McKinney | Parking, Setbacks and Height

McKinney Parking, Setbacks and Height: The Numbers by District and Use

Three parts of McKinney's Unified Development Code (UDC) decide how much of a lot a building can use: the parking table in Sec. 206E, the setbacks in each district table with the special rules in Sec. 204DD, and the height rules in Sec. 204EE. All three were restated on March 3, 2026 by Ordinance No. 2026-03-027. The McKinney overview gives the short version.

Parking by Use

Sec. 206E.3.f says each use "shall provide the minimum required on-site parking" in the parking table, which the March 2026 text numbers Table 2-9, the same number the code also gives the TR1.8 district table. The parking rules apply when a new main building goes up, when an expansion adds floor area or homes, and when a change of use needs more spaces.

Source: McKinney UDC Sec. 206E.3, Table 2-9: Minimum Vehicle Parking and Stacking Requirements, as adopted March 3, 2026. "DU" in the table means dwelling unit. The 4-space rule and the affordable housing note are printed beside the single-family detached and attached rows.

Enclosed means inside a garage, and covered means under a roof such as a carport. Where a rule asks for covered spaces, "Enclosed parking may be provided in lieu of covered spaces." Fractions are rounded: "any fraction of 0.5 or larger shall be rounded up to the next higher whole number" (Sec. 206E.3.b). A lot with more than one use adds up the parking for each.

State law caps some of these numbers. On an SB 15 small lot, Local Government Code 211.055 bars more than one space per unit, covered parking and off-site parking, and McKinney asks for one 9 by 20 foot space reached from the alley. For apartments covered by SB 840, Section 218.102 bars "more than one parking space per dwelling unit" and a multilevel parking structure. McKinney's apartment count of 1 per home stays within that limit, and its covered-share rules sit on top of it.

Ways to Reduce Parking

Sec. 206E.4 offers reduction tools and caps their effect. Outside a parking study, "the overall parking reduction shall not exceed 10 percent" when one tool is used, and 15 percent when two or more are used.

• Shared parking. The Director of Planning may approve sharing for up to 50 percent of the required spaces, for example between businesses within 500 feet of each other whose peak hours do not overlap. The rule "does not apply to mixed-use residential or multi-family residential uses."
• Saving trees. Keeping a quality tree that could otherwise have been removed with no mitigation cuts the count: 2 spaces for a tree of 6 to 8 inches across, 3 for 9 to 15 inches, 4 for 16 to 30 inches and 5 for 31 to 41 inches (Table 2-40). Tree size is measured as diameter at breast height (DBH), the trunk width at chest height.
• Covered share for apartments. In MR and MF36 the covered share may drop from 30 to 20 percent with one tree per 20 feet in the street and adjacency buffers and one extra amenity.
• Parking study. A study by a licensed professional engineer may support a cut approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission. Triplexes, quadplexes, mixed-use residential and multi-family residential uses are not eligible, and a project that uses a study may not use any other reduction.

Space sizes are in Sec. 206E.5: a standard space is "9 feet by 18 feet," a parallel space "8 feet by 22 feet," and a stacking space for a drive-through lane 10 by 20 feet. Sec. 206E.3.f says "No required parking or loading area shall be used for storage of inventory, materials, display, sanitation containers, supplies, or for any other use," apart from listed exceptions.

Setbacks and Height by District

A setback is the required distance between a building and a property line. The front setback faces the street, the side corner setback faces the side street of a corner lot, and the rear setback faces the back line. The table gives the numbers in each district's own table, in feet, with the summary table's figure where it differs.

Source: McKinney UDC Tables 2-3 to 2-9, 2-11 and 2-24, as adopted March 3, 2026. The MR district sets setbacks by building type; see the townhomes and multifamily page.

Zero lot line. In R8, R6, R5, R3, TR1.8 and for townhomes in MR, note 1 lets the interior side setback "be reduced to zero feet, so long as, a minimum building separation of ten feet shall be maintained between buildings." The rule is applied "on a block-by-block basis," and the zero side of each lot must be shown on the setback exhibit of an approved plat.

Driveways. Notes to the R8, R6 and R5 tables require "a minimum driveway length of 20 feet" from the garage door to the street or alley line, as the Engineering Design Manual requires. In R3 the rule applies only to platted lots over 4,000 square feet, so it does not reach SB 15 small lots. The Director of Engineering may approve a shorter driveway when the required spaces are provided in a common area or on approved street parking.

Next to houses. Commercial, office, agriculture and airport districts carry a residential adjacency rule. A non-residential building that shares a line with a house, duplex, triplex, quadplex or a single-family zone needs 30 feet for one story, 50 feet for two, and "2 feet of setback for each foot of building height" at three or more stories. Apartments on commercial land use 25 feet instead, under Sec. 206G.6.

Special Setback Rules in Sec. 204DD

• Plat lines. "Where a setback has been established by a filed plat, that setback shall prevail over any setback prescribed by the governing zoning."
• Split blocks. Where a block has two or more zoning districts, every lot follows the most restrictive front setback for the whole frontage.
• Through lots. A lot with a street at both front and back provides a front yard on both streets.
• Alley-only lots. A legal lot with no street access that fronts an existing alley keeps a front setback of at least half the district's front setback.
• Corner lots. A corner lot provides a front setback on every street frontage, except where no lot on the block faces that street; then that side uses the district's corner side setback. The building faces the same way as the interior lots.

Sec. 204DD.3 lists what may sit inside a setback. "Encroachments not specifically listed in this section are not permitted." In the front yard, paving "shall not exceed 75 percent of the required front yard," and parking paving may not sit between the front door and the front property line unless the design uses a J-swing drive, which turns sideways into the garage, or a circle drive. Slabs and platforms may rise no more than 20 inches above the yard's average grade, and eaves may project 4 feet. In R6 and R5 there is "a ten-foot encroachment zone" between the front setback and the front property line for open porches and patios. In side yards, window sills and similar features may project 12 inches and eaves 24 inches.

Lot coverage is the share of a lot covered by buildings. The residential district tables in Article 2 list no coverage limit, and the TMN Traditional McKinney Neighborhood Overlay sets 95 percent for house lots in its area (Table 2-23). On an SB 15 small lot, Section 211.055 bars a city from requiring more than 30 percent open space.

How Height Is Measured

Sec. 204EE.1 says "Building height shall be measured as the vertical distance between the average of the highest and lowest points of grade of the lot to the highest point of the structure." Grade is the ground level. For a roof with a slope of 5:12 or steeper, meaning it rises 5 inches for every 12 inches across, height is measured to the midpoint of the roof. So a house on a sloped lot gets the average of its high and low ground points as the base, and a steep pitched roof counts at its middle.

Exceptions: cooling towers, chimneys and vent stacks "may extend no more than 5 feet above the maximum height." Steeples, domes and institutional buildings may exceed three stories if each yard grows by one foot for each foot of extra height. A place of worship may reach 75 feet under set conditions, including a setback of at least 50 feet. Most important near the airport: "No structure may be erected to a height that exceeds the heights permitted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations and Chapter 118 of the Code of Ordinances," and where those conflict with the district height, the FAA and Chapter 118 limits prevail.

Chapter 118 sets its limits in feet above mean sea level. It states the airport elevation as 582 feet and sets a horizontal surface 150 feet above that, at 732 feet, with sloped approach and transition surfaces near the runway. Sec. 118-4(b) says nothing in the chapter stops a structure "to a height up to 35 feet above the surface of the land." The airport page gives the zones.

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the McKinney overview, the SB 15 small lots page, and building codes from duplex to fourplex.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)