Transit corridor ordinance nearing approval

Hearings in June, July

Steve Hawley, Jun 04, 09.

UPDATE (6/15/09, 2:08 pm): The Planning Commission recommended the proposed ordinance to City Council on Thursday.

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UPDATE (6/9/09, 1:35 pm): Houstonians for Responsible Growth has endorsed the proposed Urban Corridors ordinance.

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Houston City Council will consider a new transit corridor ordinance that would give developers incentives to build a pedestrian-oriented form along light rail corridors, according to the Houston Chronicle. The city began developing the ordinance in June 2006, and City Council is expected to hold a formal public hearing in July.

The article notes:

The impact of the ordinance will depend on developers’ willingness to comply with its mostly voluntary standards. Those who agree to create the [15-foot] pedestrian zone will automatically be exempt from rules requiring buildings to be set back a specified distance from the street, giving them more space to build revenue-generating offices, homes or shops.

Currently, buildings must be set back at least 25 feet from major thoroughfares.

The only compulsory portion of the ordinance is a requirement of six-feet-wide sidewalks along the light rail corridors and five-foot sidewalks throughout much of the rest of the city. Currently, the city’s sidewalk standard is four feet.

In addition, the ordinance would encourage developers to include numerous windows in building facades, create a three-foot vegetative buffer between the sidewalk and the street, and refrain from building driveways through the pedestrian realm.

City planning officials involved in the drafting of the ordinance consider it “a first step toward changing a development culture that’s long been focused on the automobile rather than on trains or pedestrians,” says the Chronicle.

The article notes that the City’s proposal is “more limited than steps recommended by the city’s consultants and by the Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit real estate organization, to promote transit-oriented development.”

The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing regarding the proposed ordinance at 2:30 pm on Thursday, June 11 at the City Hall Annex. The City Council Committee on Regulation, Development, and Neighborhood Protection will consider the measure at 3 pm on Monday, June 22 in the City Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall. The full City Council is expected to hold a public hearing in July.

Christof Spieler: Proposed ordinance: better sidewalks mandatory; better buildings optional.
Andrew Burleson: Proposed transit corridor ordinance doesn’t work.
Off the Kuff has a couple posts about the ordinance.

Proposed transit corridor ordinance
Ordinance summary
Presentation to Planning Commission, March 14, 2009