Frisco City Council approved rezoning for the more than 2,100 acres of the Fields property located north of Panther Creek Parkway and on both sides of the Dallas North Tollway during its March 17 meeting. The rezoning will allow single-family housing, high-density multifamily housing and a mixture of office, retail, commercial and industrial uses.
“This is going to set the tone for the last third of our city and really our northern corridor,” Cheney said prior to Tuesday’s meeting. “It will be distinctively Frisco but yet it's going be distinctively different from anything we've done. I think the Fields name will build a reputation for itself over decades as far as being a great place to work, live and play.”
The mayor called the project "the most monumental zoning case in Frisco's history." At January's Planning & Zoning Commission meeting, Chair Rob Cox called the property Frisco's "most complicated zoning case in history."
The development will consist of nine subdistricts: North Fields, The Preserve, Brookside, Point West, Midtown West, Point East, Midtown East, East Village and University Village, according to documents provided to the council. Those will include a mixture of residential product types as well as office, retail, commercial and industrial uses, per city documents.
Cheney explained the Fields development will be adjacent to the future Professional Golfers' Association of America headquarters along one corner. The future University of North Texas at Frisco’s branch campus will be along another corner, he said.
PGA of America Chief Operating Officer Darrell Crall appeared before council to express support for the development.
“We believe in the Fields project and what it will do from an additive standpoint to PGA Frisco,” Crall said. “Specifically, we're excited about their project and have tremendous confidence in the developer and their overall vision. We're confident they will create a perfect adjacent community to our 660-acre PGA Frisco campus for our executives, our employees, our visitors and citizens alike.”
Cheney said it is rare for a city to get the opportunity to master plan a development this large.
“Usually you're looking at 100-acre tracts or 300-acre tracts and you're hoping that you can design it so that it all makes sense and is cohesive,” the Frisco mayor said. “This is an opportunity to kind of have a blank slate for the whole thing and make sure it works.”
The Frisco P&Z Commission previously approved rezoning the property from agricultural during its Feb. 25 meeting. Since that approval, developer FHQ Holdings LP has agreed to further reduce the density cap of its dwelling units per acre in The Preserve subdistrict.
“The Preserve phase is the one that's immediately adjacent to the PGA [development], and so that was important for council that that be a really, really special place,” said Cheney, who also praised FHQ Holdings. “They’ve been a great partner working with staff and working with P&Z. They wanted to deliver something world class, but they also want to deliver what we wanted as a city. So there's a lot of give and take and compromise along the way.”
Developer Fehmi Karahan also spoke to council before the vote. Karahan, who was the master developer for Plano's Legacy West project, said he expects the Fields development will bring more than 30,000 “well-paying” jobs to Frisco.
City staff explained the developer has requested up to 5,000 single-family units, 1,000 student housing units and 8,500 multifamily units. Only 2,000 multifamily units will be permitted by right, staff said, with the remaining to be earned once certain requirements for Class A office space and “upscale hospitality and upscale retail” are met.
The project is also proposing a minimum of 12% open space across the property at full build out, though each subdistrict will have a minimum percentage of open space required.
