Plano Tomorrow Plan Voided (Dallas, McKinney: apartments, rentals, condominiums)

[jiping]

A great victory for the citizens of Plano has been reached today. After a 4.5 year legal fight initiated by a petition for referendum the City has capitulated to the will of the appellate court (that the petition must be presented to the council by the City Secretary by a resounding 3-0 ruling) and today they voted unanimously to not challenge the ruling any further and submit the petition to the City Council.

This legally voids the controversial Plano Tomorrow Plan at once, and its "urbanizing" land use designations that have enabled widespread high-density multifamily and traffic congestion to choke the city over the past 5 years. The Council may now revert to the 1986 plan which was adjusted substantially as late as 2012 and may set an election for permanent removal.

In February 2016 citizens delivered 4,050 notarized signature petitions, (see the picture of the attractive young man wheeling the boxes into the municipal building in the profile collage). At the City's entrenched management's direction, the City Secretary and City Attorney undertook efforts to prevent action on the petitions through legal challenges, including change of venue, attorney delays and deposition delay. They stretched the case out with two outside law firms, wasting $800,000 of city money or $495,000 of city tax revenue as corrected by Paige Mimms City Attorney in today's hearing (we don't know if she's including her substantial salary and staff in this total but it was excessive on either number).

The City wasted taxpayer dollars trying to carry water for the Texas Municipal League (they joined the suit) and other lobbyists to prevent a vote of the people they all work for. The people of Plano got a big victory today, and have asserted their American right to determining their government's actions as represented by, not ruled by, their elected officials.

Here is the Decision
http://www.ternan.law/wp-content/upl...95-opinion.pdf

[biafra4life]

Originally Posted by jiping

A great victory for the citizens of Plano has been reached today. After a 4.5 year legal fight initiated by a petition for referendum the City has capitulated to the will of the appellate court (that the petition must be presented to the council by the City Secretary by a resounding 3-0 ruling) and today they voted unanimously to not challenge the ruling any further and submit the petition to the City Council.

This legally voids the controversial Plano Tomorrow Plan at once, and its "urbanizing" land use designations that have enabled widespread high-density multifamily and traffic congestion to choke the city over the past 5 years. The Council may now revert to the 1986 plan which was adjusted substantially as late as 2012 and may set an election for permanent removal.

In February 2016 citizens delivered 4,050 notarized signature petitions, (see the picture of the attractive young man wheeling the boxes into the municipal building in the profile collage). At the City's entrenched management's direction, the City Secretary and City Attorney undertook efforts to prevent action on the petitions through legal challenges, including change of venue, attorney delays and deposition delay. They stretched the case out with two outside law firms, wasting $800,000 of city money or $495,000 of city tax revenue as corrected by Paige Mimms City Attorney in today's hearing (we don't know if she's including her substantial salary and staff in this total but it was excessive on either number).

The City wasted taxpayer dollars trying to carry water for the Texas Municipal League (they joined the suit) and other lobbyists to prevent a vote of the people they all work for. The people of Plano got a big victory today, and have asserted their American right to determining their government's actions as represented by, not ruled by, their elected officials.

Here is the Decision
http://www.ternan.law/wp-content/upl...95-opinion.pdf

Sorry, Im not a lawyer so I went into daze by the third page of the document. For those of us who dont speak legalese and dont live in Plano, what is the Plano Tomorrow Plan and what about it do you not like?

[turf3]

Well, have they fixed the insane intersection at Park and Central, or do you still have to drive half a mile out of your way just to get from one side of the freeway to the other? I have successfully avoided driving in Plano the last 15 years or so.

[jiping]

Originally Posted by biafra4life

Sorry, Im not a lawyer so I went into daze by the third page of the document. For those of us who dont speak legalese and dont live in Plano, what is the Plano Tomorrow Plan and what about it do you not like?

The plan as a whole is hated by most citizens. Even Harry LaRosiliere knows that, and that's why he tried to slip it through some P&Z meetings instead of putting it on referendum.

The city has so little ground for not having a vote. It lost at all courts, District Court, Appeals Court and even the Supreme Court of Texas. Millions of taxpayer dollars are wasted in legal fees just to appeal and delay at every step for five years.

You know it's a cringy sh1tshow when the Appeal court unanimously rules that city is "without merit and lose on all arguments" and should pay for Plaintiff's legal fees.

[jpushiys]

Originally Posted by biafra4life

Sorry, Im not a lawyer so I went into daze by the third page of the document. For those of us who dont speak legalese and dont live in Plano, what is the Plano Tomorrow Plan and what about it do you not like?

