Plano, TX HOA Rules: Board Governance (2026)

Under Plano Zoning Ordinance Sec. 10, the city will not accept or approve building permit applications for development inside an RCD district until a "suitable property owners' governance association" is set up. This is a zoning-driven precondition on development, separate from the state-law rules governing an existing HOA's internal operations (assessments, fines, board meetings, and architectural review, which flow from the Texas Property Code and are addressed elsewhere on this site). " Developers can also give the association broader authority, the code lists security, promotion and marketing, and entertainment as examples of optional additional programs the association may administer.

Plano allows two alternate governance structures to satisfy the requirement: a Municipal Management District or a Public Improvement District, either "created in conformance with the Texas Local Government Code," can stand in for a conventional homeowners' association. Whichever structure is used, the district's governance documents must incorporate a Reciprocal Easement Agreement (REA) covering shared parking arrangements and public access to sidewalks and other shared amenities, though the city allows that REA to be deferred until a plan for the common areas and amenities themselves is submitted for review.

The same governance-association mandate, with nearly identical language, is repeated for two other planned-development district types in the same ordinance: the Urban Mixed-Use (UMU) district at Sec. 7 and the Neighborhood Business Design (NBD) district at Sec. 9, showing this is a standard structural requirement Plano applies across its newer form-based residential and mixed-use zoning districts, not a one-off rule for RCD alone.