In the last election cycle, we heard a lot about the
imbalance of residential to commercial as the reason the residential tax burden
is so high in McKinney. The seemingly obvious answer would be to just bring in
more commercial. But, it really isn’t that easy. According to the 2040
Comprehensive Plan, to have the right mix, we’ve got to diversify our
residential base as well. Many residents may not like what the results of a
balanced mix will look like—less single family and more high density living.
The right mix of residential to commercial is different for
residents, cities, and school districts. What a resident might want for the
city: nature, open spaces, different kinds of single family neighborhoods, not
as many apartments, smaller and efficient school district, parks, lack of
traffic, work close by, and various food and retail choices might be miles
apart from what a city is looking for, and miles apart from what a school
district is looking for.
Cities are looking for revenue in the form of property
taxes, sales taxes, and other fees or fines. They look for revenue to pay for
the services they need to provide, like utilities, infrastructure, essential
services (police and fire), and services they want to provide (like, parks,
recreation services, and an airport). Cities want to optimize the kinds of
revenue they can get. A comprehensive plan can help them attain that goal.
So, from the city’s perspective, single family residential
is a drag because the city doesn’t get as much in property tax revenue as it
would from town homes. And, town homes wouldn’t give the city as much revenue as
apartments. The service costs per unit are less for multifamily than they are
for single family. The slides do not make it clear if those costs include
police and fire. However, to residents, this means a more crowded city with
more crime. To the local school district, this means building more schools and
hiring more staff. More apartments are a win from the city’s viewpoint, but
residents and the school district might see it differently.
In the 2040 Comprehensive Plan, the city of McKinney wants
to decrease the share of single family homes and increase the share of
town homes and multifamily. “Urban
Residential” is a higher density residential that is everywhere in the 2040
Comprehensive Plan. According to the CP planners, our city will need to be much
less single family to have a more fiscally responsible residential to
commercial mix.
There are fewer parking spaces in most urban residential
development so people can “live, work, play.” McKinney tried this in the 2004
Comprehensive Plan by making the Regional Employment Center (REC) with disastrous
results. The REC was the area of 121, 75, McKinney Ranch Parkway, and Custer.
Land stayed vacant for a long time because there were no developers who wanted
to spend more money on land to build high density developments. Eventually, it
led to the large apartment cluster on the West side (5 different apartment
buildings in a very small area). Many of the landowners eventually got zoning
changed to single family. Most of the REC requirements for high density urban design
were abandoned in 2013. Downtown McKinney is trying the urban design live,
work, play with the 9-acre development. We will see if the time has come for it
or not.
Maybe it was a matter of timing and more people will find
the urban residential more appealing in the future. However, a city that is mostly single family,
like it is now, will look very different as a city with more balanced amounts of
single family, town home, and mulitfamily.
See One McKinney 2040 for more information
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