Plano | Townhomes and Apartments

Plano Townhomes and Apartments: SF-A, RCD, MF Districts and SB 840 Land

Three or more homes on one lot is an apartment building under Plano's code, whatever its size. A triplex or fourplex therefore needs MF zoning, or commercial land where the City allows apartments under SB 840. Townhomes, homes joined by shared walls on their own lots, have their own districts. This page covers SF-A townhomes, the RCD district, the MF-1 to MF-3 apartment districts, the 2025 apartment standards, and the rules on commercial land. The Plano overview has the summary.

How Plano Counts Homes

The definitions in Sec. 8.200 sort buildings by the number of homes. A "Dwelling (Multifamily)" is a building "occupied as 3 or more dwelling units or apartments." A "Single-Family Residence (Attached)" is a townhome: a home in a structure of 3 or more homes, each joined "by a common wall to another with a minimum length of attachment of 20 feet," each on its own platted lot. Up to 20 percent of the homes in a townhome project may be in buildings of only 2 homes.

So the route depends on ownership. A fourplex on one lot, rented as four units, is a multifamily residence. Four townhomes, each on its own lot, are single-family attached homes. The two follow different districts, parking counts and fees.

SF-A Townhomes

The SF-A district, amended in 2025, is meant "to provide for a variety of residential housing types on individually-platted lots or multiple units on a single lot." Its main rules:

• Density. 2,250 square feet per home on individually platted lots (2,140 and 2,025 under the stormwater options), or a maximum of 10 homes per acre when several share one lot. The Planning and Zoning Commission may allow 12 per acre on one lot when the increase pays for added amenities.
• Lots. 25 feet wide (30 on a corner) and 85 feet deep.
• Yards. A 20-foot front yard, which may drop to 10 feet when the garage is reached from an alley and other conditions are met; a 10-foot rear yard; 10 feet between buildings.
• Building. 2 stories and 35 feet; lot coverage of 65 percent, or 68 and 72 percent under the stormwater options. "No complex of townhouse buildings shall exceed 200 feet in length."
• Garage and parking. Each home needs a 2-car garage. With front entry, it also needs 2 spaces outside the garage plus 0.25 visitor spaces; with rear or alley entry, 2 spaces per home.
• Open space and trees. Usable open space of 10 percent of the gross platted area, unless the project has 50 lots or fewer and meets the neighbor test in Sec. 9.1000.5; one tree with a trunk at least 3 inches across for each 3 homes.

The code disagrees with itself on one point. The SF-A table allows "multiple units" on "a single lot" at up to 10 per acre, but the definition of a single-family attached home says each home sits "on a separate platted lot (unless the dwelling is part of a planned residential development approved without separate platted lots)." Ask the Planning Department how it permits a single-lot SF-A project. By VanPlex arithmetic, 4 homes at 10 per acre need 0.4 acres, or 17,424 square feet.

The RCD District

The Residential Community Design district mixes housing types inside one planned neighborhood. Its Tier Two types allow the most homes per acre:

• Townhome: "part of a structure comprised of three or more single-family dwelling units attached by a common sidewall," on a 1,200 square foot lot, 3 stories and 50 feet, 80 percent coverage.
• Stacked townhome: a "3-story structure comprised of two dwelling units that share a common vertical separation," with separate ground-floor entrances, on a 1,200 square foot lot, with homes of at least 700 square feet.
• Single-Family Residence-1.5: a detached house of up to three stories on a 1,500 square foot lot.

A Tier One type, the Single-Family Residence-2, may be built as a cluster of 4 to 10 homes on one lot, each with 2,000 square feet of lot, facing a shared court of at least 10 percent of the lot, with a 5-foot walkway from each home to the street. Each of those homes is limited to 1,600 square feet, 1.5 stories and 25 feet.

Every RCD district must also meet rules for the neighborhood as a whole. Public usable open space must equal at least 15 percent of the gross acreage, with one space of 7,500 square feet or more. Streets must be public or open to the public, and "may not be gated." Buildings near the district edge must step back from homes outside it: two feet for each foot of height where an alley is present on the neighboring property, and 15 feet plus two feet per foot of height where there is no alley. Building permits are not accepted until a property owners' association is set up to maintain the common areas.

