The decision at the April 6 council meeting came after concerns about the project’s density as well as questions about the trail network, a required flood study and other proposed uses. Council members agreed to talk further with city staff and the applicants before the proposal returns for council consideration in May.
Mayor Jeff Cheney said the site contained what he believed was “the city’s most valuable office property” with unobstructed views of the PGA golf course across Legacy Drive.
The land is currently zoned agricultural. Developers for The Link are seeking a zoning change for the site along Legacy Drive and PGA Parkway in northwest Frisco.
The Link would include Class A office space, a corporate campus, medical uses, restaurants, retail and a commercial amusement use possibly tied to golf mixed with residential uses. The proposed zoning would allow for a maximum of 422 units as cottage homes, townhomes or duplexes. The proposal also calls for a maximum of 2,434 units as apartments with residential buildings along Legacy to be a minimum of seven stories tall.
“There’s like a lot of multifamily around this that will allow the office [uses] to thrive, but I just think at some point we have to say enough,” Council Member Brian Livingston said.
Council Member Will Sowell said he also had concerns.
“The whole vision here was to have a destination in addition to what’s at PGA Frisco,” he said. “I do struggle with the density. There’s just no way around that.”
Clay Roby, a managing director at Stillwater Capital and a representative for the project, said he did not think the proposal would work without multifamily uses.
“That office space, those hotels, that retail would have to be built alongside the residential to ensure what I would consider a balanced development,” Roby said.
Rather than voting against the project, council members tabled their decision so they could get more information and hear from the public. No one turned out to comment during the public hearing for the proposed zoning change.
“It would be one of this council’s greatest failures if we do not allow the only piece of property that has unobstructed views of the golf course to develop into anything less than spectacular,” Cheney said.
