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Resident urges council to pause downtown parking garage plan, citing traffic and character concerns
Summary
Resident Shaw Black urged the City Council to table the downtown parking-garage proposal and find a less intrusive site, saying a six‑story structure at Kentucky and Hunt would overwhelm downtown, push traffic into narrow residential streets and harm historic character.
Shaw Black, a downtown resident, urged the McKinney City Council to pause consideration of the downtown parking‑garage proposal and to look for a more appropriate location.
"Placing a parking garage on Kentucky and Hunt will not only bring more cars and exhaust into downtown, it will feed heavy traffic into our residential neighborhood whose streets are too narrow for that kind of use," Black said during the public‑comment period, arguing a six‑story structure would be out of scale and could “become a haven for our homeless,” increasing safety and quality‑of‑life concerns for business owners and residents.
Black recounted the committee’s earlier recommendation that a parking facility should not be in plain sight of downtown and that other lots — including the municipal court building lot on the south side of the square — were previously identified as more appropriate. She noted near‑1,000 resident responses to surveys and town halls had expressed a preference to preserve downtown’s historic character.
The mayor thanked Black for her remarks and moved the meeting to the next agenda item. Staff later presented detailed site alternatives for council feedback during the work session.
