Plano | Parking, Setbacks and Height

Plano Parking, Setbacks and Height: District Numbers and General Rules

Once a lot's district allows the homes you want, three sets of numbers decide whether they fit: parking, yards and height. A yard, or setback, is the open distance a building must keep from a lot line. Plano puts each district's numbers in its Article 9 table and the general rules in Article 13 (lots and buildings) and Article 16 (parking). This page gathers them. The Plano overview has the summary.

Parking by Housing Type

The "Parking Space Schedule for Residential Uses in all Districts" in Sec. 16.700 was amended by Ordinance No. 2025-8-13. Off-street parking means spaces off the public street.

Source: Plano Zoning Ordinance, Sec. 16.700, and the district tables in Article 9 and Sec. 15.1900.4.

Sec. 16.700.1 sets the rounding: "any fraction less than 0.5 shall be disregarded, and any fraction of 0.5 or more shall require one space." Four townhomes at 2.25 spaces need 9 spaces; three need 6.75, which rounds to 7. Sec. 16.700.2 caps parking at the minimum plus 10 percent, unless the schedule says there is no maximum, as it does for houses, duplexes and apartments.

Garages add to the count in several districts. The SF-A front-entry rule reads: "2 off-street parking spaces, exclusive of garage and carport, shall be provided adjacent to each unit or within 100 feet of each unit," plus 0.25 visitor spaces within 600 feet. The PH, SF-A and 2F districts also require a 2-car garage for each home, and the PH, SF-A, 2F, MF and RCD rules all bar closing in a garage with a stationary wall. Backyard cottages may not meet their space with tandem parking, where one car parks behind another.

Yards, Height and Coverage by District

The table shows the Standard Requirements in feet. The stormwater options in SF-9, SF-7, SF-6, PH, SF-A and 2F cut the front yard to 25 feet (PH and SF-A: 15 and 10) and raise coverage; see the lot size page.

Source: Plano Zoning Ordinance, Article 9 and Sec. 15.1900.4. Side yards of "6.5 or 10%" mean 6.5 feet or 10 percent of lot width, whichever is greater.

The side yard rule in the larger districts grows with the lot. On a 65-foot SF-7 lot, 10 percent is 6.5 feet; on an 80-foot lot it is 8 feet. The SF-9, SF-7, SF-6 and 2F districts also set a maximum side yard of 10 feet, and SF-20 sets 25. Most districts set a minimum floor area of 800 square feet for each home.

General Yard Rules in Article 13

Sec. 13.500 adds rules that apply across districts:

• Plat lines. A building line on a plat approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission controls where it differs from the district front yard (13.500.2B).
• Neighbor average. On a block face where buildings have kept a different average setback and no plat line exists, that average sets the minimum front yard, but never more than 10 feet beyond a house on a contiguous lot (13.500.2H).
• Half the height. Outside BG, CB-1, UMU, NBD and RCD, the front lot line to building face distance may not be less than half the building's height (13.500.2I).
• Projections. Eaves and a porch without posts may reach 4 feet into the front yard (13.500.2C). Window sills and cornices may reach 12 inches and eaves 36 inches into a side yard (13.500.3F).
• Corner lots. On corner lots platted after the ordinance took effect, both street sides are treated as front yards, unless a plat building line gives a side yard of 15 feet or more (13.500.3A).
• Cul-de-sacs. Front yards on the round end of a cul-de-sac may drop by up to 5 feet, never below 25 feet, except in PH and UR (13.500.2M).
• Equipment. Air conditioners and pool pumps may sit in a side yard up to 60 inches tall (13.500.3G).
• Sight triangle. On a corner lot, nothing may block the view between 30 inches and 9 feet above the street inside a triangle 45 feet along each curb line (30 feet along the property lines where there is no curb), outside BG, CB-1, UMU, NBD and RCD (13.500.2K).

