People fill up their tanks at a gas station at Hadley and Smith in the Midtown area of Houston, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Houston officials are proposing new limits on where gas stations can be built, responding to years of complaints from residents about the noise, gasoline fumes and foot-traffic stations generate near their homes.
The proposal would nudge new stations toward wider roads and areas with less nearby housing — a difficult feat in a city without traditional zoning, as City Hall attempts to balance commercial growth with residents’ quality of life concerns.
Under the proposal, a new station could move forward with a permit if it is on a major thoroughfare wider than 80 feet, such as Shepherd Drive, Gessner Road or Cavalcade Street. Stations still could move forward on smaller streets if less than half of the surrounding area is residential. Applicants whose sites fail that test could ask the Planning Commission for a variance, or exception.
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The city has not decided how close a home must be to a gas station to count in the residential test. Officials are considering measuring 50 feet or 100 feet from the gas station’s property line.
Marlene Gafrick, a senior adviser to Mayor John Whitmire, presented the proposal to the city council’s Economic Development Committee on Wednesday. The mayor assembled a team this summer to develop the ordinance after residents raised concerns about station locations, Gafrick said.
The idea is still under development and a public hearing is expected to take place early next year. The ordinance, if adopted, would apply to new gas stations proposed after that date.
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“I think we’re on to something good. I wish we would have had it long before,” said At-Large Council Member Sallie Alcorn. “I’ve had a million emails and calls about this ordinance. It’s really important to the community and to many communities across Houston.”
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The mayor’s office found that the vast majority of new gas stations over the last four years were located on major thoroughfares, which are designed to carry heavy traffic and commercial development.
The city also found that nearly half of the new stations had some residential property nearby.
“We concluded that retail fueling stations were largely going on to our major thoroughfares which is what we wanted,” Gafrick said, “But there are some opportunities to perhaps encourage them to locate away from residential property.”
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Gas stations being developed near residential areas became a flashpoint for residents, especially in Third Ward and Old Sixth Ward. In Third Ward, State Rep. Jolanda Jones, D-Houston, earlier this year said she contacted the mayor’s office to pause the development of a gas station near Riverside Terrace.
Under the new proposal, that proposed gas station, at 5204 Live Oak St., would not qualify for a permit, according to Wednesday’s presentation.
Julie Tohbae, an Old Sixth Ward resident who spoke up this summer against a proposed gas station near her historic home, welcomed the proposal.
“It really moves me to see that something is going to be done that will prevent other people from going through what I am going through,” Tohbae said. “My home is protected, it’s on the city register, it’s on the national register, and yet I’m going to have a gas station behind me. And I know that there’s nothing that could be done about that, but I’m so happy this ordinance looks like it’s really going to cover a lot.”
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Emily Ardoin, who works for Preservation Houston, said her organization has been fielding calls from residents concerned about gas station development threatening historic neighborhoods, and said the proposed ordinance would be a step forward in protecting landmarks.
Chris Valdez, an Old Sixth Ward resident and a spokesperson for local community groups, said neighbors spent the last year and a half becoming experts in public health while researching what they could do to combat proposed gas stations in their community.
“I’m proud of the dozens of civic and neighborhood association members who still, to this day, called and emailed in order to get attention to this concern and its impact on us across the city,” Valdez said. “Clearly this left an impression on the mayor.”
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