Texas Chapter of the APA<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Texas legislature won\u2019t meet again in regular session until January 2027. <\/p>\n
Her thoughts echoed the presenters at Texas Municipal League\u2019s 2025 legislative update, a panel discussion directed to city employees, councils, and mayors. The panelists \u2014 Bennett Sandlin, Monty Wynn, JJ Rocha, Bill Longley, and Mike Martin, all with the Texas Municipal League \u2014 recapped highlights of the past session and spoke to preparations for the next session in 2027. A portion of the summary focused on housing issues.<\/p>\n
Density and Zoning<\/p>\n
Land use density, a topic of national debate, has emerged as a pressing issue in Texas, according to Martin. With housing affordability a problem, the legislature has pushed to impose zoning mandates.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome good and some bad,\u201d Martin said at last week\u2019s convention.<\/p>\n
The debate isn\u2019t just about land use density, but also about who gets to make the decisions. City leaders argue the permitting process should remain in local hands, even as delays have prompted a legislative push toward privatization. Over the past few sessions, lawmakers have made proposals to allow third-party entities to manage permitting, but a recent bill about this failed to pass in the last session. It drew a series of amendments, and ultimately, some of the bill\u2019s authors withdrew their support.<\/p>\n
TML staff had a definite opinion about just who should make these evaluations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese decisions should be made by the people who live in the city,\u201d Martin told the group.<\/p>\n
Who gets to establish control of local jurisdiction \u2014 preemption \u2014 is Martin\u2019s concern for city zoning and housing density. This legal principle, where a higher level of government, such as the state, can override or limit the authority of a county or city, is at the center of legislative debates. Limiting home rule authority would lessen cities\u2019 power to make their own decisions for land use.<\/p>\n
Martin said, \u201cLoud voices are getting stronger that cities should only be allowed to do what the state says.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"(Photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_3535-edit-candysdirt.jpg\")
Dallas City Hall (Credit: Mimi Perez for CandysDirt.com)<\/p>\n
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Fort Worth City Hall<\/p>\n
2025 Bills<\/p>\n
As CandysDirt.com has reported on, two housing-related bills that were passed during the 2025 legislative session, both aim at expanding development options in the state\u2019s largest cities. Senate Bill 840 allows mixed-use and multifamily residential buildings to be constructed in areas previously zoned for non-residential use. Senate Bill 15, nicknamed the \u201ctiny lot bill,\u201d allows residential development on smaller parcels of land in undeveloped areas.<\/p>\n
Both measures apply only to cities with populations of more than 100,000, affecting 19 municipalities across the state. In North Texas, those cities are Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano, Irving, Garland, Frisco, McKinney, and Denton.<\/p>\n
Discussions are already underway in some circles about bills for the 2027 session, and the conference\u2019s clear message is that procrastination is not prudent. In her closing statement during the panel discussion, Rocha reiterated what had become a common refrain during TML\u2019s annual meeting.<\/p>\n
Now is the time, she said, \u201cfor open communication with your elected officials.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Snapper_Carr on X Don\u2019t wait for 2027. That was the message often repeated at the Texas Municipal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[150,21894,102,21895,1313,116,118,117,240,1282,1266,21896,7829,3764,21897,160,21898,13341,21899,21900,13311],"class_list":{"0":"post-34598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-arlington","9":"tag-carissa-cox","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-density","12":"tag-denton","13":"tag-fort-worth","14":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","15":"tag-fort-worth-news","16":"tag-frisco","17":"tag-garland","18":"tag-irving","19":"tag-jj-rocha","20":"tag-joy-donovan","21":"tag-mattie-parker","22":"tag-mike-martin","23":"tag-plano","24":"tag-senate-bill-15","25":"tag-senate-bill-840","26":"tag-texas-american-planning-association","27":"tag-texas-municipal-league","28":"tag-zoning"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/TML-Conference-2025-Credit-Snapper_Carr-on-X.jpg\")
Credit: Snapper_Carr on X<\/p>\n