The plan was originally envisioned as a way to shepard Plano's growth from a (yet another) inner suburb to a city in its own right - avoiding the urban decay that seems to eventually catch up with inner suburbs. The plan called for multiple pockets of high density legacy-west-like areas.

That was the promise.

Residents soon realized that by high-density residences, the city really meant apartments and apartments only - excluding all forms of resident-owned property types like condominiums and townhomes - replacing a city of long-term neighbours with a city of transitional residents. It was also a way to channel wealth to builders and property management companies. Normal citizens could not participate in any wealth and prosperity that was created because very few residential units were available to buy. U could only lease or rent. In the end, this was the main reason why an otherwise much-needed forward looking plan failed.

The above is my opinion of course and contains my own biases.

The article below provides an alternate view :

https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburne...ning-in-texas/

[Philip T]

Originally Posted by biafra4life

Sorry, Im not a lawyer so I went into daze by the third page of the document. For those of us who dont speak legalese and dont live in Plano, what is the Plano Tomorrow Plan and what about it do you not like?

What is really going on?

In one line: Large Rental Properties.

Since Plano is "desirable" but poor(er) folks are priced out of owning or renting a house in Plano . . .

Bringing BIG Rental Sites are easy to fill since the area is "desirable."

So Vulture Capital / Corporate Looters line up to build Large Rentals.

And then the Large Rental sites depreciate over time (after all, they are depreciable property) allowing tax loses to the Capital / Looters, while giving a premium revenue stream. After looting is maxed, the sites are sold off to another layer of profit-takers, maintenance goes down, rents go down, and the next tier of Slums have been created.

This is why any city touching Dallas gets Cancer.

So the actual Plano homeowners who do not want their city being Corporate Looted and Trashed want this stopped.

Make sense?

Meanwhile the whole thing is manipulated by the Corporate Looters as a Race issue with the code term being "Urbanized" which is code for Black Trash.

This is like olde skool "Block-busting" or White-Flight -- just done with Billions and bribes to the City .gov.

[TheViking85]

It's a shame that what I suspect is a vocal minority of NIMBY's were able to stop what was in my opinion a good roadmap to ensure those last 7% of undeveloped landmass was used in a way that would make Plano a feasible city to establish oneself in on a middle/upper middle class income.

That said, I'm sure our household is not the only early to mid 30's couple who'll get the hint and realize were not wanted in Plano, despite 8+ years of living there, so time to look elsewhere.

[pbjyum]

Originally Posted by turf3

Well, have they fixed the insane intersection at Park and Central, or do you still have to drive half a mile out of your way just to get from one side of the freeway to the other? I have successfully avoided driving in Plano the last 15 years or so.

Checked google maps and it looks to be the same lol! I try my best to not go north of 635...

[biafra4life]

Originally Posted by jpushiys

The plan was originally envisioned as a way to shepard Plano's growth from a (yet another) inner suburb to a city in its own right - avoiding the urban decay that seems to eventually catch up with inner suburbs. The plan called for multiple pockets of high density legacy-west-like areas.

That was the promise.

Residents soon realized that by high-density residences, the city really meant apartments and apartments only - excluding all forms of resident-owned property types like condominiums and townhomes - replacing a city of long-term neighbours with a city of transitional residents. It was also a way to channel wealth to builders and property management companies. Normal citizens could not participate in any wealth and prosperity that was created because very few residential units were available to buy. U could only lease or rent. In the end, this was the main reason why an otherwise much-needed forward looking plan failed.

The above is my opinion of course and contains my own biases.

The article below provides an alternate view :

https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburne...ning-in-texas/

Well from what you are saying, it sounds to me like the leadership may have initially wanted the first version you mentioned with the multiple Legacy Wests, but then reality hit and they realized that there was no way that was going to happen. People forget now, but it took a LONNNNGGGG time for Legacy West to get to what it is today. And in my opinion, there's still a fifty fifty chance it goes under depending on what Frisco decides to do on their side of 121. If they replicate Legacy West then they will cannibalize probably half of the customers who frequent Legacy, since I'm guessing most of them are from Frisco/Prosper. So the idea that this can be replicated all over Plano is probably over ambitious.

So then the question becomes where does Plano go from here? Because right now I see a town with aging housing stock which will always struggle to compete with the Friscos/Prospers heck even McKinney and Allen.

[dhakaia]

So will this change the re-development plan for the Collin Creek mall area?