PLANNING AREA

from Plano Parks Master Plan July2023

ADDITIONAL FACILITIES

At 71.6 square miles, Plano is a large city located about 20 miles north of downtown Dallas. The City is located primarily in Collin County but also reaches into Denton County and is landlocked by other communities on all sides. Major highways include US 75 running through the eastern part of the City, President George Bush Turnpike on the southern boundary, Dallas North Tollway on the western side, and the Sam Rayburn Tollway forming most of the northern city border.

Plano is the fourth largest city in the DFW Metroplex, a region that has experienced tremendous growth in recent decades. That population growth is expected to continue; from 2022 to 2050, the City is expected to grow by 13.8%. Plano has also seen a large increase in the number of people working in the City in recent years. As part of this master plan update, two areas in the City that have experienced increased development and concentration of corporate headquarters were analyzed in more depth to develop recommendations to integrate parks and open space. These two areas are Downtown Plano and the Northwest Legacy area and are discussed in more detail in the Appendix.

City History

Plano is a city rich in history; the downtown was designated as a Downtown Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. The first known settler in Plano was McBain Jameson who settled in the area in 1840. John Haggard, whose family still owns large tracts of land in the City today, followed close behind, settling in the area in 1856. In 1873 Plano was officially incorporated and businesses, schools, and churches began to be established. The Haggard family in 1925 made a sizable donation to the Plano Lions Club to construct a park in the downtown area, which was named after the donor when the park was dedicated in 1928. 30 years later, in 1958, the construction of North Central Expressway through Plano was completed which is considered to be a major factor contributing to the City’s growth, and as early as 1960 Plano was the fastest-growing city in Collin County.

Since the 1960s, growth in Plano skyrocketed – more and more residential subdivisions were built, major employers constructed headquarters in Plano, and the population boomed. This growth required massive investment from the community through bonds and other sources to construct schools, infrastructure, and quality of life elements such as parks to keep up with the demand. In 1980, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) announced that the company was moving their headquarters to Plano; this ushered in many corporate campuses in the succeeding decades as Plano was, and still is today, viewed as a business-friendly community.

Major public transportation came to Plano in 1985 through DART, and represented the first suburban service in the regional system. Today, the DART light rail serves downtown Plano and goes as far north as Parker Road; there are also bus routes and several bus transfer stations throughout the City. DART has plans to construct the Silver Line Regional Rail and two stations at 12th Street and Shiloh Road, which is anticipated to be complete in 2024 and will connect Plano to the DFW Airport. When new residential and commercial development was approved around the downtown station in the late 1990’s a new resurgence of downtown began, leading to the distinct area we see today.