Mayor Jeff Cheney

PGA Frisco is officially on the clock as next year we will host the first major to be played in Texas in 58 years. When we were visiting the PGA in 2017 that week the announcement was made the PGA Championship would move from August to May opening the door for Texas to host again. In 2018, when the deal was announced that the PGA of America was moving to Frisco with the commitments of hosting future majors, 2027 seemed like an eternity away. In the decade in between, the course was built and tested with the Seniors and Ladies PGA Championship. A year from today someone will be lifting the Wanamaker trophy in Frisco!

I had intended to stay out of the Mayoral race until candidate Rod Vilhauer decided he was running against me instead of Mark Hill for Frisco Mayor. I am including my response to him below because I am proud of the work we have accomplished for Frisco over the last 9 years. I hope the conversation is brought back to the candidate’s aspirational thoughts they bring for the future for Frisco.

Rod, I do not see the need to attack me. You are running against Mark Hill. To my knowledge, surprisingly you and I have never spoken, despite us both living here over 25 years.

When I ran for Mayor 9 years ago after serving on Council for 9 years, I did not use rhetoric, division, or hate as a way to sway votes. I articulated a vision and real priorities. I documented them through my nine-plank message and the city’s “100 Videos in 100 Days” so I could always be held accountable. Those videos are still available on the city’s YouTube channel.

After that, we rolled up our sleeves and executed the vision. I accomplished everything I set out to achieve. I expect the next Mayor to bring their own ideas and priorities. That is why I strongly believe in term limits.

Since you have been absent the last decade here is a reminder of the things this team achieved:

We master planned the city through 2040 with a citizen-driven Comprehensive Plan

We implemented a first of its kind commercial open space ordinance requiring parks in every commercial project. We were told this would kill development but the result has been nearly 100 commercial parks built in the last 9 years

We recruited UNT Frisco and launched the first phase of a campus that will eventually serve 20,000 students annually. Getting a university is nearly impossible because of regional university politics and land prices. We made it look easy.

We convinced the PGA to relocate across the country when staying home would have been the easy choice for them. We built the Modern Home of Golf and will host the PGA Championship with the world’s eyes on Frisco. This is a transformational project that will define northern Frisco for generations.

We planned the largest most complex zoning cases in the history of Texas with Fields allowing us to build a city within a city including residential and mixed use commercial including Fields West.

We transformed Firefly Park from being an uninspiring development into a development defined by meaningful public open space

We worked tirelessly to remove bad historical apartment zoning that was done in the 80s and 90s, at one point over 80k units. How many of these did you approve Rod when you were on P and Z that we had to go back and try to correct?

We added phasing and maximum density calculations to our mixed use developments, increased park fees and open space requirements, and held firm on our building standards even after new legislation at the state to preserve quality development

We changed the perception of Frisco in the corporate world, turning the EDC into one of the strongest economic development organizations in Texas and landing employers like Keurig Dr Pepper and TIAA any dozens more bringing thousands of jobs to Frisco

We built all of our city facilities to meet the needs of the city upon build out. This includes our award winning Library that we had the courage to move forward during budget uncertainty of covid saving tens of millions of dollars. We are finishing up on City Hall renovations, upgraded our Public Safety Training Facility, Police HQ, new Fire Stations to improve response times, built new municipal court, our Public Works HQ and starting our Parks HQ. Mayors for the next few decades will not have to worry about ANY facility needs of the city as that heavy lifting is done.

We shifted road construction from reactive to proactive, completing most major thoroughfares and expanding rapidly growing corridors to six lanes. Nearly all of the heavy lifting of major infrastructure needs has been done

We became a national beta-test city for transportation innovation, learning from programs involving AI traffic systems, autonomous vehicles, drones, and partnerships like the one announced this week with DCTA.

