New houses in McKinney would need half as many parking spaces as they do now under a package of changes to the city's development rules that the City Council will review at a work session Tuesday, Oct. 20.
The draft amendments to the Unified Development Code, which the council adopted in November 2022 under the New Code McKinney effort, come out of the annual review staff does to fix problems with the code, according to a memo from the Planning Department. They touch three parts of the code: zoning regulations, tree preservation and definitions. No vote is scheduled Tuesday.
The Planning and Zoning Commission is set to hold a public hearing and act on Nov. 10, followed by a council hearing and vote on Dec. 1, according to the staff presentation.
Parking
The largest single change in the presentation is to residential parking. Single-family homes, detached or attached, now need four spaces, two of them enclosed. The draft would require two spaces, with one enclosed. Duplexes would drop from four spaces per lot to one per unit with alley access, or one enclosed space per unit if the driveway faces the street.
Other proposed parking cuts include:
- independent living, from 1.5 spaces per unit to one;
- gyms and fitness studios, and indoor and outdoor gun ranges, from one space per 200 square feet to one per 300;
- data centers, from one space per 2,000 square feet to one per 4,000;
- outdoor entertainment, from 40 spaces per playing field to 20, and from three per mini golf hole or range tee to two.
Uses
The draft would limit fuel stations for passenger vehicles to no more than two within 1,000 feet of a road intersection. It would also create a new use, massage establishment, defined as a business that advertises or offers massage services, and allow it in commercial, office, industrial and airport districts.
Other use changes in the draft:
- Data centers in the regional office district would need a specific use permit, rather than being allowed outright.
- Mixed-use residential buildings would be allowed in the MF36 multifamily district and, with a permit, in the mixed residential district, with at least 20% of the ground floor in nonresidential use.
- Body art studios could open in the local commercial district under set criteria.
- Outdoor commercial entertainment would be allowed in local and regional commercial districts under set criteria for up to 500 seats, with a permit needed above that.
