McKinney officials briefed on potential drive-thru regulations

Council members and commission members indicated a consensus for updating the city’s development code to require a 150-foot minimum buffer between restaurant drive-thrus and single-family residential zones.

Any changes to the development code will be considered by the commission and council at future meetings. Before the changes are considered by the council and commission, city staff have to notify affected property and business owners of the proposed change by mail.

Current situation

The city of McKinney currently requires a specific use permit for restaurant drive-thrus in neighborhood commercial zones which is the city’s least intensive commercial zoning. Drive-thrus are permitted without a specific use permit in the following zones:

• Local commercial
• Regional commercial
• Light industrial
• Heavy industrial

Any specific use permit request goes through the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council for review and approval, Arnold said.

City staff estimate there are currently 163 restaurants with drive-thrus operating in a variety of zoning districts throughout McKinney. That number includes a variety of restaurants with drive-thru components, Arnold said.

The options

City staff presented three options for changing the city’s development code:

• Require a 200-foot buffer for drive-thrus next to single-family residential zones except when located across a road
• Require a 200-foot buffer next to single-family zoning except when located across an arterial road
• Specific use permits required in local commercial districts

The first option would require a 200-foot buffer between restaurant drive-thrus and single-family residential zones unless it is separated by a road. A restaurant drive-thru would not be permitted without a specific use permit if it was located within 200 feet of an adjacent single-family residential zone, Arnold said.

City staff anticipate the option would impact 15 drive-thru restaurants within the city, according to a staff presentation.

The second option would require a 200-foot buffer unless the restaurant is separated by an arterial roadway.

“That is a little bit different from how we would do it,” she said. “It’s a little bit different from how our sister cities do it but it adds, again, an additional layer of assurance or protection for those residential uses that may be nearby.”

City staff anticipate the option would impact 19 drive-thru restaurants within the city, according to the presentation.

The last option is what staff calls the “nuclear option,” Arnold said. This option would require all restaurant drive-thrus in a regional commercial district to go through Planning and Zoning and City Council for a specific use permit.

City staff anticipate the option would impact 131 drive-thru restaurants within the city, according to the presentation.

What’s next?

If the city’s development code is updated, existing restaurant drive-thrus that don’t meet updated criteria would be in legal non-conforming status, Arnold said. That status can affect the restaurant’s ability to expand.

“It does not mean that they would have to shut down,” she said. “It just means that there are extra limitations that now would apply to those drive-thru restaurants.”

Any impacted restaurants can come back through the city’s zoning process to comply with potential updates to the development code. City staff can be flexible with submittal fees that are part of the process, Arnold said.