MF-1, MF-2 and MF-3 Apartments

The three multifamily districts differ in their stated intent: MF-1 is "condominiums and apartments in a park-like setting," MF-3 has "limited areas of usable open space." All three say the districts should sit along or near major roads, without principal access to standard residential streets. Their shared rules:

Source: Plano Zoning Ordinance, Secs. 9.1300 to 9.1500 and Sec. 15.800, as amended by Ordinance No. 2025-8-13.

Ordinance No. 2025-8-13 cut MF parking to "one parking space per dwelling unit." The district tables set lot, yard and height rules and give no number of units per acre. Sec. 13.600.3 also applies a building height envelope next to a residential zoning district: the height limit is 45 feet at the setback line and rises into the lot at the 1:2 slope shown in Figure 13-7. MF land may also be split into SF-6, PH, 2F or SF-A lots under Sec. 15.1900.1D.

The 2025 Apartment Standards

Sec. 15.2400 applies to every multifamily residence, every independent living facility built as apartments, and every mixed-use residential building "constructed, remodeled, reconstructed, redeveloped, or improved after September 1, 2025." It requires:

• Unit sizes: 500 square feet for an efficiency, 650 for one bedroom, 800 for two bedrooms, and 200 more for each added bedroom;
• Air filters: each outdoor-air ventilation unit must use a filter rated MERV 13 or better (MERV is a scale for how much dust a filter catches);
• Air intakes: placed on the side of the building away from any Type A thoroughfare (a road class on the City's Thoroughfare Plan Map) within 1,200 feet;
• Noise: sealed plans that hold indoor noise in each unit to 45 dBA Ldn, a day and night sound average, with a sealed statement before final inspection;
• Location: in nonresidential districts, no apartments on or within 1,000 feet of a heavy industrial use, or within 3,000 feet of an airport.

A fourplex of two-bedroom units therefore needs at least 3,200 square feet of unit floor area, by VanPlex arithmetic. Conversions are treated differently. An office, retail or warehouse building at least five years old, converting at least 65 percent of the building and of each floor to homes, is exempt from the new-building rules except notice (Sec. 15.2400.2).

Apartments on Commercial Land (SB 840)

In 12 office, commercial and industrial districts, Ordinance No. 2025-8-13 added a second column to each district table, titled "Multifamily and Mixed-use Residential Requirement." In 11 of them the front yard is 25 feet; CB-1 sets none. The residential column sets no lot coverage limit, and where the table lists a floor area ratio, the residential column says "None." Height rules differ by district:

Source: Plano Zoning Ordinance, Article 10, district area, yard and bulk tables.

For a small building, the O-1, R and LC districts are the practical ones: a 45-foot maximum and no minimum. A fourplex on O-2, CE, RC, RE, RT or LI land would fall below the minimum height. The table below sets Plano's rules beside Local Government Code 218.102.

Source: Local Government Code 218.101 and 218.102; Plano Zoning Ordinance, Article 10 and Secs. 3.100, 15.2400 and 16.700; City of Plano Land Use State Law page.

Section 218.102 lists what a city may not impose: density limits, height limits, setbacks and parking above the stated floors, a floor area ratio, and a required nonresidential use. A minimum height is not on that list. If a minimum height blocks your project, raise it with the Planning Department and a land use lawyer before you buy.

Fees for Three or More Homes

• Park fee: $4,359 for each new multi-family home and $5,691 for each new single-family home, collected before the building permit (Sec. 16-266 and 16-267).
• Building permit: $0.65 per square foot plus $90 plan review for multi-family residential, with separate trade inspection fees by floor area (Ordinance No. 2025-11-4).
• Plans: a preliminary site plan or site plan costs $200 per acre, and a concept plan $1,050, under the fee schedule effective March 23, 2026.

The plats, permits and fees page has the full list and the plat steps.

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the Plano overview, SB 840 explained and financing 2 to 4 units.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)