Plano | Zoning Districts

Plano Zoning Districts: Where Duplexes, Townhomes and Apartments Are Allowed

Every lot in Plano sits in a zoning district, and the district decides how many homes the lot can hold. The rules are in the City's Zoning Ordinance, a single PDF the City publishes on its own website. This page lists the 16 residential districts, shows which ones allow a duplex, a townhome or an apartment building, explains the 2025 change that opened commercial land to apartments, and explains each step of a rezoning. The Plano overview gives the short version.

Where the Rules Are Published

Plano keeps two separate rule books for land. The Code of Ordinances, published on municode, holds fees, building codes, flood rules and the heritage program in its Chapter 16. Its Appendix A, where a zoning code would sit, reads: "This appendix is reserved for future inclusion of the zoning ordinance." The zoning rules themselves are in the Zoning Ordinance PDF linked from the City's Zoning Ordinance page.

The PDF opens with a history table. Its first row says Ordinance No. 2015-5-2, adopted May 11, 2015, "adopted the entirety of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, rescinding Ordinance 2006-4-24." Its last row is Ordinance No. 2025-8-13 (zoning case ZC2025-007), adopted August 25, 2025, an amendment "pertaining to recent state legislative actions and to ensure compliance with state law." Each page footer reads "Plano Zoning Ordinance | September 1, 2025." The City's page adds a warning that the ordinance "is continually updated" and gives the Planning Department's number, 972-941-7151.

To check for later changes, VanPlex read the City's monthly ordinance files from August 2025 through September 2026. After Ordinance No. 2025-8-13, the City Council passed rezonings of single sites, specific use permits and heritage designations, but no change to the general text of the Zoning Ordinance. A specific use permit, in the City's words, "allows a use that may be appropriate in some locations in a given district but not all."

The 16 Residential Districts

Sec. 9.100 lists the residential districts. The table gives the standard minimum lot for each one and the housing the use table allows. Several districts have smaller lot options in exchange for stormwater areas; the lot size page covers those.

Source: Plano Zoning Ordinance, Article 9 and the Sec. 14.100 use table, September 1, 2025 edition.

The house districts step down in lot size from A (85,000 square feet) to SF-6 (6,000). The code describes SF-6 as "small-lot, urban, single-family development." UR is meant for "infill development, in an urban, pedestrian-oriented environment," and keeps 5,000 square foot lots. PH, the patio home district, groups houses on small lots around shared open space; a patio home may sit on one side lot line, with no yard on that side.

Three districts mix housing types. The SF-A purpose statement, amended in 2025, calls for "a variety of residential housing types on individually-platted lots or multiple units on a single lot." GR applies to the Douglass Community near downtown and allows houses on 3,000 square foot lots and duplexes on 6,000. RCD, created in 2021, is a district for planned small-lot neighborhoods built from a menu of housing types with an adopted development plan. Sec. 9.1700.2 sets a minimum district size of 5 acres unless the City Council finds a smaller district is needed to carry out the Comprehensive Plan.

What the Use Table Allows

The residential districts use table in Sec. 14.100 marks each use with "P" (permitted), "S" (allowed with a specific use permit), "R" (permitted subject to the residential adjacency standards of Article 21) or a blank, which means the use is prohibited. A number in a cell points to a note in Sec. 14.300. For housing, the table reads as follows.

Source: Plano Zoning Ordinance, Sec. 14.100. VanPlex read each cell by its position under the district columns on PDF pages 236, 241 and 242.

The definitions in Sec. 8.200 decide which row a project falls in. A "Dwelling (Two-Family)" is "a detached building having separate accommodations for and occupied by not more than 2 households." A "Dwelling (Multifamily)" is a building "occupied as 3 or more dwelling units." So a triplex or fourplex is a multifamily residence in Plano. A "Single-Family Residence (Attached)" is a townhome: a home in a structure of 3 or more homes joined by common walls at least 20 feet long, each on its own platted lot.

Two limits apply to every lot with a house or duplex. Sec. 13.100 allows "only one main building for single-family or two-family use" on a lot, with permitted accessory buildings. And the household definition caps a home at "not more than 4 adult unrelated individuals," plus minor children.

Apartments on Commercial Land Since 2025

SB 840, the 2025 state law now in Local Government Code chapter 218, requires large cities to allow multifamily and mixed-use residential development in zoning classifications that allow office, commercial, retail, warehouse or mixed use. Plano answered with Ordinance No. 2025-8-13. In 12 nonresidential districts (O-1, O-2, R, LC, CC, CB-1, CE, RC, RE, RT, LI-1 and LI-2) the purpose statement now says: "Multifamily and mixed-use residential are permitted where required by state law." Each of those districts has a second column of lot and height rules for these buildings. The use table also lists multifamily as permitted by right in UMU, BG and NBD.

