GOT BIG QUESTIONS?
We want to help answer questions you and your neighbors might be discussing. Plus, we’ll apply some good ol’ fashioned critical thinking as we dissect these “big bills.”
What Power Delivered Such a Massive Impact to Your Zoning?
Housing policy is like a chain reaction. It starts somewhere, gets moved through the halls of the Legislature and ends up in your town. This article starts to piece together how the powerful SB840 housing bill got its legs.
What Is Happening to Neighborhood Planning?
Neighborhoods are the backbone of Texas’ major cities and the source of many planning initiatives. SB840 changes zoning without their involvement. High density residential is by-right which means no special meetings, no approvals. It just gives a green light to ‘solve’ the housing crisis - oh and without any metrics or reporting.
The Questions Begging for Answers, like “These new laws do require affordable housing, don’t they?”
After decades of thumping the need to have affordable housing, the new State Texas housing bills get through the approval process without any affordable housing requirement. So what exactly will get built? And who will be the buyers and renters of the new housing?