an email. The addresses of where to send the email are:

citycouncil@plano.gov; mayor@plano.gov; Chrisd@plano.gov; bruceg@plano.gov; committee@planofuture.org; lissasmith@plano.gov; benharris@plano.gov; angelaminer@plano.gov; rickgrady@plano.gov; ronkelley@plano.gov; tomharrison@plano.gov; daviddowns@plano.gov

Map of Apartments Added / Approved Since January 2014

Click HERE for full size of this map

Here is a 2016 update of the map.

Article in September 18 Dallas Morning News, page 29P.

See the article with this link.

And See the Plano Star Courier Article here.

Our Goal for Plano’s Future

Our goal is to encourage P&Z commissioners to amend the city staff's plan so there is less emphasis on high density residential development and more priority given to preserving the suburban character of Plano's neighborhoods and schools. We believe the Plan could result in Plano adding 30,000 to 40,000 apartments to Plano as it is implemented.

Citizen Involvement is Making a Difference

The Plano Tomorrow Plan is an important document and it will be used as a guideline for future zoning and redevelopment. Please explore the information on this page and come back for new items as the date of the P&Z public hearing comes closer. Your opinion matters.

Join our Email List

Here is an open letter to Planning and Zoning discussing the impact of urban development on our neighborhoods and schools and the urgent need to for the Plano Tomorrow Plan to address these issues.

NEW - August 10th - Letter to P&Z - Comments on the Plano Tomorrow Plan

See our letter on Amendments we would like to see to the Plano Tomorrow Plan, including a mark-up of the documents

Here is Word Version to copy and paste into your email or a PDF version

NEW – June 29^th Meeting

See our presentation of June 29, 2015 to the Planning & Zoning Commission and comments on the revisions to the Plano Tomorrow Plan.

Slide Presentation

Talking Points to accompany Slide presentation

Link to Video on PlanoTV. See Item 2 on the Agenda for the presentation

See the map of apartments added / approved since January 1, 2014.

Current Plan Documents

Here are revised Plan Documents on Land Use. Our issues and concerns are about the Land Use Map and the Land Use Descriptions .

History and Important Events

June 2015

Thank you to those that attended the June 15th and June 29th Planning and Zoning meetings.at the June 15th meeting the City Staff presented their revisions to the Plano Tomorrow Plan. At the June 29th meeting the citizens of PlanoFuture presented their views on the Revised Plan. We actually have much more to say but knew our time would be limited so kept our comments to about 15 minutes. See links to our comments at the top of this page.

May 2015

On May 21, 2015 there was a public meeting to discuss the Plano Tomorrow Plan and citizens were allowed to discuss their thoughts on various aspect of the Plan. Approximately 100 citizens participated from across the City. Thanks to all for attending and your valuable input. We were divided into four groups of North, South, East and West to discuss the Plan and how it affects each area of the city. The Citizens overwhelmingly expressed concerns about the proliferation of dense housing being added to the city and the Tomorrow Plan's apparent tilt to accelerate this trend increase dense housing in areas not currently zoned for this type of development. Here is the City Staff's summary of the meeting Results

See the new discussion on the deteriorating performance and potential Impact on Plano Schools from dense housing contemplated by the Plano Tomorrow Plan. Please don't cry.

March 2015

Thank you to those that attended the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on the Plano Tomorrow Plan on Monday March 2, 2015. Many residents attended the meeting and over 25 signed up to speak and express their views. Approximately 450 sent a letter to P&Z expressing their concerns. See the letters here. As a result of these efforts, the vote on the Plan was tabled. The P&Z will hold a work session on March 30 to discuss the concerns of residents. As a result of these letter and comments, a forum for the public was held on May 21, 2015.

The March 2 meeting can viewed on line at Plano.gov / PlanoTV

See the article in the Plano Star Courier here

See the article in the Dallas Morning News here

Plano Tomorrow Plan and the Issue

The City of Plano has released a draft of the Plano Tomorrow Plan that it is considering adopting.

The Issue

The draft of the Plano Tomorrow Plan seeks to Urbanize and grow the population of Plano by 50,000 to 80,000 by inserting dense mid-rise residential apartments and urban mixed use developments throughout the city. P& Z and City Council already started down this path approving the addition of 10,000 multi-family units from the 31,000 units Plano had at January 1, 2014, a 30% increase in the city’s multi-family housing units. Yet, the respondents to the Plano Tomorrow Survey discussed below said midrise and urban mixed use apartments were the LEAST desirable use of the City’s remaining available land. We are asking Plano Residents to send a letter or email with comments and concerns to P&Z.

Our city leaders appear to think that building more apartments is economic development. We do not agree. The citizens of Plano are all for job creation in the form of corporate and general office space, medical facilities, restaurants, recreational and entertainment facilities but building development upon development of dense apartment buildings is not economic development and is not wanted. We only have a limited amount of land left in Plano and it should be reserved for true economic development.

