City design manual may prohibit high-density development

Urban Corridors at risk?

Wendy Natt, Jul 10, 09.

The Transit Corridor Ordinance currently being proposed by Houston’s Planning & Development Department - a document that lays out the guidelines for development along METRO’s five new planned light rail lines - is apparently at odds with part of a little-known Public Works and Engineering Department city design manual that some argue could prohibit urban-style development within Houston’s Inner Loop. Kendall Miller of Houstonians for Responsible Growth and John Breeding of the Uptown Houston District raised concerns at the public hearing on Wednesday, July 8, that Chapter 15 of the Infrastructure Design Manual may conflict with the new transit ordinance’s goals of increasing density, walkability and mobility within the urban corridors.

While the hearing gave residents the opportunity to voice their questions and concerns about the city’s urban corridor plan and how this development - and coming of more light rail - will affect their neighborhoods, council members also used this time to make the case that the design manual works against the policies and kind of development that the city is seeking for Houston’s transit neighborhoods.

John Breeding said Chapter 15 undermines key elements the city is trying to design into its new transit corridors:

The goal of the ordinance is to encourage increased development density within transit corridors. The goal of Chapter 15 is to control, reduce or ultimately prohibit additional density development if it increases traffic.

Council Member Sue Lovell noted that, while encouraging greater density is part of the goal, incorporating light rail into existing neighborhoods in a way that improves them and improves mobility in these areas is critical:

We’re encouraging now more density…people are moving back in. And then we have neighborhoods behind that… We’re trying to…figure out how we listen to the neighbors, the neighborhoods that are going to be in the middle of this development, how we encourage the development which is great for the city and at the same time how do we move the traffic through there? We’re pioneers.

KUHF radio reported on the hearing.

Charles Kuffner’s blog reports on the origin of Chapter 15 as an outcome of the continuing Ashby high-rise controversy.

The topic of land use regulation, building and development codes, and transportation planning in Houston was also touched upon in a recent round table discussion with the city’s five mayoral candidates, as reported in the Houston Chronicle.