
How Houston Regulates Land Use - bane
http://marketurbanism.com/2016/09/19/how-houston-regulates-land-use/
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TheBiv
I don't know if it's Stockholm syndrome or not, but every one of my friends
that are from Houston prefers the way they do it compared to every other city
(like Dallas where I live).

~~~
meddlepal
I mean it seems like Houston does get a lot right. The off-street parking and
mega blocks though are really where it gets it wrong. That said, how much do
people actually want to walk around in Texas? It's fucking hot down there most
of the year say compared to Boston or NY which are only really unbearable for
small portions of the year. I was in Austin a month ago and I was really
unhappy walking half a mile in the heat compared to say Boston where I'll walk
two or three miles to cross the city and not even think about it.

~~~
larsiusprime
(Texan here) -- if we had some decent shade and short distances to walk, it'd
be a lot better. You get used to the heat after a while; also if walking
culture took off people would adapt to a more traditionally Mexican schedule
of not being out right smack in the middle of the day.

~~~
whamlastxmas
Texan here, myself and several people I know never got used to the heat. It
will never be acceptable for me to want to walk to lunch, even 10 minutes
away, when it means coming back drenched in sweat and smelling terrible.

~~~
Frondo
If you smell from the sweat of a lunchtime walk, I would suggest a different
deodorant, seriously. I have sensitive skin and can't wear the kind of
antiperspirant with aluminum in it. It took me until relatively late in life
(early 30s now) to find the combination that works for me: crystal rock
deodorant plus one of the "natural" spray kinds.

As for the sweat, a good wicking t-shirt will let it evaporate quickly, or if
you need to wear a button-up shirt, a good cotton undershirt will keep your
outer shirt nice and dry (usually).

~~~
briandear
Air conditioning solves the problem perfectly well. 10 minutes walk in 98
degrees with high humidity.. every part of your body is soaked in sweat.

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Tiktaalik
> Houston does mandate off-street parking

This is a terrible thing that cities badly need to get away from.

Going further cities need to get away from mandating parking period.

There's a 400+ unit condo building that was approved in my town in 2014 and
it's still under construction because of course every unit needs parking and
they're building a massive underground parking lot. The fact that this
building is on a major bus corridor, less than a 10 minute walk from existing
rapid transit and it's adjacent to a future site for rapid transit expansion
is ignored. There's honestly no reason to build so much parking here and yet
the rules mandate that we must add parking everywhere. This increases the
costs of housing as well and people must pay for this regardless of whether
they use it or not.

~~~
hmcdona1
You are clearly not from Texas. Nothing is 10 minutes away. Public transit is
a joke. I realize this is a chicken/egg situation, but it's probably not
changing anytime soon here.

Honestly, it's not an issue (in Houston) at all. I like driving and the fact
that everywhere has parking is perfect. If I'm going out I just pay for the
uber and call it a night. It's cheap enough down here anyways.

~~~
CalRobert
That's great you like driving, but what's upsetting is you demanding everyone
else pay for your free parking.

Nobody is saying parking should be illegal, just that people shouldn't be
forced to build it if they don't want it.

Edit: People more informed than myself have studied how forcing everyone to
build parking makes housing less affordable.

[http://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/420062](http://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/420062)

~~~
skilesare
First, we have some of the cheapest housing in the US.

Second, the law will Have to change in the next 10 years.

Third, if we do it right, Houston can become the city with the most green
space in the country if we require that 1/2 of any replaced parking lot just
become semi-public green space.

~~~
CalRobert
That's cool, but making people travel through lots of green space still has
the net effect of reducing the ability of transit to serve customers and
forcing longer commutes.

I'm glad housing is apparently affordable there. My views are probably
affected by my experience growing up in California.

~~~
bane
It's hard for coastal people to understand how cheap land and housing is in
the interior of the U.S. What constitutes a down payment for a tiny home on
the coasts will buy a virtual mansion with a ranch just outside of Houston.
There's almost zero economic and social pressure to create the kind of cities
we're used to on the coasts (or in Europe or Asia for that matter).

~~~
CalRobert
The point is that you're pretty much forced to partake in automobile ownership
because everyone else decided buildings should have to be spaced ridiculously
far apart. This is either directly, through density maximums, or indirectly,
through zoning and parking requirements. Houston may have cheap housing, but
it also appears to have much higher commute costs than most US cities.

[http://cityobservatory.org/introducing-the-sprawl-
tax/](http://cityobservatory.org/introducing-the-sprawl-tax/)

Anyway, I don't think we even disagree, really. I like green space too. I just
hate laws that pretty much force everyone to have a horrible commute because
living close enough to your job to walk or cycle, or having enough people in
the same space to support transit, is almost illegal.

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andrewtbham
It is strange the zoning laws. Here is a sex shop right by the galleria. which
is an upsacle mall. you can see the dillard's in the background. there is a
neiman marcus across the street.

[https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7403217,-95.4587679,3a,75y,2...](https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7403217,-95.4587679,3a,75y,234.13h,86.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1svaoxVQ6kmoQzbxg2-AcV7Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)

~~~
Joof
It used to be a burger place :)

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SwellJoe
I lived in Houston for several years, and there's a lot of great things
happening there. I've always liked the lack of zoning, while also hating how
common and strict the private covenants are (I never knew why they were more
onerous in Houston, but knew they were).

I also think Houston is well-placed to become one of the truly great American
cities with only minor shifts in policy.

Those huge roads? Shrink the lanes and paint on bike lanes (which is
effectively free, since the lines are repainted every few years anyway), and
you've got green urban transit options everywhere. It's already relatively
safe to bike most places in Houston, certainly in all the neighborhoods,
because the roads are big enough to accommodate bikes even without lanes
specifically marked. I used to bike to class when I was in college...about 10
miles each way. None of it was particularly hairy or scary, even compared to
"bike-friendly" towns like Austin.

