14 Cite Fall 1991 •111, ^KvauR

5,000 Voters IN Can't

For nearly 60 years starting in 1929, Yet on 9 January 1991, with Mayor attacked incompatible juxtapositions by Whitmirc's support, city council unani- championing such broad-brush tools as an zoning advocates lost battle after mously approved Ordinance 91 -63 ordinance requiring all new businesses to Be battle to vociferous promoters of the reconstituting the planning commission as supply off-street parking, and another that the planning and zoning commission - would screen unsightly land uses with unfettered free market. Those rabidly an unequivocal first step toward ending fences or trees. But like council member antiregulation types were typically smaller Houston's unique status as the only big I leanor ["insley's landmark 198 1 develop commercial real estate brokers and develop- American city with no zoning. What had ment ordinance, which set the tone for ers, but they were sometimes joined by happened to convert a mayor and an entire such performance-based regulation, these Wrong titans such as lumber boron John Henry council in just seven years? What had piecemeal reforms ultimately seemed Kirby and millionaire oilman and right- made zoning - a concept popular with inadequate to treat what many saw as a wing ideologue Hugh Roy Cullen. As Uni- 1920s civic reformers but by now often cancer threatening Houston's quality of life UIMH nl Houston bisuin professor Barry viewed elsewhere as corrupt, hopelessly and residential property values. J. Kaplan has documented in the Southwest- bureaucratic, or the captive of the real How ern Historical Quarterly, the city's antizoners estate interests It originally sought to Eventually the wealthier neighborhood ll.ived ibis land-use regulation as everything regulate - suddenly the object of almost activists began to make common cause Ironi an infringement on private property messianic zeal in Houston? with their counterparts in poorer neigh- rights (in 1929 and 1938) to "un-American borhoods and to argue (hat residential and German" (after World War II) to com- The answer, initially ignored by politi- deed restrictions - Houston's traditional Zoning 1 munistic (in 1962, during the Cold War). cians, was that the combined effects of the private-sector alternative to zoning — were kvcnuially. postmodern luminaries ranging oil boom of the 1970s and early 1980s too cumbersome and too expensive for from architect John Burgee to Milton and the subsequent cataclysmic bust had many areas to enforce. Meanwhile, briedmanitc land-use-planning critic Ber- irrevocably changed the city's physical and although it was little emphasized at the Came nard Siegan came to regard unzoncd political landscape. Neighborhoods time, public opinion polls in the 1970s Houston as a paradigm ol how cities should struggling desperately with declining prop- and 1980s repeatedly showed that a be built. Private enterprise, these mavens erty values from the lingering depression of substantial majority of Houston voters, a agreed, had done a better job ol anticipat- the 1980s were also clamoring for help large number of whom previously had to ing where Houston's future growth should from the city against all manner of lived in zoned cities, actually supported occur than bureaucratic planning ever businesses, some ol them opened by out- /.oning. professors could have done. of-work homeowners, that were defacing Robert Thomas and Richard Murray's their turf or disgorging traffic onto book Progrowth Politics: Change and Governance in Houston makes that point Houston Ordinary Houstonians facing the messy residential streets. Such neighborhood and specifically cites an October 1983 consequences of real estate boom and bust leaders as Kay Crooker, Gail Williford, survey of 662 randomly sampled city began to challenge the prevailing local and Brandy Wolf had emerged during the residents who backed the idea of a zoning orthodoxy, but with mixed results. As re- boom in the affluent subdivisions of ordinance by a 60 percent to 22 percent TOM C U R T I S cently as 1984, when mortgage banker Ben Tanglcwood and Southgate to fight the margin, with 18 percent not sure or not G. McGuire, then a member of Houston's unwanted symbols of growth - proliferat- answering. •' planning commission, advised Mayor ing helicopter landing pads and high rise Kathy Whitmire that the city should con- office buildings and hotels thai abutted sider a zoning ordinance, he found that the neighborhood boundaries. Throughout By the late 1980s, many of the antizoning city's chief executive still considered the the long bust, these activists and others developers whose campaign contributions topic radioactive. During a private meeting in the past had allowed them to dominate in which McCuire broached his suggestion, city land-use decisions were broke, while he says Mayor Whitmire protested that the Above: those Houston developers smart or politically potent developer Walter Mischer desperate enough to leave town and find would "crucify" her if she came out for Neighborhood activist Rosie Walker's work elsewhere during the bust "found they could live with" zoning, notes zoning. Then "Kathy threw inc out of her 1987 single-issue prozoning campaign office," McGuire told me in a recent developer (and mayoral confidante) R. interview. When his term expired in 1987, for mayor gained fewer than Alan Rudy. Some of the biggest local McGuire observed, he was "kicked of} the developers decided that tor them "zoning city planning commission." 5,000 votes. was maybe even an advantage, since Cite Hall 1991 L5

Below, left to right: Neighborhood leaders Gail WillHord, Brandy Wolf, and Kay Crooker in Southgate.

