Texas State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) has stepped out of his usual lane this session to file Senate Bill 491, which would limit compatibility rules in Texas’ five largest cities, including Austin. Specifically, the bill forbids those cities from enforcing any limits on a building’s maximum height “based on the lot’s proximity to another lot that is located more than 50 feet from the original lot.” (For comparison, current Austin compatibility zones can extend up to 540 feet, and there’s been much discussion recently of cutting those by half or so.)
Hughes is better known in the House and in these pages for his staunch opposition to gay rights, abortion rights, voting rights, nudist rights(!) … well, pretty much anyone’s right to be different from him, so stepping out on the zoning issue might seem a bit out of character. In one sense it’s true to form, in that it screws with other people’s rights – in this case large, primarily Democratic cities – that have nothing whatsoever to do with him, his district, or his core constituents.
But on the other hand, another part of the Hughes signature agenda is proselytizing, the conviction that his values (the correct values) should be the law of the land: Not only should government not interfere with his way of life, it should also absolutely interfere with other people’s way of life if it’s different from his. To that end, this bill would apply only to cities with a population over 725,000 – that is, Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, San Antonio, and Austin – so specifically not to Hughes’ hometown of Mineola (population 4,823), or anywhere in his northeastern Senate District 1. Presumably they don’t need outside interference in their land use planning. So I thought it might be instructive to look at the zoning in Mineola, and see what they’re doing right. Perhaps we can learn.
One of the first things to notice is that the Mineola zoning code doesn’t allow buildings over 45 feet or three stories in any of its zoning categories – residential, commercial, or industrial – so height limits based on compatibility would be pointless. Yet it does have usage-based setbacks of 300 to 500 feet for its single-family houses. The Mineola code also includes a 1,250-to-1,500-square-foot minimum living area in the single-family zones, which comprise about half of the city area. There is one small tract in the woods on the edge of town zoned medium density, with seven condo townhomes on it, and there are a very few tracts zoned for multifamily – containing an assisted-living center, two small two-story apartment buildings, and five very specific vacant lots open for future expansion.
Hmm, that’s not the sort of zoning, or planning, that Hughes seems to be prescribing for us big-city dwellers. So, let’s look elsewhere for motivation.
And of course, you don’t have to look very far – no farther than the public campaign finance records, unsurprisingly. For the last reporting period – July 1-Dec. 31, 2022 – Hughes took in $579,404 in political contributions, ending the period with $1,776,675 cash on hand. (He was unopposed in both the GOP primary and the general election.) For that six-month reporting period, at least 18 contributions came from PACs and associations directly representing real estate and construction interests, for a total of $58,500 – or one-tenth of his total contributions for the period. And that doesn’t count his many contributions from various lobbying and law firms, which may often represent real estate and construction interests. Overall, the donor list is heavily weighted toward Austin and Houston, with just 17 of the 259 donations coming from inside Hughes’ own district. See the full report at 204.65.203.5/public/100884767.pdf. Or for further reading pleasure, go to the search page and search for Bryan Hughes; he’s got quite a history.
Last-minute reminder: Last week’s City Council-led open house on the I-35 expansion was postponed by ice, but the Texas Department of Transportation is holding their public hearing this evening – Thu., Feb. 9, 5-7pm – to present the revised plans for the Capital Express Central project, the I-35 rebuild through Downtown, and to take public comment on the draft environmental impact statement. Attend online at my35capex.com, or in person at the Millennium Youth Complex, 1156 Hargrave.
Plus: The Austin Core Transportation Plan is a study of “mobility options into, out of, through, and within Downtown Austin.” Partnering with the Downtown Austin Alliance, Austin Transportation is holding a virtual open house and conducting a survey on the plan, asking about “trade-offs related to space provided on Downtown streets to accommodate bicycles, micromobility (scooters), public transit and vehicles [and] about converting one-way streets to two-way operations in the future.” See the plan and take the survey at austintexas.gov/department/austin-core-transportation-plan.
This article appears in February 10 • 2023.