If your back yard ends at a creek, you may have watched the bank creep toward the fence. Plano has a program aimed at exactly that. At Clay Plano Drainage Company we build yard drainage on the lot side of the same water, so here is what the program does and what it leaves to you.
What did Plano approve?
In October 2025, Plano City Council approved an increase in the city’s drainage utility rate. Part of the added money goes to citywide erosion control projects along creeks and channels.
The first round focuses on erosion sites that a city study rated critical: 42 locations in all. The projects move through design and construction over time, so check with the city for the current schedule.
Where is work planned?
One of the projects in the program will stabilize creek banks along Willow Creek Drive and Ports O’Call Court in east Plano.
The other critical sites are elsewhere in the city. For which sites are in the program and where each one stands, ask the City of Plano directly.
Why Plano’s creek banks erode
The banks along Plano’s creeks are soil that washes out when fast water hits it. Along the Rowlett Creek and Oak Point corridors, USDA soil maps show eroded Lewisville silty clay on 3 to 5% slopes.
Parts of southwest Plano map as eroded 2 to 4% slopes, while most of the city is nearly flat, at 0 to 3%. In a big storm, water from streets and yards gathers in the storm drains and reaches the creeks together, and fast, concentrated flow is what cuts banks made of soils like these.
| Where | What the soil maps show | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Rowlett Creek and Oak Point corridors | Lewisville silty clay, 3 to 5% slopes, eroded | Steeper banks lose soil when fast water hits them |
| Southwest Plano | Eroded soils on 2 to 4% slopes | Sloping lots move water toward low ground quickly |
| Central, east and north Plano | Houston Black clay, 0 to 3% slopes | Slow-draining clay sends more storm water across the surface |
What stays your responsibility
The erosion program repairs creek banks at the sites the city has chosen. It doesn’t take over the drainage on your lot, and a few Plano rules apply whether or not a project is near you.
- Ditches on your property. Plano asks residents to keep drainage ditches on their own property free of debris and vegetation.
- No dumping. It is illegal to dump debris, yard waste included, into ditches and drainage channels.
- Easements. Before you build a fence, wall or deck, check your plat for drainage and floodplain easements through the Collin Central Appraisal District. Improvements in an easement or floodplain may be cited and removed.
- Where water goes. Plano’s Stormwater Design Manual, which also has house lots drain toward the street, says natural flow may not be diverted or impounded in a way that damages adjacent or downstream property.
Who to ask about your lot
Questions about a creek bank, an easement or the program go to Plano’s stormwater staff at Stormwater@Plano.gov. The guide to drainage easements in Plano explains how to read the plat, and Plano drainage rules covers the rest of the city’s requirements.
What we do on a creek-side lot
Streambank stabilization is engineered work, and it isn’t part of what we offer. What we do is the yard side: planning how the water leaving your lot reaches its outlet, so it doesn’t add to the erosion below it.
- Outlets first. Where the lot allows, we send yard and roof water to the street side, as Plano’s manual expects for house lots.
- Keeping fast water off the bank. Where water has to leave toward a creek, we look at where the outlet lets out and how to keep a pipe from discharging straight onto bare bank.
- Silt control. While a trench is open, silt controls keep loose soil out of the storm system and the creek.
A flooded back yard by a creek can be a drainage fault or creek flooding, and the fix is different for each. The guide on floodplain or drainage problems shows how to tell them apart, and yard regrading and French drain installation cover the yard-side fixes.
How to follow the program
The program runs on the city’s schedule, not a single date, and sites move through design and construction at different times. For the current list and timing, ask the City of Plano’s stormwater staff.
If your own yard is shedding water toward the creek, or a pipe outlet is cutting into the bank, call (469) 551-8518 or send photos through the form below. We’ll look at where the water comes from and where it can safely go.