What's Already Happening on the Ground
Developers aren't waiting around. Deals are in motion. Properties are changing hands. Cities are hanging on scrambling to figure out what hit them.
In Dallas, the Panic is Real
Dallas City Council saw this coming and they panicked.
Remember that Hampton-Clarendon corridor rezoning in West Oak Cliff that had residents up in arms? Council Member Chad West admitted the ugly truth: "We had two options—allow SB 840 to take zoning 'out of our control,' or move forward with the recommended rezoning plan."
Translation: We're rezoning now while we still can.
The Pepper Square shopping center tells you everything you need to know. Neighbors fought an 868-unit development tooth and nail. They even filed a lawsuit. But they dropped it in August. Why? Their lawyers told them the truth—under SB 840, that development would sail through without a single public hearing.
William Roth, District 11 council member City of Dallas, spoke at the August 27th meeting about Agenda item 12 (having to do with SB 840 compliance). He made a point about “possibly taking legal action to contest this particular state law directly as a city in an effort to protect our home rule rights and that we’re protecting our neighbors, our citizens and our ability to control land use in our community.” He suggested this law could be overturned before the next legislative session.
In Houston, “Wait, What Zoning?”
Houston's always been weird—America's largest city without traditional zoning. But SB 2477 allows for rezoning to apply to office buildings (zoning was for the dirt which made it possible for a “house” to be on land zoned for commercial and voila it became a neighborhood gem as restaurant, bar, store etc.) The city may not have zoning but it has historic districts and these could become even more popular as places secure in their valuations and where neighborhoods have any say.
Planning Director Margaret Brown calls Houston "a property-rights city." Others have translated what they’ve experienced and seen in Houston to feel like a free-for-all. Will SB2477 help or hurt? What would have kept existing offices from converting to apartments in Houston anyway (before SB 2477)? We’ll start to dig into this in upcoming posts that touch on private deed restrictions.
Hey Suburbs, You’re “Ground Zero”
Think the impacts are bad in the big cities? The suburbs are about to get walloped. They’ve been adding “walkable” downtowns with more density and creating PUDs or Planned Unit Developments to create different housing but this type of density everywhere is not why people moved to the suburbs to begin with.
Take Frisco. A 4.35-acre vacant retail pad could have a density of 18 units per acre (often expressed as “du/acre” in zoning), or 82 units under the old rules. Under SB 840? Try 156 units. That's a 90% increase in density. No public input. No negotiation. Just boom—apartments where the Best Buy used to be.
We’ll cover updates by city in separate posts with an eye on how suburbs are managing SB 840/SB 2477 and SB 15.
The Numbers Don't Lie
Here's what the real estate analysts are seeing:
Austin alone could see 28,000+ new homes
Statewide potential: Over 100,000 units
Texas office vacancy rate: 24-28% (all potential apartments now)
Cedar Build identified 5,000+ development sites in Austin alone
Every dead or low performance mall, every struggling strip center, every vacant office building just became a goldmine for apartment developers. Property values are shifting overnight. Could the increase in “land supply” boomerang and cause issues for those needing loans? Commercial property owners who were locked into a vision of office only use potential are now holding winning lottery tickets.
What This Means for You
If you live near any commercial property—and in Texas cities, who doesn't?—your neighborhood is about to change. That quiet commercial street with the dentist office and the dry cleaner? In five years it could apartments with no end in sight except for market forces and changes in government subsidies as well as financing.
As far as being a resident with a voice? With SB 840 and SB 2477 there's nothing you or your city can do about it.
The logic of traffic, infrastructure pressures and noise are all “non starters” with the 2025 State of Texas Legislators who created a suite of housing laws without so much as a fiscal impact report pointing to the actual costs to be incurred.