Mixed-use residential has a set meaning: residential uses that are "at least 65 percent of the total square footage of the development." The townhomes and apartments page sets out the height, parking and design rules, including minimum heights of 75 feet or more in several of these districts.

The City's Land Use State Law page states the result plainly: these developments "must be approved if they meet the city's adopted development regulations. There is no public hearing requirement or ability for the city to prevent the development from occurring." Owners must post a sign, and neighbors within 500 feet receive a mailed notice.

Rezoning: Steps, Notice and Votes

Only three parties may start a rezoning, according to the City's Zoning Process page: the City Council, the Planning and Zoning Commission, or the property owner. The steps in Article 4 are:

• Sign. The applicant posts a zoning sign on the land and files a notarized statement that it is up (Sec. 4.300.3).
• Mailed notice. Owners within 200 feet receive notice before the 20th day before the Commission hearing, as state law requires. Owners within 500 feet receive a courtesy notice (Sec. 4.300.4 and 4.300.6). The City's page adds known homeowner associations within 1,500 feet.
• Commission hearing. The Planning and Zoning Commission may approve, approve with conditions, table for up to 90 days, or deny (Sec. 4.400).
• Council hearing. The City Secretary schedules a Council hearing after an approval. After a denial, the applicant has 30 days to ask for one in writing (Sec. 4.500). Notice is published at least 15 days ahead.
• Council vote. A majority decides, unless a protest or a Commission denial applies.

Ordinance No. 2025-8-13 rewrote the protest rules in Sec. 4.700 to match HB 24, now Local Government Code 211.0061. For a change that allows more homes, the protest needs owners of "at least 60% of the aggregate area" within 200 feet, and the change then needs "the affirmative vote of the majority of all members of the City Council." A protest by owners of 20 percent of the land being rezoned still triggers a three-fourths vote. For other rezonings, 20 percent of either area triggers three-fourths. A change proposed by the City that allows more homes and applies the same way to every parcel in a district cannot be protested.

One older sentence was left in place. Sec. 4.600.1 still says that when the Commission has denied a petition, or "a protest against the petition has been filed," the petition "shall not be approved except by three-fourths vote of the City Council." For protests, that sentence conflicts with the majority rule in Sec. 4.700 and in state law; the statute and the newer section control. HB 24 also repealed Local Government Code 211.006(f), the state rule that let cities require a three-fourths vote after a commission denial. Ask the Planning Department how it applies Sec. 4.600.1 before you count votes.

What a Rezoning Costs

Zoning fees are in Sec. 16-19 of the Code of Ordinances. Ordinance No. 2025-11-2 replaced the whole fee table from January 1, 2026, and Ordinance No. 2026-3-7 amended it again. The City's fee schedule, marked "Effective March 23, 2026," lists:

• a pre-application meeting for zoning or development: $350;
• a petition to a listed zoning district: $3,000 plus $50 per acre, with a maximum of $20,000;
• a petition for a planned development: $5,000 plus $50 per acre, with a maximum of $20,000;
• a specific use permit: $3,000 for more than 1 acre, $1,000 for 1 acre or less;
• an appeal of a denied petition to the City Council: $1,500;
• a notice fee of $200 per project plus $5 for each mailing required.

The municode copy is out of date on this point. Supplement 153 of the code, which includes ordinances through October 2025, still prints the older Sec. 16-19, with residential zoning at $600. The later ordinances control. The plats, permits and fees page has the full list.

Planned Developments and Overlays

Many Plano tracts carry a planned development (PD) district instead of, or on top of, a standard district. The City's Zoning Process page describes it as zoning that "results in special restrictions or allowances that are only applicable within that particular planned development." Read the PD ordinance for a tract before relying on the standard district table. The City's backyard cottage permit handout gives one example: in "SF-6 / PD-154" lot coverage is 55 percent, against 45 percent in standard SF-6.

Overlay districts add rules on top of the base district. Sec. 11.100 says that where an overlay conflicts with the base district, "the regulations of the overlay zoning district govern." The overlays that matter most for housing are the heritage districts, the neighborhood conservation districts and the Expressway Corridor Overlay, covered on the heritage, overlays and flood page. The City links an interactive zoning map from its Zoning Ordinance page.

A Code Rewrite Is Under Way

The City has an ad hoc Rewrite Advisory Committee. Its October 1, 2026 agenda lists "Consensus on General Direction of Unified Development Code Module 3A (A Portion of the Subdivision Procedures and Regulations)." A unified development code would combine zoning and subdivision rules in one document. None of it is adopted yet, so this guide uses the rules in force on October 8, 2026.

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the Plano overview, SB 840 explained, HB 24 zoning protests and how Texas zoning works.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)