Do Minimum-Lot-Size Regulations Limit Housing Supply in Texas?

Gray, Murray; Furth, Salim

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3381173

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…At least three lessons can be drawn from the Houston experience. First, the Houston case supports the well-established consensus within the literature that minimum lot size regulations are a binding constraint on new housing development, particularly in urban infill contexts (Ben-Joseph 2003;Gray and Furth 2019). The proliferation of 1,400 to 4,999 square feet lots between 1999 and 2016 in Houston reveals that there was substantial demand for dense residential housing in the city, particularly in neighborhoods within the I-610 loop, which runs contrary to Houston's reputation for sprawl.…”

Section: Implications For Planning Practicesupporting

confidence: 57%

Subdividing the Unzoned City: An Analysis of the Causes and Effects of Houston’s 1998 Subdivision Reform

Gray

Millsap²

2020

Journal of Planning Education and Research

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Houston is known for its lack of Euclidean-style zoning, but the city still has various ordinances that control land use. In 1998, Houston reformed its subdivision rules to allow for parcels smaller than five thousand square feet citywide. In this paper, we discuss the unique land-use rules in place in Houston prior to reform and the circumstances that led to reform, including the “opt out” provisions, which mediated homeowner opposition to substantial increases in housing density. We then analyze the effects of reform. After relief from large lot requirements, post-reform development activity was heavily concentrated in middle-income, less dense, underbuilt neighborhoods.

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Section: Implications For Planning Practicesupporting

confidence: 57%

Subdividing the Unzoned City: An Analysis of the Causes and Effects of Houston’s 1998 Subdivision Reform

Gray

Millsap²

2020

Journal of Planning Education and Research

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“…Although many policy changes (dezoning, removal of lot size and density limits, etc.) that would permit more multifamily would also encourage smaller single-family (Gray & Furth 2019), there are other dynamics such as household preferences (Estiri 2014) and industry structure (Carlyle 2016) which are part of the explanation for the growth in size of new single-family homes. More research is needed to better understand the growth in size of new single-family homes, and identify strategies to reduce the average size of new housing (Cohen 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Material flows and GHG emissions from housing stock evolution in US counties, 2020–60

Berrill

Hertwich

2021

Buildings and Cities

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The evolution of housing stocks determines demand for construction materials and energy, and associated emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs). The contribution of construction to building life-cycle emissions is growing as buildings become more energy efficient and the energy supply decarbonizes. A housing stock model is developed for counties in the United States using dynamic vacancy rates which endogenously influence stock out-and inflows. Stocks of three house types and 10 construction cohorts are projected for all contiguous US counties for the period 2020-60. Inflows and outflows of construction materials are then estimated along with GHG emissions associated with material production and construction activities in scenarios defined by stock turnover rates, population share by house type, and floor area characteristics of new houses. The results provide new insights into the drivers of construction-related emissions at local and national levels, and identify opportunities for their reduction. Demolition material flows grow in relation to construction material flows over the analysis period. Increasing the stock turnover rate increases future floor area per person, material requirements, and emissions from construction. Scenarios with reduced floor area and more multifamily homes in new construction have lower floor area growth, material requirements, and emissions from construction.

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“…The most common reason for municipal incorporation of suburbs is to control zoning" (2015,66). Rolf Pendall, Robert Puentes, and Jonathan Martin note that among suburbs is a "surprisingly standard template for land use planning" (2006,2), and critical to these regulations is minimum lot sizes, a nearly ubiquitous practice (Gray and Furth 2019;Boudreaux 2016) that is a "workhorse of suburban zoning" (Fischel 2015, 30). Although counties can institute land use regulations in many states, including over unincorporated areas, their regulations are often much looser than those found in incorporated suburbs because their incentive structures favor denser development (Fischel 2001).…”

Section: Incorporation As a Tool Of Exclusion And Resource Hoardingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suburbs, Inc.: Exploring Municipal Incorporation as a Mechanism of Racial and Economic Exclusion in Suburban Communities

Douds

2023

rsf

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This article provides suburban scholars with a starting point for considering how municipal incorporation contributes to suburban inequality. I conduct an exploratory empirical analysis of incorporation in 2010 and find that incorporated suburbs are less racially diverse, Whiter, and have smaller shares of Black, Latinx, and Native American residents than unincorporated suburbs, suggesting that incorporation and its related municipal powers enable greater racial exclusion than strategies available to unincorporated suburbs. However, incorporated suburbs vary, and racial exclusion is most apparent in suburbs incorporated during and after the postwar suburban boom. Further, recently incorporated suburbs are more economically exclusive than unincorporated suburbs. I end by calling for greater integration of incorporation into suburban inequality research.

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Do Minimum-Lot-Size Regulations Limit Housing Supply in Texas?

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Subdividing the Unzoned City: An Analysis of the Causes and Effects of Houston’s 1998 Subdivision Reform

Subdividing the Unzoned City: An Analysis of the Causes and Effects of Houston’s 1998 Subdivision Reform

Material flows and GHG emissions from housing stock evolution in US counties, 2020–60

Suburbs, Inc.: Exploring Municipal Incorporation as a Mechanism of Racial and Economic Exclusion in Suburban Communities

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