The City of McKinney has agreed to pause its airport bond-validation lawsuit in Travis County while a related lawsuit against the city proceeds in Collin County.
McKinney and its affiliated development corporation asked a Travis County district court to “validate” tens of millions of dollars in bonds over the objections of taxpayers, who twice rejected the proposed debt at the ballot box.
Rather than dropping the project, city officials moved to “other city funding sources” in 2025—receiving grants from the development corporations that are funded by a dedicated local sales tax.
In March 2026, the North Texas Conservation Association (NTCA)—a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the natural environment of North Texas—filed a lawsuit in Collin County challenging the legality of the city’s workaround, which it claimed ran contrary to the will of the voters.
However, on April 24, McKinney filed its bond-validation suit under the Expedited Declaratory Judgment Act. The city chose to file in Travis County rather than Collin County, effectively moving the litigation surrounding its airport bonds to a court over 200 miles away from the affected parties.
McKinney not only hoped to hastily confirm the legality of its maneuver, but to block any legal challenges to it. This would have seemingly included NTCA’s pending lawsuit.
On Monday, NTCA announced that the City of McKinney had agreed to pause the case while the Collin County lawsuit proceeds, since it was filed first.
“While this is not the end of the case, it is an important procedural victory that allows the Collin County case to move forward. NTCA defeated the City’s effort to move the litigation to Travis County,” reads the announcement.
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