There's also a surprisingly large amount of green and park space in Houston.
The bayous that are concrete-filled could be ripped up (some parts of the
Houston bayou system were concreted over in the 70s and 80s, as a failed
attempt at flood management), and turned into hike/bike trails (they already
get used that way...there's dirt foot paths along the top of every Houston
bayou I can remember).

The train and bus system needs _massive_ improvement (or, it did when I last
lived there or visited), and the car culture needs to be killed, as this
author notes. But, there are some very good, very walkable neighborhoods in
Houston. I couldn't afford to live in them, but I enjoyed the street festivals
and such that happened in them. Again, some minor tweaks to policy could allow
more of those neighborhoods to thrive. The lack of zoning means that retail
and restaurants often exist right along side neighborhoods; which is the ideal
for a walkable neighborhood.

Traffic is obviously a huge problem for Houston, but that's true of every
major American city. It was particularly pronounced while I was living there,
as two of the biggest highways were under construction for several years (also
common in growing cities).

In short: I'd love to see Houston get more of these things right. It was a
good city that treated me well. My first attempt to get a real job turned out
great, the cost of living is on the low side given the scale of opportunities
available and the benefits of living in such a big city (great art scene,
great music scene, great food, etc.). I moved to Austin after a few years in
Houston, and while Austin also has a lot going for it (I would even say it's
the first and only city I've ever really _loved_ ), it has felt like it's been
going the wrong direction the whole time I lived there and the years when I
didn't. Every once in a while, it'll get something right (like going to a 10-1
district-based city council instead of at-large, or being pretty good about
bike lanes and bike safety), but on the whole the things that make Austin
great are in decline. Artists and musicians are leaving because they can't
afford it, black and brown folks have been pushed out to Round Rock or
Georgetown or other surrounding cities again because they can't afford it, and
music venues are shutting down left and right because they can't afford it and
the new (very wealthy) downtown and surrounding area residents don't like the
noise. My desire to live in or visit Austin has dropped to almost nil in
recent years.

~~~
1_2__3
Your comment is basically "Houston would be great if it did a whole lot of
things that there is t a snowballs chance in hell happening." If you can talk
about "killing car culture" in Houston with a straight face it's hard to take
the rest of the comment seriously.

~~~
cylinder
Yeah, funny post. It's not going to happen. Houston has never had a culture of
proactive urban planning and intervention. I grew up there and the city always
had a vibe of people just living there to make money and one day leave. In my
30 years all that happened other than freeways and road expansions was
Discovery Green and Buffalo Bayou park trail expansions.

~~~
SwellJoe
As the article points out, Houston _is_ proactive about urban planning, when
it comes to cars. The city _requires_ , by law, parking (and huge roads).
Miles and miles and miles of parking. Veritable oceans of parking lots. All
mandated by the city. That's intervention and that's urban planning. It is
_bad_ urban planning, but it is urban planning nonetheless.

So...yeah. I agree it's unlikely to happen any time soon. But, that's true of
every city I've lived in: The things that most need to change have the most
political pressure _not_ to change, and so they won't, and that aspect of the
city will continue to suck. SF won't change the things it needs to change to
resolve its housing crisis; Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, won't do anything
to change their car addiction; etc.

So, I probably agree with you. I wish for a better Houston, because there's a
lot of like about it, but I don't have high hopes of it actually becoming a
better Houston.

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jessriedel
> Outside of complying with space-consuming regulations and certain special
> urban bonuses related to lot size, Houston doesn’t regulate density.

What are "space-consuming regulations"?

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bretthoerner
Large minimum lot sizes and mandatory setbacks (the space between the curb and
the front of your house).

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nickbauman
What impresses me is how _brown_ the city of Houston is. Everything looks dead
or dying like a zombie apocalypse. Seriously, will that city even be viable in
20 years?

~~~
saryant
Where in Houston? My experience was that Houston was had lots of green space.

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nickbauman
I'm talking about the photos in the article.

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whamlastxmas
I dislike the lack of zoning in Houston. It means you want to buy a home, but
it's right next to a strip club, so it ruins the deal. You want to live in a
nice and expensive neighborhood, but then a developer comes in and builds a 6
story apartment building right next to your two story house. And the lack of
zoning means the traffic on the street of that apartment complex becomes
horrific because there's now twice as many people living on that block.

You see a lot of mixed-income neighborhoods in Houston - places where people
are building $700,000 homes where 80% of the same street are 1000 square foot
shacks with people living in them making $20k a year. Luckily for them, their
lots are worth half a million dollars. I don't know if this is the result of
the lack of zoning, but I don't see this happening in other cities in Texas,
so I have to think it's somehow related.

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eudox
>You see a lot of mixed-income neighborhoods in Houston - places where people
are building $700,000 homes where 80% of the same street are 1000 square foot
shacks with people living in them making $20k a year. Luckily for them, their
lots are worth half a million dollars. I don't know if this is the result of
the lack of zoning, but I don't see this happening in other cities in Texas,
so I have to think it's somehow related.

This is a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" kind of thing. If
neighborhoods are income-segregated, there is no end to opinion pieces about
this awful late-capitalist crypto-apartheid. If neighborhoods are mixed-
income, then the hand-wringing is about rich people living behind walls next
to a shanty town.

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natrius
There's clearly a correct answer here: repeal segregation laws. Why on earth
is my government forcing lower income families out of neighborhoods they want
to live in?

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JBReefer
What are you talking shit? Income segregation is not enforced by government
(except, ironically, for zoning laws)

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natrius
Yes, zoning laws. Density restrictions were designed to segregate by income.

