Houston takes a big step toward becoming more walkable.
Council OKs regulations to make areas more friendly to pedestrians
On 19th Street, one of Houston’s most enduring strips of shops and restaurants, there is a vacant lot tucked between two stores, about a block from the landmark “Heights” sign.
When developers recently expressed interest in putting a new building there, however, they suffered a setback.
Houston’s planning codes, written in the 1990s with automobiles in mind, meant the developers would have to put the new building 25 feet back from the road, set awkwardly behind the street-side strip of storefronts.
The city planning commission granted them a reprieve from the rule, but the episode illustrated how Houston’s code served as an impediment, not a spark, for so-called “walkable” development, said Bill Baldwin, a real estate agent and member of the planning commission.
City council on Wednesday took a first step toward changing that, unanimously approving ordinances aimed at making pockets of Houston more friendly to pedestrians and moving the city away from its car-centric planning code. The new regulations only apply to new buildings and redevelopment in certain parts of the city.
In those areas, the ordinances will bring buildings — not parking lots — closer to the street, widen sidewalks, and
reduce or altogether eliminate the number of parking spots developers are required to offer.
“This has been in many ways a paradigm shift, because we are literally changing how people move about in the city of Houston,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said.
Turner also lauded the city’s late planning director Pat Walsh, who was a staunch advocate of this kind of development. Walsh, 45, died of brain cancer in 2018.
“I just want Pat to know, from on high, that his vision is still being realized,” Turner said.
The ordinances create two distinct programs: areas with a “Walkable Places” designation, where the city seeks to foster pedestrian-friendly development; and areas in the “Transit-Oriented Development” program, where the city hopes to bring the same principles to most streets that fall within a half-mile of a bus or train station.
While the underlying regulations are similar, the “Walkable Places” program initially takes shape in three pilot projects along Emancipation Avenue, Midtown, and Hogan and Lorraine Streets in the Near Northside. Other areas can pursue a “Walkable Places” designation if a majority of property owners support it. City council will have final say over all such designations.
The “Transit-Oriented Development” program will apply to city-designated areas across Houston that are close to transit stops.
For the streets covered by either program, the ordinances undo many of the automobile-centered rules adopted in the 1990s. For example, under those rules, all development on major streets must be set back 25 feet from the road, businesses must offer a prescribed number of parking spaces for customers, and sidewalks must be 5 feet wide.
The new rules waive the set-back requirement, bringing buildings closer to the street and pushing parking lots to the side or behind new buildings. The transit-oriented development ordinance cuts or eliminates parking space requirements.
The new framework also requires developers to widen sidewalks to between 6 and 10 feet, and include a 4foot “buffer” zone between the road and sidewalks to further protect pedestrians and cyclists. The ordinances also limit the height of fencing in these areas to 4 feet, and require that a certain percentage of commercial buildings’ ground floors be visible through doors or windows.
Air Alliance Houston, which advocates for cleaner air in the city, issued a statement applauding the ordinances as a way to divert people from automobiles.
“Shifting Houston away from its historic car-centric paradigm is an essential step in improving our air quality, addressing climate change, and creating a more equitable transportation system for all,” the group said.
Randy Wile, a real estate developer in Houston, said the updated rules will allow businesses to offer people experiences beyond the shopping centers and strip malls for which the city is known. The city, he said, can foster urban spaces with more energy and excitement.
“The reality, though, is that, until recently, those attributes have not defined Houston development,” he said.
Councilmembers were similarly laudatory during Wednesday’s meeting. Sallie Alcorn, an at-large councilwoman, said her children graduated college and then fled to walkable cities, where they did not need cars. The new ordinances, she said, would help create “a tangible sense of community” here.
“This is indeed a big day for everybody who has really been striving to make Houston a more walkable city, but just couldn’t figure out how,” Alcorn said.
The Walkable Places committee spent more than three years doing just that, she said.
City planning director Margaret Wallace Brown said that a few neighborhoods already have inquired about seeking a “Walkable Places” designation. Planning department staff, she said, are working to finalize the application process, which will open in October.
“If you were to tell me 20 to 30 years ago that something like this would be in Houston, with all of us so attached to our cars, I would’ve been shocked,” At-Large Councilman Michael Kubosh said. “But we have millennial and younger generations that want to walk from place to place.”
Councilwoman Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, who fielded concerns from civic leaders in Museum Park about the plan, said she believed more people in her District D support the plan than oppose it.
“I believe, after many conversations, questions of inquiry and suggestions, that the ‘TOD’ ordinance will enhance what is already an amazing community,” Evans-Shabazz said.
In a tweet Tuesday night, District A Councilwoman Amy Peck said she would want to see flooding addressed before any such redevelopment projects come to her district.
“You know what makes a neighborhood very walkable? One that isn’t under water every time it rains,” Peck wrote. “I will support the ordinance because I think the people in the pilot areas generally want this, but any redevelopment ordinance in District A needs to also address flooding!”