Customers in McKinney may have to wait a little longer for that new store or restaurant up the street to open its doors.
Halfway through 2018, the City of McKinney has already issued more than double the number of permits for commercial development than in all of 2017.
So far, 190 permits have been issued for nonresidential development, a mix of restaurants, stores and offices.
“We’re definitely seeing non-residential numbers in McKinney that we’ve never seen before,” said Development Services Executive Director Michael Quint.
In his office, that means a surplus of site and building plans to review, inspections to get done and permits to issue.
“The more permits we see it puts a burden on the staff that we have. We’re built up for an average development cycle. But when we have the levels we seen now, an almost unprecedented growth in the City of McKinney, it definitely puts a tax on the resources we have,” said Quint.
While Development Services staff aim for a 10 day turn around when it comes to approving building or site plans, it’s sometimes taking closer to 30 days. That can mean project delays and higher costs for developers.
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“We’re definitely mindful of those impacts to our customers, and we do everything we can to be upfront and honest with them saying, ‘Hey we’re running a little bit behind. This is what you can expect from us.’ Or we put in a whole bunch of overtime,” said Quint.
In 2017, McKinney issued 97 nonresidential permits. That was up from 59 in 2016.
Quint says the commercial development lagged behind McKinney’s residential boom longer than they would’ve liked, but now he believes it’s here to stay for a while.
“These are good problems to have. When we’re in a high growth community and everything is booming like this, this is what we do. This is what we’re built for. So we’re excited for this type of residential and non-residential growth. We’d rather be booming than not booming,” said Quint.
