MCKINNEY (WBAP/KLIF News) – McKinney has been named on the fastest growing cities in the country.
According to the city’s annual population estimate, nearly 180,000 North Texans live there. That’s a 6.8 percent increase from January 2017.
The city estimates that the population has increased 365 percent during the last 20 years.
Mayor George Fuller said the excellent schools, low crime rate and rapidly expanding economic opportunity is bringing almost 8,000 new residents a year.
The demographics are a mix of residents who work in either Dallas or Fort Worth or who have jobs within the city.
Fuller said lots of new businesses are popping up in the area including some major corporations.
“In McKinney, the businesses are growing and expanding. Independent Bank just announced national headquarters here. Playful Corporation is building their headquarters here,” he said.
City leaders recently approved a tax incentive plan for a $100 million upscale hotel and conference center in Craig Ranch.
If the city continues on this trajectory, Fuller said he expects the population to double in the next decade.
“Ultimately, we see McKinney being somewhere between 330 and 370,000 people in a county that will grow to be between 3.2 and 4 million people,” he said.
That type of record growth typically comes with a few growing pains.
Fuller said the city is currently dealing with unexpected infrastructure issues.
“We are actually in the process right now of revisiting all of our capital improvement plans to determine who we are going to proceed. We are at the county, state and federal level vying for projects on a daily, weekly and monthly basis,” he said.
In 2014, Money Magazine placed McKinney at the top of the list of the best places to live in America.
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