Plano Tomorrow Plan thoughts from Planofuture.org 

At the Open Houses at the Library meetings the residents of Plano spoke out and expressed their concerns about the Plano Tomorrow Plan.  On this page you will find some excerpts of those comments.  You can also find links more extended excerpts and the all of the comments published by the city in response to the meetings.  However, the results published by the city do not include 300 or so letters they received expressing opposition to the Plan.  When asked why, the city explained that they did include any comments received after November 14, 2014.  This is perplexing since the last library meeting was November 19, 2014 and the point of the library meetings was to inform residents, provide them with handouts to study and tell them where they could go to learn more.  That is what the residents did, including meeting in groups to discuss the plan and evaluate it.  A large number of letters were received by the City in beginning in early December 2014.  The City did not publish the results until January 14, 2015, yet they chose to ignore all of those letters and excluded them from the results.  We think they should publish those letters and make them part of the public record.

Here are links to excerpts of the comments  and the complete comments as published by the city.  Below are several of the comments received that were included in the published document.

BUILT ENVIRONMENT COMMENTS

HARRINGTON LIBRARY COMMENT DAVIS LIBRARY COMMENT PARR LIBRARY COMMENT

HAGGARD LIBRARY COMMENT

TRANSPORTATION

1.   Full-lane for bikes on 6-lane roads are a danger to riders and drivers. Need separate lane for bikes not a traffic lane.

2.   Need more public transport all the way until Brand Road and Renner Road.

3.   We need DART bus stops on Park between Alma and Coit.

4.   Think Bike: not just for recreation. It is for transportation.

5.   Continue to support and grow accessibility for bicycles.

6.   Please provide safe public transport

7.   Remove pylons that designate HOV lanes to expand driving lanes without more construction....

25. Happy about the encouragement to bicycle.

26. More bike lanes PLEASE for safety of cyclists!!

27. Fix Coit Road – Collin County Side – Don’t care about Dallas.

28. We need to fix our traffic issue and encourage more people to walk and bike.

29. Be wary of DART development. We don’t want “train people” wandering around Plano.

30. Well marked bike trails and important for safety and use encourage.

31. Way too many inefficient road construction projects. Waste of tax payer $

DENSITY/URBAN DEVELOPMENT

1.   Plano is a suburb – not urban. We don’t need more than Collin Creek Mall Urban Development.

Legacy and Downtown Plano for UMU.

2.   Don’t reduce setbacks.

3.   With greater build of apartments, that means more students unless the schools are built, you’ll have higher numbers of kids in classrooms and education could suffer such that you couldn’t attract the quality businesses and families wanting to move here.

4.   I hope that Plano can truly combine new high density residential development with the single family neighborhoods – we do need diversity in our residential – but need to make sure we don’t lose the suburban nature of the city.

5.   High density housing seems to be ALL you hear in Plano. If I wanted to live in Dallas I would move to Dallas. Plano is just becoming another crowded place.

6.   High density housing is NOT desired.

7.   Less high density apartments! It eventually leads to undesirable aging complexes that will increase crime.

8.   The vision statement for Built Environment seems to justify UMUs at the cost of single family neighborhoods. How many UMUs is too many? They’re JUST apartments and should not be near/around single family neighborhoods.

9.   East Spring Creek Compact Complete Center totally takes away from the open spaces in East

Plano. Trying to cram development into an open area. Hate the idea.

10. Land Use and Urban Design Policies – Urban design -  Should not promote and incorporate urban components within ALL new developments if they are in areas of high quality SF homes.

11. Land can be used as mixed environment with lower levels of commercialization and upper levels dedicated to residential.

12. Less high rise condos.

13. No urbanization and mixed use at Haggard Farm West land.

14. Need to restrict MF zoning at HFW and throughout city – Survey responses did NOT want more apartments!

15. No UMU and HFW.

16. High density apartments will reduce our quality of life.

17. No high rise multi-unit apartments. Our roads and schools cannot handle the volume.

18. No UMU at HFW – not in my backyard!

 19. Single family homes represent Plano – not multi-family.

20. No high density housing west of Parkwood, east of Dallas North Tollway, south of Spring Creek.

21. No multi-family east of Parkwood south of the power lines to Windhaven at Spring Creek.

Thanks.

