In the Fall of 2015, the Plano City Council adopted a new comprehensive plan over the objection of its citizens. Citizens objected to the Plan, known as the Plano Tomorrow Plan because its intent was to greatly increase the density of Plano. Although Plano already had 30,000 apartments and another 10,000 approved or under construction, the citizens believed that the Plan would result in an additional 20,000 to 40,000 high density apartments over its 20-year horizon. Thousands of letters and messages were sent to city council objecting to the plan and hundreds of citizens showed up at planning and zoning and other city-sponsored meetings to express their objection to then Over 300 citizens turned out at the city council meeting in October 2015 to express opposition to the plan. The City Council passed an ordinance adopting the PTP anyhow. In the following 30 days, the Citizens gathered over 4,000 signatures on a petition to require the city to put the Plan to a vote of the citizens. Fewer than 1,900 signatures were required to force this vote under the City Charter. The city refused to acknowledge the petition. This left the citizens with no choice but to sue the city to require it to count the petition and hold the vote. The citizens raised over $30,000 in small donations to fund the legal fight. While the city argued that for “technical legal reasons” it was “impossible” to hold a referendum on the Plan, the actions of the city and court rulings to date have shown the opposite is the case. The City has used every means it can think of to prevent or delay the courts from ruling on the matter because it is afraid of the result. The City tried to argue in court that only the City could decide the citizens claims. When the court disagreed and found against the City, the City appealed the district court’s ruling to the Texas Court of Appeals. When the Appellate Court ruled against the City, the City appealed to the Supreme Court. The city hired three high-powered outside law firms to argue its case, including a former Supreme Court justice, spending hundreds of thousand of dollars in addition to the time of its own extensive in-house legal team. The city fought the citizens with every legal maneuver they could think of to stretch out the litigation with the hope the citizens would get frustrated and tired of the fight and expense.

THE CITIZENS WIN

In July 2020, the State Appellate Court finally put and end to the nonsense, requiring the city to honor the petition. The city promptly withdrew the Plano Tomorrow Plan rather than let the citizens vote on it.

COMING A NEW COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

A Comprehensive Plan Review Committee has been formed by the city to propose a new plan. The Committee continues its work and will begin to solicit public comment in the near future. It will be critical for citizens to weigh in on the plan and make their opinions known.