McKinney City Council member Don Day has received three cease work orders from the city of McKinney for work being done without proper permits on property located at S. College Street and Eldorado Parkway in McKinney.

According to the Collin Central Appraisal District, the 17-acre property was purchased in October by a company Day owns called McKinney Entertainment LLC from Eldorado-Collin LP, which is owned by Ken Paxton. Day said he plans to add a shopping center to the 4 acres fronted by Eldorado and an equestrian center to the 13 acres of the property located within the floodplain.

Day said the "stop work" orders are associated with stock piling fill dirt on the upper 4 acres to level that area.

"Site grading requires a permit but stock piling dirt does not," he said. "However the city did issue a 'stop work' order and ask that we provide the grading plan before stockpiling more dirt. We have complied. Further notices were issued because dirt was dumped there without our knowledge or permission. We have since blocked the gate to stop any further unauthorized dirt being dumped. We expect to complete the engineering plans needed and apply for the site grading permit next week."

City Manager Paul Grimes said in an attempt to uphold the city's ordinances, city staff sent three cease work orders to the property owner.

"We are obligated to uphold our ordinances, thus the stop work orders," Grimes said. "Staff consistently works with developers to try to find solutions that work for everyone within the limitations of our ordinances."

Day said no permit is required to remove trash, trees and underbrush less than 6 inches in diameter.

"The flood plain area has been an illegal dump site for decades and the underbrush under the old growth trees had overgrown the site to the point that it was choking and killing large old growth trees," Day said. "Numerous large trees had fallen in the storms this year. In order to clean up the site, we removed the decades of the accumulated trash and underbrush to expose the large, majestic old growth trees and create a park-like environment."