The cows at Lavon Farms may soon have new neighbors, and a lot of them.
Plano’s Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday recommended approval of a plan to turn the 215-acre Lavon Farms dairy into a mixed residential community built around parks and a preserved rural core. The vote pushes the Trammell Crow-backed proposal to the brink of final approval, with a City Council decision scheduled for Dec. 8.
According to the City of Plano's Development Review List, the application (project DP2023-001 / zoning case ZC2023-028) requests rezoning of about 215 acres west of Jupiter Road from Agricultural to Residential Community Design. The city record shows the case was heard by Planning & Zoning on Nov. 17 and is set for City Council consideration on Dec. 8. It lists the landowner as Moore Todd A.-Jonathan Moore Family Limited Partnership and identifies Spairs Engineering as the project representative.
As reported by Community Impact, the concept is anything but small. The plan calls for roughly 626 single-family homes and 1,052 multifamily apartments, plus about 37 acres of open space. That includes 10 acres of parks and a "Rural Preserve" envisioned as a micro-farm hub with farmers markets and small-scale retail.
The proposal breaks the land into three subdistricts that mix detached homes, townhomes and 2- to 4-story apartment buildings. It would also require that at least half of the original farmstead structures be preserved inside the Rural Preserve, so some of the site’s agrarian history survives the bulldozers.
Traffic is already a hot topic in East Plano, and this project would help pay to reshape nearby roads. The plan includes funding for improvements tying together K Avenue, Jupiter Road and Spring Creek Parkway, with wider lanes and a new roundabout in the mix. The city received dozens of written comments on the case, many of them focused squarely on density and congestion.
Trammell Crow is listed as the development partner on the application. "We really used the vision from Envision Oak Point to shape and form our plans," Trammell Crow principal Kevin Hickman said, adding that the team expects to break ground on the first phase before the end of 2026. Landowner Todd Moore told meeting attendees he expects the full buildout to take about seven years.
Several commissioners used the hearing to air broader worries about how much control Plano still has over big housing projects under new state rules. "One of my fears was that we had lost the ability to shape our city," Commissioner Tosan Olley said, according to Community Impact.
Community reaction and what's next
With Planning & Zoning’s recommendation now in the books, the Lavon Farms case heads to City Council on Dec. 8 for a final up-or-down vote. If Council signs off on the zoning change, developers say infrastructure work and initial construction could begin in 2026.
Opponents at the hearing and in written comments zeroed in on the familiar trio of traffic, parking and the scale of multifamily housing, questioning how the area’s streets and schools will absorb the influx of residents. Supporters countered that the parks, the network of open spaces and the Rural Preserve would keep a surprising amount of the site’s rural character intact, even as rooftops fill in around it.
The city’s official case file, which outlines the schedule and project identifiers for the council review, is listed in public records and remains available for residents tracking the project’s progress.
Legal implications
Developers and commissioners also highlighted a growing reality at City Hall: recent state housing laws are shrinking how much say municipalities have over new residential projects.
A legal briefing from Foley & Lardner LLP explains that S.B. 840 and S.B. 2477, along with related measures, narrow local control over certain multifamily and conversion projects and push more approvals into streamlined administrative permitting. Several commissioners said that backdrop shaped their thinking on Lavon Farms, with some suggesting Plano might have fewer tools in the future to negotiate design details on large developments like this one.
Plano City Council is scheduled to hear the Lavon Farms rezoning on Dec. 8. If it passes, the city will move into detailed site-plan review and permitting, with road and park work expected early in the project’s rollout. This story will be updated after the council vote and as construction timelines and permits are released.
