The city of Plano is working to improve streets throughout the city with creating new design standards

Plano, Texas – Plano City Council, in a bid to modernize and streamline its municipal infrastructure, has unveiled the second iteration of its proposed thoroughfare standards overhaul – a comprehensive revision now renamed as the ‘Street Design Standards.’ These standards, updated for the first time since 2009, are set to revolutionize cityscapes, bolstering street aesthetics and functionality across the metropolis.

These revised stipulations serve as a critical blueprint for all stakeholders, both public and private, instrumental in the city’s urban planning and street design endeavors. They aim to bridge the gap between the present traffic demands and future infrastructural necessities, ensuring Plano’s streets remain conducive to the evolving transportation landscape.

Historically, a significant proportion of downtown streets in Plano trace their roots back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, an era prior to the implementation of city-wide standards. As part of this sweeping refurbishment, the city envisages incorporating wider sidewalks, on-street parking facilities, street trees, and various amenities to facilitate pedestrian and bicycle traffic, breathing new life into these antique thoroughfares.

In this era of diverse commuting options, catering to various modes of transportation, from traditional motor vehicles to bicycles and micro-mobility devices like scooters, has emerged as a critical urban planning consideration. Plano’s revamped street design standards duly acknowledge this facet, incorporating safety measures and features to accommodate these varied transit modes.

The city’s meticulous approach to redefining its thoroughfare standards necessitates a contextual analysis of its roads. This analysis informs a more nuanced classification system that differentiates expressways, regional and local arterials, major and minor collectors, local streets, special streets, access ways (inclusive of alleys, mews, paseos, and shared streets), and downtown streets.

Taking a closer look at commercial locales with high pedestrian engagement, the revised standards impose restrictions on the use of mews, confining them to smaller subdivisions and spaces where houses front onto shared open areas, such as paseos.

Plano City Council also intends to streamline its street design standards, reducing redundancies while concurrently introducing newer stipulations. This exercise is poised to foster a more coherent and efficient set of guidelines for the city’s evolving street infrastructure.

A significant highlight of the proposed Street Design Standards is the installation of traffic calming devices. These mechanisms, deployed across Plano’s neighborhoods, will impose a moderating influence on vehicular speeds, thereby contributing to the safety of the city’s inhabitants. This demonstrates Plano’s firm commitment to prioritizing safety in its comprehensive urban redesign.