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.
