Who Decides How Pearland Grows? The City or the State?

Who Decides How Pearland Grows? The City or the State?Yesterday, on August 18, city leaders, Pearlanders, and lawmakers gathered for a public forum about two new Texas state laws that could change how Pearland grows. The laws, Senate Bill 15 and Senate Bill 840, could impact Pearland in the future. Right now, neither law applies to the community, but city officials want residents to understand their potential future impacts before that changes. Mayor Quentin Wiltz opened the meeting with an introduction. Three state representatives, Jeff Barry, Dennis Paul, and Cody Vasut, joined the discussion, along with Mike Martin, a housing law expert from the Texas Municipal League. Martin explained why state lawmakers passed the two bills. Texas has grown. In the past 10 years Texas has grown in population by more than four million people, and it is believed that there is a shortage of at least 300,000 homes. Unfortuntaely, solving a housing shortage isn't simple. State leaders want to build homes. Pearland leaders want to protect the local roads and water systems from being overwhelmed.Senate Bill 15 allows for the use of much smaller home lots, as small as 3,000 square feet, as long as the lot meets specific conditions. The land must be at least five acres, already zoned for single-family homes, and undeveloped. Builders using smaller lots still have to pay for the new streets and pipes that their projects need. SB 15 was actually scaled back before it passed, an earlier version of the bill allowed for 1,400 square foot lots and applied much more broadly. Worries about over crowding lead to the newer stricter requirements.Senate Bill 840 is more directly tied to apartments. The bill will allow for developers to build multifamily or mixed-use buildings up to 45 feet tall, with just one parking spot required per unit and 36 units per acre, in areas already zoned for offices, stores, or warehouses, without requiring permission from cities for approval. SB 840 also provides for more flexibility when converting a preexisting building, no new traffic or parking rules, no new fees if the building already paid the city. This is where representitives worry the most, that this strips cities of the power to plan for traffic and infrastructure.For now, neither law applies to Pearland. They only take effect in cities of over 150,000 people in counties of over 300,000 people. According to Pearland's most recent census in 2020, Pearland only has a population of about 125,000. The next census isn't until 2030 and city officials are not sure that the growth is projected to reach 150,000 by then.