Council approves zoning for The Marco, the lagoon-and-canal district at the tollway and U.S. 380

The Town Council on Tuesday night approved the zoning for The Marco, an Italian-themed district planned around a lagoon and canals at the northeast corner of the Dallas North Tollway and U.S. 380, WFAA reported.

The vote came a month after the council postponed the case on Sept. 22. The change replaces commercial zoning on about 143 acres with a mixed-use planned development.

Mayor David Bristol said in a statement quoted by the station that the project fits the town's push for high-quality development, and credited the Planning and Zoning Commission, Director of Development Services David Hoover and town staff for their review.

Jeff Blackard, principal of developer Blackard Companies, called the vote "a big step" in his own statement. "There's a lot of work ahead," he said. Economic Development Director Madison Clark said in a statement that the approval marks the latest phase of the town's economic expansion, "turning key acreage into a long-term economic engine."

What the zoning allows

The approved request, as laid out in the staff memo for Tuesday's meeting, caps the development at 4,400 homes. No more than 2,500 can be mid-rise flats, 400 high-rise units and 500 age-restricted units, with up to 1,000 villas, townhomes, cottages, court homes and live-work units.

The memo anticipates a grocer, a market hall, a performing arts venue, as many as two hotels and about 1 million square feet of offices. At the center is a lagoon that also serves as regional stormwater detention, with navigable canals running from it.

Buildings at the corner of the tollway and University Drive, plus two structures inside the lagoon area, can rise to 14 stories or 190 feet. Most of the rest of the site is capped at eight stories or 160 feet. Open space, including the lagoon, a promenade and piazzas, totals about 28.7 acres, roughly 20% of the property.

What comes next

The phasing plan starts with the edges of the site, the lagoon and sitewide infrastructure. Later phases are to be built as pad buyers come in, with a corporate office and headquarters area last.

Town staff wrote that firefighting access to the lake still has to be settled during site plan review and could call for fire-related buildings at a dock. The land across U.S. 380 to the south is in Frisco.

Sources

Yahoo

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