Q&A: A&M Professor Weighs in on Texas’ Future in Housing Growth, Changes
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You might have noticed metro areas in Texas are getting really metro. Dallas is expanding toward the Red River. Fort Worth is making a left hook around Denton and also appears headed toward the Red River. Austin-San Antonio-Waco and Houston-The Woodlands-Katy are becoming one big continuous metro.
In the opinion of James Tate, assistant professor for landscape architecture and urban planning at Texas A&M University, they’re becoming megaregions.
His comments on the state’s metro largesse were gathered by STORAGECafé, in response to its analysis of larger lot sizes. But he brought up even more interesting points about the trend of how metros are getting more massive in Texas. Here are the highlights of his comments (edited for brevity):
On the trend of lot usage spawning megaregions:
“The Texas Triangle is growing at a pace that housing supply/production can’t keep up, even as production of new units outnumbers most other places in the U.S. These once-disconnected cities have merged in large part because Texas is built through the proliferation of single-family detached subdivisions. This isn’t to say there won’t be some areas in the Texas Triangle that remain large open agricultural spaces along I-10 and I-45 and some in the middle, but pretty much the I-35 corridor from Dallas to San Antonio is urbanized … Houston Northwest to Bryan-College Station is as well … Houston North to Huntsville … Houston pretty far west toward San Antonio (Katy).”
On central core vs. suburbs:
“One issue I see in Texas, particularly outside of central core neighborhoods in major cities, is that we continue to rely primarily on single-family subdivision lot development and large apartment complexes. Issues linked to the economics of residential development, renters vs owners, and definitions of property are ones I’m encountering while doing work here. In the central core of the major cities in the Texas Triangle, we are starting to see Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) encouraged. In medium-size cities though, these are often prohibited because of a continued commitment to a certain suburban mindset. For example, even though Bryan-College Station has a lot of one-third-acre lots (less than four units per acre density), in very few places is one allowed to build an ADU that would provide an additional housing unit.”
On individual property boundaries:
“The ideas of commoning or cooperative land ownership aren’t discussed here as much as they were when I was living in California. Perhaps that is due to how inexpensive a lot has been in Texas historically. Even a decade or two ago, one could purchase an acre or five-acre lot in the surrounding metros at a fairly low price. I’m not sure that’s the case any longer, and especially within metros.”
On zoning laws and the benefit to urban living:
“We need a more diverse mixture of housing options. We also need them to be distributed in a way that doesn’t reinforce monoculture/self-similar units. In Texas, this is a major issue, but with the exception of mostly grass-roots efforts, we don’t see a lot of these strategies except within particular neighborhoods in the major cities. Because we are growing so rapidly, though, I am hopeful some kind of change will happen in this area. I don’t think a developer should be allowed in Texas to create a neighborhood without integrating a diverse mix of residential housing units … and proximity to essential resources and services need to be seen as part of the housing.”
On mixed-use developments:
“We do have several mixed-use developments in the metros of the Texas Triangle. Some of these are designed with New Urbanist principles while others are not. This is not to say I agree with the New Urbanism-informed developments fully, but those tend to integrate a wider spectrum of housing options. Most are very much economically segregated (target higher-earning individuals/households) developments and clearly define their boundaries of when you are inside or outside of the development (enclave).”
On the remote-working trend stimulating home construction:
“It’s my observation that many people want to live within the urban core of a city because they want easy access to the things they enjoy outside of work. So, I think a lot of this is tied to preferences about the kind of environment someone wants to live in. It’s important to contextualize what drove the development of suburbs in post-war America. There are different contextual forces that are driving the decisions people make today.”
On the future of housing in Texas:
“I am hopeful that as a generation finishes college and recognize the various social and climate challenges we face, that we recognize how the proliferation of large single-family detached houses puts a strain on and consumes a lot of resources and puts a lot of pressure on infrastructure and has social and cultural implications. I don’t imagine we will experience some widespread adoption of a different way of living, but I do think we will continue to see a move away from the excessive size and opulence of houses that came about in the 90s and early 00s. I think we will see many choose smaller houses in more compact arrangements with access to shared amenities and things we rely on daily. Some of this a reality of the cost of living, but it’s also values and mindset.”
