Last night, we attended the first session of the Plano Citizens Academy. It was a meet and greet with the Mayor and City Council and then an overview of the city from City Manager Tom Muehlenbeck. We took note of a few items that stuck out from Tom’s presentation:
- Plano is considering dropping its practice of buying a full newspage each week to highlight city news. It cost the city $60,000 a year. The plan is to replace it with a web site that is updated weekly. They need to offer RSS syndication!
- There are 1,000 restaurants in Plano, boy we eat a lot!
- All buildings (commercial and residential) in excess of 6,000 square feet require sprinkler systems
- Plano currently has 237,000 residents with max buildout at 250-260,000.
- Plano has seen decreasing sales tax revenues for 14 of the past 16 months.
- Plano has contributed $463 million to DART since 1982.
- 26 city positions were eliminated this past year, they expect more job cuts this year.
- Plano will soon have an online ticket payment system.
- Plano has a $300 million budget for 2003.
- Plano is very proud of its AAA bond rating.
- City Council has final authority over all decisions, this in response to questions about Wal-Mart development.
- Plano is the 3rd largest retail center in the Metroplex trailing only Dallas and Fort Worth with 14.1 million square feet of retail space.
- Collin Creek lost 12% sales to Stonebriar and 15% to The Shops at Willow Bend.
- An addition floor will be added to Haggard Library and then Plano will have completed its Library System.
- There are approximately 68,000 residences in Plano. 27,000 homes are priced less than $150,000 with 11,000 under $100,000.
