Collin County to consider final plat for 624-home Restore the Grasslands

Neighbors near Parker faced another round of uncertainty as Collin County commissioners considered final plat approval for Restore the Grasslands, a 100.725-acre subdivision planned for 624 residential lots and 32 open space lots. The tract sits at the center of a fight over who will carry the risk from a new municipal utility district, a private wastewater plant and a single access point off FM 2551.

The county’s packet said all roadway and utility infrastructure would be owned and maintained by Collin County Municipal Utility District No. 7. It also said a portion of the property lies inside the City of Parker and in Texas Department of Transportation right-of-way, making county approval dependent on Parker signoff for the in-city portion and an approved TxDOT driveway permit. Because the lots do not front existing public roadways, internal subdivision streets are required.

Water for the project is proposed to come from groundwater wells, with the developer’s groundwater availability certification still under review by the North Texas Groundwater Conservation District. Sanitary sewer service is proposed through a wastewater treatment plant, but the county said an approved Texas Commission on Environmental Quality permit must be in place before construction can begin. The county also said the homes and buildings would need approved automatic sprinkler systems because the development has only one point of access.

The site generally drains west to east into a FEMA floodplain tied to Maxwell Creek before reaching Lake Lavon, adding another layer of concern for nearby landowners who have already spent years fighting the project. The developer has also been coordinating emergency service agreements as the plat moved forward.

Parker officials said the city learned of the final plat only when the June 8 agenda was posted, and said the plat had not been submitted to the city before it appeared at the county. The city’s transparency page says the proposed Collin County Municipal Utility District No. 7 is tied to the 103-acre Restore the Grasslands tract next to Parker city limits, and said no final agreements or binding commitments had been approved or extended by City Council as of March 6.

The same development has been caught up in a contested case over the MUD itself. Restore the Grasslands originally petitioned to create the district on 101 acres in Parker’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, and a 2024 challenge argued the petition should be void. In May 2025, TCEQ ordered a contested case hearing and allowed additional protestants to join. An administrative law judge later said the petition had to be reposted because Restore the Grasslands’ name was missing, and that reposting brought in 53 new local protestants.

The wastewater plant at the center of the dispute had also been granted a permit to discharge up to 200,000 treated gallons a day into Maxwell Creek, and neighbors filed suit in state district court in Austin to block it. Alongside the plat, commissioners also had a separate agenda item for $110,000 for temporary records-preservation staff in the County Clerk’s office.