Texas Cities Look to Thwart State Zoning Deregulation

Texas municipalities are working to fend off a state law that overrides local approvals by allowing residential redevelopment by right in nonresidential zones.

The city of Arlington is proposing roadblocks to the legislation, including increasing minimum parking requirements, creating minimum balcony requirements for apartments, mandating electric vehicle charging capabilities, and requiring a minimum of six stories for all developments fronting major thoroughfares.

Senate Bill 840 takes effect Sept. 1, requiring cities to allow mixed-use residential and multifamily development in a zoning classification that allows office, retail or industrial development.

City planners presented the Arlington City Council with amendments to the city’s code this week.

“It is very obvious that all these additional requirements — which, by the way, are not required for other projects not under SB 840 — are very flagrantly targeting missing-middle housing,” said Nicole Nosek, a YIMBY organizer who lobbied for the law.

For example, under the current code, all multifamily projects need two of six possible amenities. However, for resi conversions with more than 80 units, a swimming pool and shaded children’s play area would be mandatory, with no other options, under the proposed amendments.

Arlington isn’t alone. Cities around Texas are trying to stump developers hoping to carry out resi redevelopment under SB 840, according to Dallas-based land attorney Misty Ventura.

Cities are “looking for ways to avoid compliance with state law. And the regulation I see Arlington and other cities focusing most of their effort on is minimums rather than maximums,” Ventura said. “Frisco and others will follow the same playbook.”

Irving and Plano are weighing similar measures, Nosek and Ventura said.

The six-story minimum rule would require steel frames, presenting a considerable cost to resi conversions of stick-frame structures, Ventura said.

“They’re not being coy about it. They say, ‘We’re doing this in response to changes in state law, and we need to get it in place before Sept. 1.’ They’re blatantly trying to navigate their way around state law,” she said.Texas lawmakers passed several measures alongside SB 840 to address a projected housing shortage, measured at more than 300,000 homes, according to housing advocacy group Up for Growth.