Plano, Texas Could Scrap its Growth Plan After Years of Litigation

[Updated August 4, 2020 to more accurately describe the actions of the Plano City Council in July 2019. The City Council did eventually default to the 1986 master plan in August 2020.]

"Plano City Hall, at war for more than three years with a group of residents fed up with their community’s rapid growth, has set a vote for later this month that could repeal its much-criticized master development plan and end the lawsuit it inspired," reports Sharon Grigsby.

The plan in question, Plano Tomorrow, was approved in 2015, "after what it described as a several-years-long listening tour involving thousands of residents in a variety of venues, including online surveys and formal hearings."

"Leaders revised the plan at least twice to appease residents who were worried that it would lead to more apartments and big developments that would erode Plano's suburban atmosphere," according to Grigsby, but "[b]ased on my conversations with many Plano residents in recent months, the Plano Tomorrow lawsuit symbolizes what they see as local leaders who don’t listen to their concerns. City Hall had long maintained that it had the facts on its side in the lengthy legal battle, but it has long been losing the public relations war."

The group Plano Future organized the lawsuit and opposition to the plan, and the movement has had far reaching consequences—reaching all the way to the governor's office, as explained in the article.