Dallas-based developer proposes small-lot homes in north McKinney

McKinney City Council members are expected to consider and take final action at a meeting scheduled July 21, according to a city document.

The developers are seeking a planned development zoning based on the city’s “R3” and “R5” residential zoning districts. Both zoning districts are used to accommodate medium-density or high-density single-family homes, according to McKinney’s Unified Development Code.

McKinney’s “R3” zoning district was created in 2025 to accommodate small-lot single-family development. City Council members approved the new district alongside several other changes in response to new laws from the Texas Legislature.

The request includes deviances from the minimum requirements in those zones, McKinney Planning Director Lucas Raley said. City staff is recommending denial of the zoning request because the applicant is seeking a reduction in the city’s development standards and “using a PD as the vehicle for those reductions,” he said.

“There are a lot of developments that have come through that have a unique design, a unique aspect that qualifies for PD,” Raley said. “The argument that I have from staff this evening is that this is not that.”

What the developers are saying

Developers are currently planning for construction of 134 homes on the property, according to a Skorburg presentation. Those lots would be split between 78 30-foot lots and 56 50-foot lots, said John Arnold, development partner with Skorburg.

While the project will meet minimum standards for setbacks on the “R5” 50-foot lots, developers are requesting setback reductions for the front yard and side yard on the “R3” 30-foot lots, according to the presentation.

Requested modifications to the 30-foot lots include a reduction in the side yard setbacks and front yard setbacks, according to the city document.

“This is kind of like a detached townhome product,” Arnold said. “If you start separating them out, it takes a lot of that streetscape away and they just kind of look like they’re hanging out there on their own. They don’t have that feel of cottage lots in a brownstone style.”

He said project officials have been working with city staff since March.

Skorburg has developed three neighborhoods in McKinney, including Sorrellwood Terrace and Robinson Ridge, according to a Skorburg presentation. The company is actively developing another neighborhood called Providence Cove near the corner of Hardin Boulevard and Virginia Parkway.

“We’d love to do another project in McKinney,” Arnold said. “We’d love for approval. We think this product is a great product. It’s been proven.”

More information

The developers are also requesting modifications related to planting canopy trees and screening, Raley said. If approved, the zoning would enable developers to plant one canopy tree per 30-foot lot anywhere within the property, according to the proposed development regulations.

Typically, 30-foot home lots require one canopy tree located on the lot itself, according to McKinney’s UDC. Most homes will have a planter bed in front with flowers, bushes and an ornamental tree, Arnold said.

Arnold said they are proposing to add those canopy trees to landscape buffers or in common open spaces throughout the property.

“We would be putting the canopy trees in, 78 of those for the 78 lots we have, plus the ornamental trees,” he said. “So we are doubling up on trees.”

For screening, the developers are proposing a 6-foot-tall masonry screening wall on the property’s east side that borders Ridge Road, according to the Skorburg presentation. On the northern and southern property boundaries, developers are proposing a board-on-board wood fence and a tubular steel fence on the property’s west side.