22. Preserve the “Suburban Form?” No residential high rises! No high density! We already have too much traffic, too. Many kids in a classroom and our schools and too much noise!

23. Single family dwellings and not UMU PLEASE! Plano is becoming too crowded.

24. I am alarmed at the mass density of some areas planned by P&Z. Please keep single family dwelling plans and not multifamily dwellings.

25. Urban design – why in all new developments? That equals high density MF apartments. Those were the least desirable when looking at responses of the survey!

26. Conserve west Plano as SF/Owner occupied housing especially Haggard Farm West vs

Multifamily. No more apartment/MF!

27. Multifamily housing in Plano will destroy Plano.

28. Just say NO! to high density urban mixed use development in HFW

29. Unclear information on the number of residential units planned for Haggard Property threatens notions of neighborhood conservation.

30. No UMU!

31. How can the “suburban form” in neighborhoods just south of Haggard Property be maintained with proposed development?

32. Why is greater density a goal?? Need more single family or smaller buildings of condos – not mass numbers

33. Proposed “economic development” on the HFW property is TOO HIGH DENSITY!!

34. Plano was visioned as a family place – apartments - multi-use goes against this.

35. Is proposed development for Haggard Farm “high quality development with distinctive characteristics” or just a real estate developer’s over development?

36. Will the roadway system be able to accommodate proposed development on Haggard property?

37. Urban design seems to take into account density. Have you considered the impact of unchecked density in plethora of Haggard development?

38. I’d like to see the suburban lifestyle maintained around the Haggard Farm development. Single family homes.

39. What is the open space policy currently suggested for Haggard parcel?

40. Do not reduce setbacks.

41. Concern with high-density developments driving up crime and over-taxing already stretched city services

42. I do not want to see high-density right across the wall from the people in Avignon – do not put highly dissimilar developments so close together

43. We need to have firm plans for the development – not this no/minimal restrictions that the

Haggards’ developer keeps insisting on

44. People did NOT buy homes in Plano because they want to live near high density development

45. No UMU near residential neighborhoods like Haggard Farm West. Plano in SFH neighborhoods –

keep it suburban.

MISCELLANEOUS

1.   I’m concerned that Plano City Gov is not listening to the people that they represent – they think they know best. That is very dangerous.

2.   Concerned that the Plano Tomorrow survey data is being used to support “facts” that the data does not.  Questions were not specific enough i.e. – Legacy Center favorite place?  To shop?  To eat?  To get drunk?  To live?

GROWTH AND CHANGE MAP

4.   Haggard Farm West 

a.   No MF apts/hi-density residential and rental at Haggard Farm West

b.   No UMU at HFW – Not in my backyard.

c.     No UMU at HFW east of Parkwood – too close to single family residential.

d.   No UMU on Haggard Farms West – Not the backyard I want. e.   No UMU at HFW. Not in my backyard! Thx.

f.    No UMU at HFW – Not in my backyard.

g.    No UMU at HFW. Not in my backyard. Thank you –

h.   No Haggard Farm West in my backyard. Please listen to us!

i.      Opposed to high density UMU. Not in our backyard.

j.     No Haggard Farms West – not in my backyard PLEASE

k.    Stop building multi-family homes at HFW. l.       Opposed to high density apartments.

m.  I want to have a cap on residential units in Haggard Farm West area. I want to minimize impact to our suburban neighborhoods. I also want to see apartments only owner occupied at a price point that will minimize future deterioration of the units.

 Addendum - Collinwood House

Several of our members have expressed interest preserving the historic Collinwood house at 5400 Windhaven, located in the future Windhaven Meadows Park.  The city seems intent on shutting down any efforts to preserve the house and appears to be doing all it can to squelch any discussion of the house or the merits of proposals to preserve the house, which is the oldest structure in Plano.  Many of our members would like to learn more to determine whether they should support this effort.

There is an informational meeting about the house and the preservation efforts on Tuesday July 19 from 6 to 8 PM at Haggard Library, 2501 Coit Rd.  We encourage you to attend to learn more about the house and decide for whether you should support this effort.  Here is a notice about the meeting. 

Here is a Dallas Morning News article about the house.

Also for those in support of preservation, here is the group's petition and their facebook page.

Update on PlanoFuture lawsuit to require the city to count the citizens petitions. 

See here for an update on the city of Plano's appeal of the district cort decision.   

March 16 meeting draft