We set a plan to revitalize our downtown, having a split vote on whether it was even worth investing money into a consultant for a master plan. It was a 9 year plan after visiting numerous downtowns across the country, doing the hard work of learning and planning how to phase this massive undertaking. We added parking with the garage at the Patios, rebuilt Elm street to add back street parking and giving another access, added much needed utility and drainage improvements, buried overhead utility lines, put on a bond election for another garage, built temporary parking lots, and then execute construction of Main Street and the 4th street Plaza. The end result will transform the heart of our city forever. Transformational projects takes courage from all members of the team to see things like this through, all while other political candidates throw stones about how they “could have done it better”

Open space has been my personal passion. We finally got Grand Park unstuck and construction starting, growing the original vision to 1000 acres. We are starting planning on phase 2 now. We will soon open NW Community park which will be our first regional park not dedicated to sports fields, we acquired 300 acres at our Panther Creek site for a future regional park, added many neighborhood parks and reinvested in older parks, developed a hike and bike trail master plan to reach hundreds of miles throughout the city, planned the northern part of the city before the roads so we could make below grade connections, finalized those last mile connections we needed to have a full connected system. We continued larger commercial parks with the PGA and investing in Kaleidoscope Park, a park we are already expanding again

We strengthened healthcare partnerships with Baylor, Texas Health, UT Southwestern, and Scottish Rite, creating some of the best healthcare access in the country

While continuing to lead Sports City USA, we leaned into the creative economy with public arts, murals, and live music. More venues are on the way and I am hopeful that growing this part for Frisco to continue to round out

We decided to become one of the greatest American cities. We knew it was important for our city and all our residents to value veterans. In the last 9 years, Frisco has been designated a “Purple Heart City+ honoring them each year, established an annual Distinguished Veteran Award, hosted veteran socials and more. We attract the best of America to Frisco.

We grew tourism to nearly 8 million annual visitors, bringing major events ranging from the ACM Awards, golf championships, the Dallas Open, and World Cup partnerships and many more.
Universal Studios will soon open and become both a defining family attraction and a major economic engine for Frisco’s future.

We implemented the home exemption and raised it multiple times until reaching the state maximum of 20%. We also implemented a senior tax freeze. This has tremendously helped relieve the tax burden on our residents.

I am most proud of the work we have done to celebrate Frisco’s cultural diversity with a simple mission: when someone calls Frisco home, they should feel safe and welcomed. We chose not to fear diversity, but to embrace it. Frisco proudly celebrates Christmas, Hanukkah, Holi, Lunar New Year, Black History Month, Ramadan, Hispanic Heritage Month, and more. We believe that to love thy neighbor, you must first know your neighbor. I believe the rhetoric in your campaign is disgraceful and represents one of the greatest risks our city has faced in an election.

I had planned to stay out of this before the “Cheney 2.0” nonsense. I am incredibly proud of what Team Frisco accomplished over the last decade. It came through sacrifice, hard work, setbacks, and ultimately success rooted in love for this community.

The next Mayor should bring their own ideas and lead differently than I did, just as I led differently than Maher Maso, and he led differently than Mike Simpson. But what we all shared was a commitment to build on the work of those before us and continue pushing Frisco toward being a world-class city in every way.

Ready for World Cup fever?! Sweden plays Poland tomorrow, Tuesday at 1:45 for an auto bid to the World Cup. The winner of this match will call Frisco home as their official base camp during the World Cup and practice at Toyota Stadium. FC Dallas player Herman Johansson plays for Sweden as well. Here’s a link to the game preview and how to watch

Sweden vs Poland World Cup play-off final preview: Where to watch, kick-off time and team news | European Qualifiers When is it? How can you watch? What are the predicted line-ups? All you need to know as Sweden meet Poland.

The next era for Frisco ISD. Big congrats and much deserved for Dr. Todd Fouche!

The Frisco ISD Board of Trustees have named Deputy Superintendent Dr. Todd Fouche as the lone finalist for the position of superintendent of Frisco ISD.