The setup
On June 20, Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation intended to weaken what many critics have dubbed the "tyrant's veto" in local land-use reviews.
Under state law, landowners near a site that's being rezoned must be notified of the proposed change and have the chance to challenge it. For decades, those rules have allowed formal zoning protests to be launched by a small share of affected property owners—20% or more of those whose land is:
- Included in the rezoning,
- Adjacent to the subject site, or
- Within a 200-foot radius of the property in question
The process applies to individual properties as well as more comprehensive zoning changes, like a citywide land development code rewrite in Austin that stalled out after residents sued over a lack of notice.
What's happening
Texas' nearly century-old protest standards will now be changing under House Bill 24, authored by Rep. Angelia Orr, R-Itasca, to reduce the influence of opposition groups and prevent housing development from stalling out.
Soon, any rezoning for increased residential development will require a much higher protest bar—at least 60% of affected landowners—and only a simple majority vote for approval. Rezoning for other uses like commercial or industrial projects will still maintain the current protest and approval thresholds.
"HB 24 would return power to the actual landowner, returning property rights back to the owner versus adjacent landowners, and return authority to the elected city council to make decisions about the appropriate areas for growth," Orr said in March.
After passing the House and Senate in May and receiving Abbott's signature in June, HB 24 will be effective Sept. 1.
Zooming in
While HB 24 and its Senate companion received broad public and legislative support this year, some residents expressed concern about the higher hurdle they'd need to clear to fight rezonings.
Neighborhood advocates have long held that the zoning protest process gives residents a real opportunity to contest projects that might be out of character or unwanted in their area. At a public hearing this spring Austinite Barbara McArthur said lawmakers were removing a tool that helps residents stay informed about changes that "dramatically alter their lives."
Support for legislation like HB 24 came from housing advocates and developers, many of whom pointed to examples of housing projects and other development that was killed or delayed thanks to successful protests. Several also noted the inherent power given to homeowners under the process, without others like renters having a say.
“When this law goes wrong, it goes really wrong. It doesn’t just block the projects that we see ... it blocks countless others before they’re even proposed," Texans For Housing representative Whit Ewen told lawmakers earlier this spring. "It’s not even a true majority that we’re talking about ... if there’s 10 people living nearby and only five own land, one person can trigger [the threshold].”
One more thing
HB 24 was one of several new laws highlighted by housing advocates as legislation that could streamline much-needed residential additions specifically in large cities across the state. Alongside changes to the zoning protest process, lawmakers also approved:
- Senate Bill 15, setting the minimum required lot size for single-family homes at 3,000 square feet
- SB 840, allowing residential development in places zoned for commercial uses without requiring a land-use update
- SB 2477, meant to streamline the conversion of office buildings into residential and mixed-use projects
"For too long, rigged rules kept Texans from building homes they could actually afford. Not anymore. These laws put empty buildings and commercial zones to work, scrap outdated red tape that allows a minority to block housing for the majority, and give power back to Texans to build homes on moderate lots that are within their budgets," Nosek said in a June statement.