One rear yard rule limits what fits behind a house. In every district that allows single-family homes except PH, SF-A, MF-1, MF-2, MF-3, BG, CB-1, UMU, NBD and RCD, the main house and all accessory buildings "must not cover more than 50% of that portion of the lot lying to the rear" of a line joining the midpoints of the side lot lines (Sec. 13.500.4A). A backyard cottage counts toward that limit. In the same districts the main house must stay at least 10 feet from the rear property line.

Older homes are protected. When a house or duplex was built legally and a later change in setbacks puts part of it in a yard, it becomes nonconforming, and additions may continue along a line "tangent to the existing structure and parallel with the setback line" (Sec. 13.500.3O and 13.500.4G).

Height

Sec. 8.200 measures height from "the average grade as measured at the corners of the building prior to berming" to the highest point of a flat roof, the deck line of a mansard roof, or the highest ridge of a hip or gable roof, "including chimneys, cooling towers, elevator bulkheads," antennas and parapet walls. A story is "the height between the successive floors of a building or from the top floor to the roof." Under Sec. 13.600, when a limit is stated in stories and feet, "the more restrictive requirement shall apply."

So a 2-story, 35-foot district allows a two-story house of 35 feet or less. The A district allows 3 stories and 45 feet, and ED and SF-20 allow 3 stories and 40 feet, with the third story limited to 10 percent of the building's floor area. GR allows 1 story and 30 feet, with up to half the attic floor area usable as living space. A backyard cottage may not be taller than the main home. Small lots under Sec. 15.1900.4 allow three stories or 45 feet. For apartments, commercial buildings and similar uses next to a residential zoning district, Sec. 13.600.3 adds a building height envelope of 45 feet at the setback line, rising into the lot.

Coverage and Accessory Buildings

Lot coverage is "the percentage of the total area of a lot occupied by the base (first story or floor) of buildings located on the lot." Most district limits count the main house and accessory buildings together; SF-20, ED and A add 10 percent extra for accessory buildings.

Sec. 13.900 sets the rules for accessory buildings such as sheds, garages and carports:

• none in a required front yard, an easement or a street side yard;
• carports and detached buildings other than garages at least 3 feet from side and rear lot lines;
• detached buildings enclosed on 3 or more sides at least 10 feet from the main building;
• garages entered from an alley set back 20 feet from the alley lot line;
• detached buildings in a required rear or side yard no taller than 10 feet, with a 6-foot solid fence or wall on the lot line when closer than 10 feet to it;
• carports on house and duplex lots for no more than 3 vehicles and no longer than 24 feet.

An attached front garage or carport must be set back from the street at least as far as the house, or 20 feet, whichever is greater (Sec. 13.500.2P).

A Worked Example: A Duplex on a 2F Lot

Take a 2F lot 70 feet wide and 115 feet deep, 8,050 square feet, built under the Standard Requirements. The figures that follow are VanPlex arithmetic on the numbers in Sec. 9.1100 and Article 13.

• Side yards. 10 percent of 70 feet is 7 feet, which is more than 6.5, so each side yard is 7 feet. That leaves a building width of 56 feet.
• Front and rear. A 30-foot front yard and a 10-foot rear yard leave a building depth of 75 feet.
• Coverage. 45 percent of 8,050 square feet is 3,622.5 square feet of building footprint, garages included.
• Rear half. The rear half of the lot is 4,025 square feet, so buildings may cover 2,012.5 square feet of it.
• Parking. Two 2-car garages, one per unit, plus 4 required spaces, 2 per unit.
• Height. 2 stories and 35 feet, and no less than half the height back from the front lot line.

If an alley serves the lot, Sec. 9.1100.4 sets the garages 20 feet from the rear property line. Under Stormwater Option 2 the same district allows a 5,400 square foot lot, 55 feet wide, with a 25-foot front yard and 50 percent coverage, but only where the subdivision sets aside its 10 percent stormwater open space.

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the Plano overview, Texas building codes for duplexes to fourplexes and how Texas zoning works.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)