zoning limits supply, and they've already Two years later, Rosie Walker, a candidate board meeting. "We've got to talk about Shortly before noon on a cloudy 13 got supply," says the city's most prominent for mayor, became zoning's next martyr. zoning," Walker recalls saying. Cashion December 198l>, at a so-called city council critic of zoning, financier Charles Miller, LauihofT's campaign manager in the 1987 agreed and (hey scheduled a long lunch pop-off session, where members speak chairman ol the Greater Houston Partner- race. Walker was the publisher of a slender die following week. A lew days later their minds on any number of subjects, Jim ship (an umbrella group embracing the giveaway weekly called Downtown Maga- Cashion was dead, the victim of a severe- Greenwood took the microphone. "1 said Houston Chamber or Commerce, the zine ham 1977 until 1991. She had asthma attack. it was my belief Houston had to decide Houston Economic Development Coun- become radicalized as a neighborhood what kind of destiny it wanted for itself," cil, and the World Trade Association). activist in the early 1980s when she battled Creenwood attended some ol the func- he recalls. The city needed a plan, and that a noisy honky-tonk that encroached on tions at which Rosie Walker appeared, meant it needed zoning - because all Moreover, those local developers who were her Woodland Heights subdivision. As "and the positive response she got con- previous plans since the 1920s had proved beginning to think about redeveloping the incumbent Kathy Whitmire trounced firmed my belief thai there was support for unenforceable without the sanctions that older part of town within Loop 610 former mayor Fred Hoflieinz that Novem- zoning," he said in an interview in his /nning provided. There was no roll ol noticed thai Houston's home buyers were ber, Walker's single-issue prozoning modest city hall office. After the Novem- thunder or flash of lightning, Cireenwood voting lor Zoning with their dollars. A crusade garnered fewer than 5,000 votes. ber election. Greenwood says, he deter- notes, nor was he instantly vaporized. The house in /.oned West University Place or But her stand provoked warm applause - mined to make the zoning issue "a front- newspapers even picked up the story and Bcllaire might cost 10 to 15 percent more and even a surreptitious $10 cash burner item." gave ir decent play. Suddenly the Z word than a virtually identical residence across campaign contribution from a political was no longer unmentionable in Houston. the street in un/oncd Houston proper. writer - when she appeared before "Believers needed to be enrolled," Green- lames (!. Box, senior vice-president of the neighborhood groups. wood says. "Those who were doubters Bin if anything further was to be done, Mischer Corporation, points out that since needed to hi conlrouted and converted. (ireenwood knew he would have to do it. the oil bust began, over 50 percent of Lauhoff and Walker, the Butch Cassidy He wrote a letter to every civic club in Houston's home sales have occurred in and Sundance Kid of zoning, had been I louston explaining his stand and asked such inner-city sanctuaries or in the oil schooled as outlaws by the same mentor. them to give him an indication of whether companies' master-planned communities At a 1983 meeting of the Northwest they, too, supported zoning. Out of nearly - Mitchell Energy's Woodlands, Exxon's Coalition of Civic Organizations, Professor 400 letters, he received almost 80 responses Kingwood. and Shell's I'irst Colony. John Mixon, who teaches real estate devel- - only one of them against zoning. Because of developer-imposed new deed opment and finance law at the University restrictions lasting 30 or 40 years and of Houston Law Center, gave a compre- O n 2 January 1990, in her speech after other controls, the latter "are essentially hensive, cartoon-illustrated lecture on the taking the oath of office, Kathy Whitmire developer-zoned cities," notes Box. ABCs of zoning. A deep-voiced East Texan made a passing reference to "land-use Pension funds, insurance companies, and who over 25 years has hewed out a role as planning" by the city in the coming year. anyone else who hoped to attract new the Thomas Paine of Houston land-use Ten days later, in an audacious initiative. residents to redeveloped inner-city regulation, Mixon predicted that zoning Greenwood convened his own Ad Hoc Houston had to figure out how home- would be instituted in Houston within Task force on Planning and Zoning. owners, businesses, and ultimately the ten years. Among (hose he named to the panel were binding institutions themselves could Brandy Wolf and Gail Williford, the protect their investments. Before embarking on her own campaign, neighborhood activists from affluent Walker tried to interest others in champi- Southgate who were then president and During much of the 1980s the implica- oning zoning. In 1988, following the vice-president, respectively, ol the Houston tions of these changes were no clearer to annual meeting of the downtown associa- Homeowners Association, a coalition of most politicians than to the usually astute tion Central Houston. Inc., at the Eour civic clubs founded by Greenwood's Mayor Whimiire. 'I hen in I 987 a former Seasons Hotel, she walked back to city hall Tanglewood neighbor. Kay Crooker: Peter three-term state representative from with boyishly earnest city councilman Jim Brown, former president of the local northwest Houston, Herman Lauhoff, got Greenwood, telling him why Houston chapter of the American Institute ol caught in a tialfic jam as he was trying to needed zoning. Greenwood, an attorney Architects and a friend of Greenwood's leave Sharpstown Shopping Center, who in his 1986 Democratic campaign for since high school; John (Jack) McGinty, an Immobilized at londren and the South- Harris County judge against incumbent architect who had served with Greenwood west Freeway for more than two hours, Republican John Lindsay had emphasized on a "Visions for Houston" committee a Lauhoff had his personal conversion regional planning, "was interested and said few years earlier; Carroll Shaddock, a experience right there in gridlock. He he'd think about it." Walker recalls. Later, downtown attorney and antibillboard and decided that Houston would never have a in fall 1988, Lauhoff, Walker, and Mixon pro-tree-planting crusader; John Mixon, rational transit plan without comprehen- met Creenwood - known to be consider- the University of Houston law professor sive planning, and it would never be able ing a challenge to Whitmire - at a down- and zoning guru; Burdette Keel.ind, (hen to enforce a comprehensive plan without town lawyers' luncheon club, the Inns chairman of the city planning commission zoning. And so, as an avowedly prozoning of Court. There, she says, they tried to and a professor of architecture as the candidate, the oil company personnel persuade him to run for mayot as a zoning University of Houston; and architect Al director (now a real estate salesman) proponent. In subsequent lund-raising Augustine of the Houston office of the challenged incumbent Jim Westmoreland letters. Greenwood did not mention -based developer Irammell Crow, for his seat on the Houston City Council. zoning, but he did talk about his interest who was lassoed to participate after asking Lauhoff was uncharismatic and under- in land-use regulation and long-range in vain if Greenwood could enlist she uiv funded, and reporters ignored his attempts planning. Eventually he concluded (hat he in fighting a garbage d u m p next door to in engage Westmoreland and themselves could not raise enough money to mount his company's North by Northwest on what was still thought to be a politically an effective mayoral race. development on Highway 290. Although untouchable subject. His campaign sank the antizoning Houston Apartment like a stone. Association also contributed a member, Meanwhile, Walker, who had been a substantial carl) i untrihuior in Katln I Greenwood concedes, "it was definitely a Whitmire's first mayoral campaign, £ prozoning group." buttonholed the mayor's late chief political strategist, Clintinc Cashion, after a Metro 16 Cite Fall 1991

