99 acres up for rezoning

Zoning Case 2023-003 is scheduled for a City Council hearing on Tuesday, November 7, 2023 at 7:00 pm. This case has been tabled by Council three times. It is disfavored by staff and does not conform to the Comprehensive Plan.
The case was passed by Planning and Zone in July. The developer wants to rezone 99 acres from Commercial Employment to Planned Development at Parkwood and Legacy. The old EDS headquarters sits on the property now. The owner of the building wants to convert it into a life science facility where people will make pharmaceutical drugs, gene therapies and cell therapies. The developer also plans on building other nonresidential buildings, some as high as nine stories. Also a research hospital may be built in the future. This development has the potential of employing around 32,000 people. The one problem with it is the developer claims he needs 775 apartments on the property.
The developer claims they need the 775 apartments for the workers of the research building, and simply can’t build the project without them. His reason is that the workers wont have anywhere to live in Plano or near by Frisco. I find this to be hog wash. We have multiple apartments being built as I write this. We also have apartments available for rent in Legacy West, Shops at Legacy, Frisco, and greater Plano. However, lets say the developer is correct, and the future employees will have no where to live. Why would he tell the Planning and Zoning board that the apartments, he so desperately needs, will be available to the public at large? If these apartments are truly needed for the future employees, he should only rent them to the people who will be working there. Also, if the future workers have no where to live now, where will the other 31,225 people go? Another question is how are 31,225 people suppose to get to work? If they all drive, that will be 31,225 more cars on the road at least twice a day.
Lastly, why not build housing for workers to buy? Companies across the USA are building buy-able housing for their workers. According to an NPR article. A growing number of employers around the country have decided to build their own housing for workers. Disney, Meta, the meat-packer JBS,  Cook Medical, and health care providers are just some. Elon Musk is planning a new neighborhood in Texas for his employees.
Cook Medical's company head does not even want to build apartments, as he said, "You don't build communities with apartments and rentals, and people don't build wealth living in apartments. I want to build houses where people can raise their kids and live there their entire life.” When the employee wants to sell the home, the company and its staff get first choice to buy. Clearly this man cares about his staff and their families.
Another problem with apartments is they create more stress for the renter. According to a study published in The British Medical Journal's Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, renting is so stressful that it leads to faster biological aging than home ownership. It’s so stressful, that its impact on biological age was almost double that of unemployment, and 50% greater than living as a former smoker.
There is another problem with the development as drafted, wastewater. The city staff report mentions this development will bring challenges to our wastewater treatment plants. In other words, we don’t have the infrastructure to support the additional wastewater generated by this development.
No matter how you slice it, this development plan for apartments reaps no benefits to the workers or city. At worst, it’s an underhanded excuse for more apartments, using supposed workers as a defense behind it.
If you don’t want this development as drafted, let the city council know.
This is Mary Lema for Plano’s Political Pit Bull.