Developers eyeing mixed-use developments with multifamily housing in Plano may have to clear steeper hurdles now that two new apartment critics have joined the Plano City Council.

Two newcomers to city government, Anthony Ricciardelli and Rick Smith, earned spots on the council in June after campaigning against apartment-dense developments. They were endorsed by a group that has been seeking to limit apartment expansion in the city, and whose spokesperson believes at least half of the council’s membership is now receptive to its goals.

“I have to believe that there’s going to be at least a group of four [council members] that are going to give much harsher scrutiny to apartment developments that come along in our city,” said Allan Samara, spokesperson for Plano Future, the group that endorsed and campaigned for the slate of apartment-skeptical candidates.

Samara said he has also spoken with council members Tom Harrison and Ron Kelley, who have voted at times against multifamily developments.

On Plano’s eight-member council, four votes would be enough to deny any request for a zoning change. Although the city’s comprehensive development plan calls for dense developments on some the city’s limited remaining undeveloped land, most of this land would require zoning changes to facilitate mixed-use development, Plano Director of Planning Christina Day said.

“There is some mixed-use zoning in the city that has yet to develop, but the vast majority would require rezoning,” Day said. “And again, that would be that discretionary process that you’re talking about, so the council would have a strong influence on the outcome.”

Mayor Harry LaRosiliere, one of the chief articulators of Plano’s development direction in recent years, and former Plano Planning and Zoning Commissioner Kayci Prince also won seats on the City Council in May.

The mayor’s role, as LaRosiliere sees it, is to guide the council to make decisions based on the long-term interests of the city. This process should be determined, he said, by empirical data and a sound long-term strategy.

“We’ve not had a vote on [a zoning change],  so again, I sense that campaigning and governing is two different things,” LaRosiliere said. “I know what I heard on the campaign trail, and it remains to be seen as to how the votes are cast on the council dais.”

Prince said she believes council members should approach zoning requests with an open mind, particularly considering the limited amount of land on which developers have to build in Plano.

One of the apartment skeptics, Ricciardelli, acknowledged he and likeminded colleagues may currently lack the political sway to make more sweeping changes—such as an effort to overhaul the city’s comprehensive plan—but said he expects the results of the elections to produce immediate results in limiting apartment growth.

“I think that the main impact that you’re going to see in the short term is on individual zoning cases,” Ricciardelli said.

A council’s influence

Even if a council were determined not to pass zoning changes for apartment construction, there is still substantial room for developers to bring new multifamily projects to the city.

On land already zoned for multifamily development, developers do not need the approval of the council to move forward. They work with city planners and Plano zoning commissioners, who generally do not have the authority to deny a proposal unless they believe it would violate existing ordinances, Day said.

“We try to be very consistent in adhering to those standards,” Day said, “because we believe that that’s good economic policy for the city, in that people have reasonable expectations of what they can and can’t do on their property based on existing codes.”

Where council members have more leeway to affect development, she said, is when revisiting policy—like the city’s comprehensive plan and development regulations—or considering requests for zoning changes.

Developers and landowners who want to rezone their property have to clear a significant procedural bar, Day said. First, the zoning proposal must earn a recommendation from the planning and zoning commission. If commissioners recommend a proposal, it needs the support of a majority of voting council members—typically five votes, if all members are present—before the change is granted.

If, however, commissioners do not recommend a zoning proposal, the applicant can still appeal to the City Council. But in the case of such an appeal, approving the zoning change would require the support of 75 percent of voting council members.

Housing demand vs. density

In recent years, Plano’s most prominent construction projects have been mixed-use developments, including the $3 billion Legacy West, Heritage Creekside and the more recently approved redevelopment of the former Texas Instruments campus near Legacy Drive and US 75.

However, other dense projects with residential elements have fallen by the wayside.

Plano City Council denied a zoning change in February for Mustang Square, a proposed mixed-use development southwest of Sam Rayburn Tollway and Rasor Boulevard. And in 2014, developers for a large segment of undeveloped land owned by the Haggard family east of the Dallas North Tollway at Spring Creek Parkway abandoned their plans for a series of midrise office towers and multifamily units.

John Richardson, one of the former developers behind the Haggard property proposals, said there is great demand for housing in Plano, which is spurring proposals with multifamily components.

“[The city] will continue to be approached by developers on additional residential—that’s a given,” Richardson said. “And, frankly, because of the lack of residential, I would suggest that the staff, [planning and zoning officials] and the council recognize that the continued attractiveness of Plano is somewhat reliant on the ability to provide close-in housing to the jobs.”

One consideration the city should weigh, Richardson said, is whether the residential developments are of high quality and whether the city has a plan for the maturation of these more urban-style developments in the long run.

Ricciardelli said there can be a place for mixed-use projects in Plano, but that the council should endeavor to maintain Plano’s suburban character.

“I think that Legacy West has been a good development for the city,” Ricciardelli said. “The issue is not so much what has already been developed. It’s that, with where we are as a city, we want to be sure that we don’t overdevelop high-density apartments.”

In zoning change cases where the council has a great deal of discretion to enact its vision for the city, LaRosiliere said he hopes the council will consider the data and recommendations provided by city staff.

“In a case like that, it’s not about process, but it’s not about your personal opinion, either,” LaRosiliere said. “It’s about what’s best for the city.”