Title: Forget What You’ve Heard, Houston Really Does Have Zoning (Sort Of) | The Kinder Institute for Urban Research
Headings: Forget What You’ve Heard, Houston Really Does Have Zoning (Sort Of)
Forget What You’ve Heard, Houston Really Does Have Zoning (Sort Of)
Ryan Holeywell | September 8, 2015
Space City has a reputation for being the only big American city without zoning. That reputation is undeserved.
Ryan Holeywell | @RyanHoleywell | September 9, 2015
Issues

Content: As decisions about building are made, they’re often not done in a way that examines how they positively or negatively affect each neighborhood. Instead, it’s the communities with the time, resources and political clout that essentially have the power to restrict development within their borders. That pushes it to other areas without a meaningful discussion of the citywide implications. The result: as Houston becomes more dense, not all places will change equally. “ We’re coming up with rules to make Houston liberalized in terms of density and development … but giving particular neighborhoods tools to opt out,” Festa said. Festa, notably, testified for the developers in a controversial case in which residents of a wealthy Houston single-family neighborhood fought to block construction of a high-rise in their community. The high-rise was allowed to move forward – it didn’t violate zoning rules – but a judge ordered developers to pay residents $1.2 million in damages because it was considered a nuisance. In the abstract, giving neighborhoods more control about their future make sense. But practically, it allows certain areas to easily make end-runs around the status quo.