McKinney council weighs downtown garage plans to ease parking crunch

Downtown McKinney’s parking squeeze is now tied to a bigger question: how to add hundreds of spaces without dulling the square’s pull for diners, shoppers and event crowds. City leaders reviewed three garage concepts at a June 16 work session, with plans ranging from 407 to 613 spaces and possible sites at Hunt and Kentucky streets or Hunt and Wood streets.

Fishbeck’s schematic options all called for five-story structures, but each would change downtown traffic flow in a different way. Concept 1 showed 418 spaces, Concept 2 had 407, and Concept 3 would deliver 613. Some versions also added retail along the perimeter, a sign that the city wants the garage to do more than simply store cars and to soften its impact on the pedestrian experience around the historic core.

The debate is part of the city’s Downtown City-Owned Property Redevelopment effort, which pairs parking with broader changes on city-owned land at the southwest corner of Hunt Street and Kentucky Street. The city says it will explore a partnership with the McKinney Economic Development Corp. to redevelop the old City Hall property for office uses while also building a new multi-level public parking facility and a new Central Park. Demolition of the former City Hall and Development Services buildings is scheduled for spring 2026, and public infrastructure reconstruction is expected to run from late 2026 through the end of 2028.

The garage plans are landing in a downtown that has already been reworked to manage demand. In 2025, council approved removing 33 unmarked parking spaces on streets including North Wood, East Lamar, South Church and West Davis to improve circulation and the visitor experience. The city has also started a pilot with AMSYS Innovative Solutions for digital parking-management signs at three downtown lots, including South Kentucky and East Cloyd streets. When those lots fill up, drivers will be directed to the Chestnut Parking Garage on Chestnut Street. The pilot was approved for up to $150,000, with an estimated cost of $105,000.

Planning staff have said the garage is meant to absorb parking demand tied to redevelopment, and council member Patrick Cloutier has pointed to the north end of downtown as having more open parking now that city employees have moved out of the old offices. He has also suggested limiting parking to three hours on the first floors of a future garage so the closest spaces keep turning over for short-term visitors. That concern reaches to the south side of the square, where restaurants rely on steady customer access without losing the walkable character that helps define downtown.

McKinney’s parking studies page says the Planning Department updates downtown parking every five years, with the last study in 2019 and a Parking Action Plan completed in 2021. The city also maintains maps showing Hunt Lot 1, Hunt Lot 2, Tennessee Lot 1, Kentucky Lot and the Chestnut Parking Garage, along with sidewalk café, patio and parklet licenses that tie parking directly to street-level commerce. Mayor Bill Cox asked for the garage issue to come back for further discussion, signaling that downtown parking is now being treated as a central piece of how McKinney wants its core to work for businesses, visitors and future growth.