On Houston's Unique Land Use Regulations (Just Don't Call Them Zoning)

An article by Ryan Holleywell dives into the singular system of land use regulation that is the city of Houston. Holleywell explains what makes the city special: "Houston is the only major American city that lacks zoning. That position makes it a unique footnote in legal and urban planning textbooks. Among professionals who focus on urban development, Houston’s well known for being an anomaly."

Hollewell cites South Texas College of Law Matthew Festa in making the case, however, that such a characterization of Houston is actually misleading. "To be more precise, Houston doesn’t exactly have official zoning. But it has what Festa calls 'de facto zoning,' which closely resembles the real thing. 'We’ve got a lot of regulations that in other cities would be in the zoning code,' Festa said. “\'When we use it here, we just don’t use the 'z' word.'"

The article goes into more detail in backing up Festa's claims, including a list of policies that perform many of the duties traditionally assigned to the zoning case, including deed restrictions, tax increment reinvestment zones, and a buffering ordinance, among others.