From the 89th – County Zoning and Land Use Bills

HB 878 by Vasut

• Bill grants all Texas counties with a population of less than one million, that have more than two houses per acre, essentially complete land use and zoning equivalency controls over housing.
• The counties would also regulate platting, and counties would not be allowed to approve any lot sizes in those counties that are less than 10,000 sqft or have width of less than 100 sqft.
• This would apply, based on the one million or less size requirement, to every Texas county except the larger ones of Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Travis, Collin and Denton.

HB 2265 by Isaac

• This bill gives essentially total land use control and authority to Comal County
• TMHA generally opposes expansion of land use control, in particular zoning authority, to counties out of fear counties will then do what cities have done which is ban, restrict, practically prohibit, or impose expensive requirements that erode affordability for manufactured homes

HB 2346 and HB 2347 by Zwiener

• This is a massive county land use authority bill under the premise of managing water resources
• Counties could use this reason/power as a means to stop any or all or select (for example, just prohibit manufactured homes) new development.

HB 3578 by McLaughlin

• This would give complete zoning and land use control to all Texas counties that share a board with Mexico (15 counties)
• These counties can adopt zoning that regulate: the size or height of a building; the percentage of a lot that may be occupied or developed; the number of dwelling units per acre; the size of a setback or open space; and the location, design, construction, extension, size, and installation of utilities, roads, and other essential services.
• These counties could also divide the county into districts and have different zoning standards within the districts.

HB 3561 by Barry

• This would apply to all counites with a population of 400,000 or less (which means all counties expect the top 13 most populous)
• The bill specifically says that it also includes and applies to manufactured home communities, as well as other site-built residential dwelling units.
• Allows the county to require fire hydrants that are “sufficient to protect the dwellings…from fire”
• Allows the county to also require two means of both ingress and egress for emergency vehicles and use during evaluation results from fire or other natural disasters
• And can restrict all residential dwelling development that is not within 10-miles of an emergency service district.

HB 2480 by Talarico

• This is anti-ADU bill – Accessory Dwelling Units
• Expands city like authority to counties as well to allow both government types the ability to prohibit ADUs
• TMHA supports ADUs and their expansion in Texas both in cities and counties, therefore we oppose this.

HB 1322 by Hopper

• 30-day plans and plat approval “shot clock” extended to 90-days for small cities (populations less than 10,000)
• This slows development and adds costs (time) in the small rural cities that are already very difficult to profitably build/develop

SB 325 by Perry

• Bill reverses some of the changes from Sen. Bettencourt’s 2023 bills on county platting reform
• Bettencourt’s 2023 bill made clear if you develop in a county and the tracks are over 10 acres each and you build only a private road or street, not a street that is dedicated to the county to maintain, then the development did not need platting
• These bills would say if any road, including purely private roads, are to be built, platting is required