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Frisco City Council approves rezoning of Fields property, home of PGA headquarters, new Omni hotel

Mayor Jeff Cheney said the development will be an ‘incredible economic engine’ for the city.

Updated at 7:25 p.m., March 18, 2020, with the council’s vote.

The Frisco City Council has approved the rezoning of the Fields estate, a project the mayor has praised and the developer has said will appeal to the city’s residents.

Before the vote Tuesday night, developer Fehmi Karahan appeared before Mayor Jeff Cheney and council members to answer questions.

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“We want to create a place with character and soul — where everyone would want to come, where everyone would want to live, work, play,” Karahan said.

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Cheney agreed, adding that it would be an “incredible economic engine” for the city.

“There’s no doubt there have been dark clouds literally, but also figuratively across America, across Frisco,” Cheney said. “We hope that discussion in this case sheds a bright light that there are brighter days ahead, and the best is yet to come in Frisco.”

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The property will be the home of the new PGA of America headquarters, which will include two golf courses and an Omni resort hotel.

In 2018, Dallas-based Hunt Realty led a group of developers and investors to purchase the 2,544 acres of land on the Dallas North Tollway, which is the largest undeveloped section of land in Frisco. The Fields development is expected to have more than 10,000 houses, up to 18 million square feet of commercial space and at least 12 parks.

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The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission approved the rezoning Feb. 25. Chairman Robert Cox had called it the city’s “most complicated zoning case in history” when the item was first tabled in January.

The results include nine sub-districts of single-family, multifamily and student housing as well as office, retail and commercial space.

Residential

Applicant and project owner FHQ Holdings LP requested up to 5,000 single-family units at the Feb. 25 meeting, along with 8,500 multifamily units and 1,000 student housing units, according to city documents published in the agenda.

Student housing will be limited to the University Village sub-district. The University of North Texas recently announced that it will expand to Frisco near the Fields property. The branch campus is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

Commercial

The project also proposes spreading commercial acreage across five sub-districts to prevent an overabundance of residential development.

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Point West and East Village will be split with 50% urban mixed-use development and 50% residential development. North Fields, Midtown West and Midtown East will be 70% urban mixed-use development and 30% residential development.

Commercial development will consist of office space, retail businesses, restaurants and industrial facilities. It is still undetermined whether alcoholic beverage establishments will be part of the new development, as the section is still pending legal review and will be subject to the Frisco City Council’s review and approval.

Open space

The new development will require no less than 12% open space and no fewer than 12 neighborhood parks on at least 72 acres.

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The developer stated a desire to have a larger number of smaller parks throughout the property rather than aggregating the parkland into standard 7- to 8-acre parks, according to the document.

As a result, each sub-district will have a minimum requirement for open space — North Fields and Midtown West at 8%; the Preserve at 10%; and Brookside, Point West, Point East, Midtown East, East Village and University Village each at 15%.

The 12 parks would range from half an acre to 7 acres.