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| Two single-family homes are torn down to make room for seven townhomes. |
Houston is booming! I have buyers, but nothing to show them. The latest reported housing inventory by HAR was 3.2 months. That means it would take only 3.2 months to sell everything on the market. Bidding wars are the norm. It is a tough time for buyers.
With this is much construction. It seems like a new apartment complex is going up on every other corner. And in neighborhoods with old houses, the wrecking ball is moving in quickly to make way for bigger, and unfortunately not always better, new construction--often at the expense of a neighborhood's character.
In the neighborhood where I live, a quiet pocket in Montrose with houses dating to the early 1900s, we have set out on a journey to protect our neighborhood's character, thanks to some powerful tools made available by City Council last April. Since we don't have historic restrictions in place and our deed restrictions are not yet strong enough to protect our interests, we applied for two ordinances, Minimum Lot Size (MLS) and Minimum Building Line (MBL).
What are MLS and MBL exactly? If 70% of the homes are on 5,000-square-foot lots, 5,000 square feet is the smallest a lot can be. And if 70% of the homes are set back 15 feet from the street, then new construction cannot be any closer than 15 feet.
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| Signage announcing our applications |
While I am an advocate for preserving older homes, these ordinances really only address the preservation of the neighborhood as a whole, to prevent density where it wasn't intended (i.e townhome development). These protections are available both in and outside the Loop.
Our neighborhood awaits final approval from City Council after a process that has been in the works for about six months. First, we applied with help from the Planning and Development Department. Petitions were signed by homeowners. Signs were posted. A few protests were made, and as a neighborhood, we addressed those protests in front of the Planning Commission. The Commission approved our applications, and now our fingers are crossed that City Council will do the same, which would protect our neighborhood for 20 years.
For more information about this process for your own neighborhood, information is available on the Planning and Development site. Good luck!
