FAQs
What exactly happened on September 1, 2025?
Three new state laws set by population size took effect (SB840, SB2477, SB15). Each of these fundamentally changed how housing development works in Texas's biggest cities. The state now has local zoning control. If you live in Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth, or about 15 other major cities, your neighborhood and city are to abide by these new regulations.
The other State of Texas zoning law that took effect on 9/1/2025 is HB24 which is statewide; it is NOT specific to population. It changes the way residents can protest rezoning for new housing and allows cities to add zoning districts and/or changes more quickly to build housing (the term is “residential” unlike SB840/SB2477 which specify “3 or more units and/or mixed-use residential with 65% housing units). City of Austin allows developers to build a 100% commercial building and a 100% multifamily building on the same parcel as its interpretation of “mixed use” - this seems unique.
Which cities are affected?
Rules are the county has to have 300,000 people (at least ) and the city has to have as many as 150,000 people. The highest concentration of cities, by far, is in Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex with 11 cities.
The list we’ve come up with is for 20 cities throughout the state:
Arlington, Amarillo, Austin, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Denton, El Paso, Fort Worth, Frisco, Garland, Grand Prairie, Irving, Killeen, Laredo, Lubbock, McKinney, Mesquite, Plano, San Antonio
Then there is Houston, a city known for “not having city zoning” but it may just qualify for SB2477.
How do SB840 and SB2477 relate?
The way the bills are written, SB2477 references SB840 in a few ways. For one thing, if SB840 had not passed then SB2477 would have gone away. It needed SB840. Since SB840 passed, now SB2477 is also a regulation. SB2477 presents requirements for converting an existing office building into units and doesn’t touch on “zoning” the land but the existing use. When there are points in SB2477 that need to be clarified, the bills references SB840 and says it has authority.
Can residents opt out of SB840, SB2477 or SB15?
There is no “opt out” options for any of these bills. However, a well written private deed restriction might be of use and in that category might fall HOA agreements. State of Texas law should be reviewed. From findings, it looks as though the test is “more restrictive” has the power. So if an HOA agreement stipulates single family only and HR24 creates a new zoning overlay to allow for “3+ units), the more restrictive would be the single family homes. That would mean, in this example, that a new zoning overlay to encourage new housing could not be applied in the location governed by the HOA. Again, all details should be checked with a legal professional. This is educational, not legal advice.
Are the rules for SB840 being interpreted the same for every city?
No. Cities have different ways of expressing SB840 rules and now that cities have had time to incorporate the SB840 rules into their own zoning codes, it is very hard to see the differences. We’re glad we have a few ways to help make the differences more clear in our way of including SB840 rules for Zonability Reports. But, be vigilant in working to get the clarity you need with the city you’re working with - assuming that city is subject to SB840.
Example: City of Dallas has a flow chart showing properties that are ‘zoned for multifamily’ can use the SB840 bonus while in Austin, the use of SB840 is for those commercial locations, not existing properties zoned for multifamily as per this worksheet we found (link). Austin also allows for two buildings - one commercial and one multifamily rather than require the “mixed use” with ground floor commercial. This may help with financing.
Is there any chance these laws will be overturned?
There could be a chance. Some city officials, like Dallas District 11 Council Member William Roth, have suggested taking legal action to contest these laws as violations of home rule rights. However, until a court rules otherwise or the next legislative session makes changes, these laws are in full effect.
What is Up Zoning & Why Is It Being Done?
The act of creating new policy that adds units the the same parcel or lot. You’ll rarely, if ever, see a city give the property owner a chance to building a bigger home and keep all the other fixins like lot size or height the same.
As to why it is being done, a few things cross my mind:
Getting more money for a city’s coffer. More “units” on the same block and keeping it nice and easy for cities to add more utility lines and meters for “individual accounts” which grows their revenue.
Getting more money for a county’s coffer: It also helps property taxes go up because of “new” construction.
Getting more money for regional and state coffers: Finally there is a real desire to cram enough people together to get “mass transportation” all over the place. Transportation dollars are usually coming from the state or county with lots of direct help from Washington DC.
Breaking the concept of a single family neighborhood changes things for those who envy the space and privacy and value or wealth that comes from such a set up. You can try to get a home equity line for your condo but it doesn’t work the same as a house. You want to start your own business? You’ll be using that property as collateral and guess what? The value will matter. What will hold it - the traditional home on a nice big lot or a cookie cutter house on a 2,000 sf lot?
What is Density?
The ratio of land in acreage to house or land to units. Examples: if you have a property with zoning that says “ok” to having one house and a minimum lot size of one acre. Then, that my friend has a density of 1.0 usually expressed as “DU/Acre” or Dwelling Unit per Acre.
Now if the zoning allowed for two houses and the same minimum lot size of one acre, it would be 0.5 DU/acre (you just divide 1 by 2 to get .5).
Let’s say you have super small lot size requirements like all the rage for jumping up supply. And that lot size is 1800 square feet (sf) - yep, that’s for the land associated with the house - you have to first make that 1800 into an acre. An acre has 43,560 square feet (sf). So you divide 43,560/1800 to get 24.20 and that gets rounded to the whole number in a downward direction. With that kind of lot size, the DU/Acre is 24.
Where Do Y’all Have Videos?
We have two places where we add videos: