Plano, TX Building Setbacks & Zoning: Structure Height Limits (2026)

Plano's residential height cap follows the same formula across nearly every single-family zoning district: 2 stories, 35 feet, "except as in Sec. 5, SF-A, and 2F district tables carry the identical 2-story/35-foot cap). 600, the ordinance-wide Height Regulations article, governs how that number is read: where a district states its limit in both stories and feet, whichever figure is more restrictive controls, so a compliant two-story home that would technically fit under 35 feet on paper still cannot add a third story. 600 carves out a defined list of exceptions that may rise above the district maximum in any zoning district or planned development: water standpipes and tanks, religious facility architectural features, bell towers, domes and spires on government, school, and institutional buildings, one-story auditorium and sanctuary roofs, and public safety structures.

When one of those excepted features exceeds the district height limit next to a residential district, the ordinance requires the side and rear yards to grow by 2 feet, and the front yard by 1 foot, for every foot the structure exceeds the cap, but only for the portion of the structure causing the increase. Publicly-owned sports lighting, communication antennas and structures, utility poles and towers, and water tanks are exempt from height restrictions altogether. Nonresidential buildings near residential districts face a separate "Building Height Envelope" rule capping height at 45 feet at the setback line and rising on a 1:2 slope moving into the lot.