Horne replaces Rick Grady who reached the two-term limit on council.
Below, get to know the newest face on Plano City Council and his approach to the role. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Why did you decide to run for Plano City Council Place 3?
I have been volunteering in various aspects of Plano since 2004. I started out helping the Plano Balloon Festival; I served on that board for 10 years and chairman for four years. I took a Plano Leadership course in Class 28 and got to see the city. I applied and got on the parks and recreation board and served for six years; of those six years, three years I was chairman. I was terming out, and I applied for planning and zoning, and I was fortunate to serve the city in that capacity for three years.
During that time, I retired from the corporate world in December 2020, and I felt like I walked away from the volunteer world. I like to volunteer, stay busy and help organizations. I decided to get back into volunteering, and Rick Grady was terming out, and I talked to Rick directly, and he strongly encouraged I run.
What are some of the areas you hope to address as a representative?
I’m trying to strive to reduce our city taxes and address the kitchen table issues: repair the roads and keep the services that citizens are expecting. Our roads are old, and the infrastructure below those roads is old. On Parker Road, they are replacing the lines while doing the roadwork, and that’s because the road is 50 years old. Everyone loves our libraries, we need to keep those going; arts, I strongly encourage the arts and keep that vibrant.
The other part, looking globally at the city of Plano, I want to keep us relevant. I want to still be the economic engine of North Texas. When we encourage large businesses to come here and small businesses to be entrepreneurs, we are able to possibly reduce our property tax on our homes because a larger portion of our revenue comes from business and sales taxes. It all started with EDS with Ross Perot and Robbie Robinson; now we have Toyota USA, Liberty Mutual and JCPenney. Those entities are what help us stay the economic engine, but we’re competing with the other municipalities in North Texas.
Redevelopment is key, whether it’s EDS where we’re looking at the complex being redeveloped to a biomedical engineering incubator to neighborhood corners that are tired and need to be rejuvenated. During that time, we want to keep our history with downtown Plano. We want to keep downtown Plano vibrant and attract business and residents there.
How do you plan to address housing concerns in the city?
I would like to see a housing option that is a smaller house on a smaller footprint that ranges from 1,200 to 1,600 square feet that young folks and seniors can move into. We have older neighborhoods that were built in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s that need renovation. The land is probably worth more than the house itself, so we need to get people to look at that and get redevelopment for those tired neighborhoods, still keeping the neighborhood features but make it affordable for young folks and seniors.
The big issue facing us right now is short-term rentals. We were caught flat-footed on this—we didn’t realize Plano was that destination city. There is a large, vocal group that wants to ban them outright, particularly in single-family homes, and I understand their concerns. We’re not sure that we can legally ban short-term rentals. It’s going to be left to the courts on what we can and can’t do on this. But, we have a Short-Term Rental Task Force led by former Mayor Phil Dyer. I’m hoping from their discussions that we come up with a plan moving forward on short-term rentals. At a minimum, there is going to be a registration so we know who owns it, and we’ll identify a single point of contact if there is an issue. The third issue is “party houses,” and we have to figure out how to identify and shut those down.
You mentioned maintaining streets and art; what are some of the areas you’re focusing on there?
You’re seeing a lot of overlay now, and that’s helping with the smoothing of the drive. It does three things: it lengthens the life of the road, makes it quieter and helps the environment because it is not reflecting as much heat. To do that, you have to go back underneath the road to see what needs to be repaired. Our Department of Public Works is doing an Inflow and Infiltration Study to make sure stormwater is not leaking into the sewers where we’re processing more stormwater than wastewater. Once they do that, they’re going to prioritize what needs to be repaired, and with that repair, the road repair and the overlay, we hope to be done for a while.
Are there any aspects of your approach to being a council member you want to highlight?
All the council members love the city of Plano and want to serve, but we all have different ideas of where we want to serve. My vision is to revisit how we can get people to live in Plano. I want to limit apartment growth, but I still think there is a need for apartment growth because housing options in the city are small. During the campaign, my opponent stated that she didn’t mind if people lived outside the city and commuted to work. I’m against that philosophy for two reasons: the commuting to work increases traffic, and if you live in Plano, you eat, shop and play in Plano, and that helps the local economy.
How do you plan on engaging with your constituents?
I’m always available by email and phone. If they want to meet and chat, please do. I had a constituent email me the other day, and she was disappointed with how I voted on a redevelopment project. What I asked her to do was set up a time we could talk by phone or face-to-face. That way, it’s easier for me to tell them why I vote the way I do, and it’s easier to keep those lines of communication with anybody and everybody. I told the City Council when I came on that we are the eyes and ears of the city of Plano, simple as that, and we’re here to represent them.