In the fall of 2013, the City of Plano conducted the "Plano Tomorrow Survey" of households in Plano asking questions about the city and quality of life. Households were sent a flyer in their water bill asking them to log in online and fill out the survey and emails were also sent to select groups such as city officials and employees and real estate developers. There were 1100 responses from Plano residents. The Planning & Zoning Commission, City Staff and City Council are using the results of this survey to justify some major changes in zoning, including changes to promote the "Urbanization" (high density development) of the city. This appears to be a complete distortion of the survey results to twist the results in a way to support high density apartment developments in Plano. Posted here are four documents a) the Survey, b) the Survey Results, c) Results Appendix tabulating responses, d) Planning & Zoning's Conclusions and Proposed Rezoning in response to the survey and e) a Proposed Policies statement. There are also two use maps that were released (Land and Growth). In response to our comments a few small wording changes were made that were discussed at the January 20th P&Z meeting, see the marked changes here. While the words are better, we are not confident they represent any change in intent.

As an example of midrise apartment buildings, the city approved a single midrise complex in October 2014 at 121 and the Tollway with 1,000 apartments on a 10 acre tract. It is our understanding that the intent of the Plano Tomorrow Plan is to lay the groundwork to increase the city's population by 50,000 to 80,000, mostly through apartment developments.

In advance of completing the Plan, P&Z approved 7,500 multi-family units in 2014 alone. This will likely increase the population by 13,000 people. Including the 2,009 apartments approved before 2014 but not yet built and the 1,041 new apartments approved in January 2015, this is over 10,000 new apartments in Plano. When combined with the approximately 4,000 townhomes, patio homes and single family homes that are approved for development, the population of Plano will likely increase by an estimated 31,000 new residents. This would increase the population of Plano to 296,000. This is only the beginning as the Plano Tomorrow Plan will greatly increase the population beyond the 296,000 already approved, primarily by adding great numbers of multi-family units.

survey Survey Results Link

In the survey, Plano residents clearly responded that Plano's available land should be used to develop employment opportunities, with general office employment scoring highest. Residential scored last in desired use of remaining available land (which is less than 7% of all land), meaning the citizens of Plano do not see population growth as an imperative. The survey clearly shows on page 17 that respondents rated single family detached homes the most desirable for Plano development while high density apartments in urban centers and mid-rise condominiums were rated the LEAST Desirable. Somehow this has been twisted into P&Z and City Council saying we need more urbanization in Plano and need to put mid-rise condominiums and high density apartments in urban mixed use developments on available land!! The Planning and Zoning conclusions at the September 29, 2014 P&Z Work Session, page 18 stated that available land in West Plano should be "Urban Center, Neighborhood Center, Midrise Employment Center, Midrise Residential Condominium, Patio Home/Townhome." (Midrise in city parlance is anything five to 20 stories while Urban Centers include high density apartments in Urban Mixed Use). The Plan also identifies most available land in the city as falling in "Expressway Corridors," "Rail Corridors" or "Compact Centers" which should be developed or redeveloped for High Intensity use, including dense mid-rise and Urban Mixed Use apartments. Finally, the Plan recommends that underperforming retail space throughout the city be re-developed into mixed uses, primarily by adding multi-family housing to these retail centers.

We believe that the Plan has way too much emphasis on dense multi-family housing that will be dominated by apartments. We believe the emphasis in new development and for redevelopment should be on commercial uses -primarily offices and services with appropriate level of retail and entertainment. Where housing is allowed, there should be a much greater focus on owner-occupied housing that is less dense such as single family detached, patio and attached townhomes.

In November 2014, the City's conclusions and Vision for Plano Tomorrow were exposed at four public "Open House" meetings. In January 2015 the P&Z will hold final meetings to discuss public input before adoption. Consider providing your comments to City Manager Bruce Glasscock, your city council members or Christina Day of Plano P&Z. Now is the time to send your comments to the P&Z.

See the "Send A Letter" tab for contact instructions.

The Open House dates and places were:

Saturday, November 8, 2014 10:00 am – Noon Harrington Library
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 6:30 - 8:30 pm Davis Library
Thursday, November 13, 2014 6:30 - 8:30 pm Parr Library
Wednesday, November 19, 2014 6:30 - 8:30 pm Haggard Library

Several of our Plano citizens attended and voiced their concerns. However, there was no formal process to gather people's comments at the library meetings other than sticky note, so we must send our comments in writing. We are aware of over 300 that sent in comments. See the attached Extended Discussion if you would like to read a more thorough analysis and objections to the Plano Tomorrow Plan.

Send us your comments

Email us with the subject "Please post this comment" and will we add your comment to the Web site (no profanity, threats or over the top language please). We want your voice heard and the neighborhood to hear opinions. Please sign with your first name, last name or full name and the street or neighborhood you live in.

Send the email to: committee@planofuture.org to P&Z expressing your concerns about the Plano Tomorrow Plan.

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Plano Tomorrow Plan thoughts from Planofuture.org

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