Stop planning the city for cars along transit

In November, Houston voted decisively to make major investments in mass transit, voting almost 2 to 1 in favor of MetroNext, the ambitious plan to expand light rail, bus rapid transit and local bus service. Gone are the days when mass transit suffered crushing defeats or eked out narrow victories. Houstonians clearly understand that we need more transportation options.

Unfortunately, Houston’s rules for how land is used will likely continue to stymie the high-density development that is critical to support transit. Density is key to Houston’s future for a host of reasons. Dense development requires less city infrastructure to build and maintain. Density brings with it walkability, as buildings are placed in proximity to each other to create an interesting and interactive experience on the street. Density makes Houston more affordable by allowing housing to develop in areas with access to nearby transit and commercial spaces so that residents won’t always need two cars to get to work or run errands. And finally, when done right, higher density means less land covered by concrete and better flood resilience for each new resident moving to Houston. Allowing investments in the region’s existing urban core helps to maintain and improve the foundations we’ve already laid as opposed to paving more of the Katy Prairie.

For the last three years, the City of Houston’s Planning Commission — yes, we have one of those — began to analyze how to encourage density in walkable neighborhoods with transit access. Under today’s rules, roughly half of a 200-by-200foot lot near a transit station gets chewed up by parking and setbacks. The result is government-mandated sprawl that looks and feels more suburban than urban.

While Houston lacks what most people recognize as zoning, we do have all sorts of regulations and rules basically designed to make room for cars. These rules came about when planners cared only about moving automobiles, but they make little sense for areas served by transit.

The City Planning Department is now proposing to relax onerous rules to allow density in these areas while encouraging buildings designed with space for shops and placed close to wide sidewalks. Many of the recommendations are positive, but the overall effort is discouraging for anyone who wants to see a payback on our huge public transportation investments.

Presumably in an attempt to ensure that no one, anywhere, would oppose any changes to the status quo, the Planning Commission has come up with so many caveats around its own rules that few areas will qualify. Current land uses as varied as industrial, single-family residential, roads that aren’t up to city standards and roads with open ditches are not eligible for the relaxed rules, including lower parking requirements, that allow for density. As a result, very little of the urban environment will change under the new rules.

For example, along Harrisburg Boulevard and the Green Line, precious few areas qualify for density because of the open ditches and industrial and singlefamily land uses. When that line gets extended to Hobby Airport, sure, downtowners will be able to get to the airport, but there will be little new high-density development like more homes and shops, and thus low ridership.

Metro’s own projections show the Green Line extension is expected to achieve less than one-third the ridership per mile of other projects in the plan. More people can’t choose the option to get around by transit if more housing isn’t allowed in proximity.

Unfortunately, Metro has been almost completely absent from these discussions, sticking to its narrow silo of operating a transit system and ignoring the bigger picture of how to shape the context in which transit can be of greatest value to Houston and its residents.

In a city as dynamic as Houston, where we pride ourselves on no zoning in order to accommodate growth, the Planning Commission’s goal appears to be that very little changes. Houston’s planners aren’t keeping up with the times. It took 15 years after the Red Line opened for the city to change land-use rules in Midtown.

Despite huge support for transit by the voting public, the city is sticking to rules that date back decades and destroy our ability to take full advantage of these multibillion dollar investments. Houston needs to adapt land-use rules for the future, even when the consensus isn’t unanimous. Our newly elected and re-elected leaders — many of whom ran on walkability — need to hear from voters that we want them to have some guts.