City Planning
Who needs zoning with Chapter 42? Revised rules aim to dictate Houston's growth
At long last, changes to Chapter 42 — the city's land development ordinance — passed in Houston City Council on Wednesday.
The first real rewrite in 14 years, the amendments serve to provide protection for residential neighborhoods to manage their future; encourage denser development in the "donut" between the 610 loop and the actual city limits by extending the definition of the city's urban area; and eliminate confusion and discrepancies within the existing code.
"Chapter 42 isn't perfect, but I think it's going to take us to where we need to go," Councilwoman Ellen Cohen said during the meeting. She referred to the 32nd Kinder Houston Area Survey — Rice University researcher Stephen Klineberg's findings suggest that people want to live in a more urban area.
The new rules, which passed in a vote of 14 to 3, will be phased in, and the city's Planning and Development Department will schedule a series of community meetings to help neighborhood residents understand the process to apply for Special Minimum Lot Size designations.
Feges BBQ is in the running for Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year. Photo by Robert Jacob Lerma