The Frisco Downtown Master Plan Committee approved the final draft of the downtown master plan Tuesday.
The master plan will go before Planning and Zoning Commission on Sept. 25 and city council Oct. 16 for final approval.
The master plan includes character areas, a pedestrian-friendly street network, redevelopment of buildings and a proposed Design District that can serve as the transition area between old downtown and Frisco Square.
The plans include the addition of a new 4th Street Plaza that is intended to “encourage a new gravity of downtown restaurants, spaces for hanging out and appropriately scaled urban living.”
The plaza would extend from Oak Street to Elm Street.
There is also a proposed five-story parking garage in the plan that would create approximately 468 additional parking spaces. The garage would be located near the plaza.
In September 2017, Frisco City Council approved a contract with consulting firm Gateway Planning to update the 20-year-old downtown master plan. The update includes re-evaluating land uses and an update to current traffic and parking conditions. The city created a committee to provide feedback to the consultant.
The committee has been meeting since October 2017 with two work sessions with the Frisco City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission to make recommendations to Gateway Planning.
Before approving the final draft Tuesday, the committee discussed whether there should be angled parking along Main Street because it would be more aesthetically pleasing to an old downtown area.
Ultimately, the committee voted for an option that would keep on-street parking as it is now but removes the median in the center of the roadway to provide a center turn lane. This option would make roadway and travel lanes narrower and would allow for wider sidewalks. This would also provide the opportunity to remove on-street parking in the future.