Houston claims not to have zoning, but substitutes regulations that produce the same sprawling effect as zoning that mandates sprawl.
Houston uses building line setback rules, huge minimum parking requirements, street width minima, block size and platting rules, fire code regulations, and the whole panoply of laws that mandate sprawl everywhere else with the sole exception of Euclidian zoning. The result is mandatory sprawl.
Market based land use would not have built Houston. It would never have created $3000 basic studio apartments in Palo Alto either. Markets aren't a panacea but what we've mandated instead is a disaster.
Houston uses building line setback rules, huge minimum parking requirements, street width minima, block size and platting rules, fire code regulations, and the whole panoply of laws that mandate sprawl everywhere else with the sole exception of Euclidian zoning. The result is mandatory sprawl.
Market based land use would not have built Houston. It would never have created $3000 basic studio apartments in Palo Alto either. Markets aren't a panacea but what we've mandated instead is a disaster.