Below: Councilman Jim Greenwood convened

an influential ad hoc task force on planning and zoning in January 1990, a few days after Mayor Whitmire took the oath for her fifth term.

Municipal access cable channel 1 taped the Whitmirc's frequent troubleshooter and representative complained: '"Why don't task lone meetings lor later broadcasting, dollar-a-year assistant, Alan Rudy, a real you guys from Houston solve your own building an audience and credibility. estate developer in private life, served as problems - why do you always come up (ireenwood soon expanded [he task force, vice-chairman, and longtime Whitmire here to Austin with these kinds of issues?'" which met weekly and ultimately had a aide Jerry Wood was chief of staff- rwo Similarly, Bernie Middlcton of Riverside core of 20 to M) members or subcommittee indications of the extreme importance the terrace, an affluent, mostly black neigh- members and a mailing list, including less mayor attached to the issue. Members ol borhood, described the problems that had active participants, of 40 to SO. Mean- the developer-oriented group included arisen there with boisterous University ol while. Greenwood himsell was speaking as [•ricrulswood Development chairman John Houston fraternity houses. often as lour nights a week before civic Walsh. Mischer Corporation senior vice- clubs across the city and to service clubs president James t'.. Box, Weingarten Law professor John Mixon listed reasons such as the Rotary, Lions, and Kiwanis. Realty's Stanford Alexander, real estate why deed restrictions didn't work: they did At each meeting, (ireenwood asked for a man lulio S, Laguarta. developer Edmund nothing about uses across the street from show of bands and saw over-whelming D. Wulfe, architect W. O. Neuhaus 111, restricted areas; they were prohibitively support for zoning. To each group he and. as a token zoning advocate, <• iiv expensive for poorer neighborhoods to emphasized that every citizen votes lor planning commission member Kay enforce; until early 1990, the city devoted seven council members - five at-large Crooker, founder ol the Houston Home- only one attorney and one paralegal to members like him. a district council owners Association and wife of a retired deed restriction enforcement, therefore member, and the mayor- and urged each senior partner at the law firm of bulbright getting the city involved in prosecuting a club and individual to make known its & Jaworski. deed restriction violation was difficult: and feelings on zoning. 40 percent of residential neighborhoods Whatever the mayor's preconceptions at did not even have deed restrictions. Bv earlv spring. Greenwood's task force had the outset, it was clear to Rttdy, at least, Civic club members explained that deed caught the attention of the mayor, who that Houston's psyche was changing. restriction lawsuits took an average of undoubtedly viewed it as the first salvo in a The previous year at lunch with "friends seven years in court to adjudicate and on prospective Greenwood 1991 mayoral of mine who are household names in average cost each civic club at least campaign. She promptly appointed her Houston's development community,'' 510,000. Sometimes those defending own blue-ribbon task force - the I and Use Rudy says, he had taken an informal poll: their property values were countersued hv Strategy Committee, or I L v which a third ol his elite sample favored zoning, a offending businesses for slander or loss of appears to have been designed as antizon- third opposed it, and a third were neutral. livelihood. Walker says committee ing as Greenwood's group was pro/oning. I'his was, he says, a watershed event. "In members would virtually "fall over in their It was headed by Charles Miller, president 1981-82," he asserts, "it would have been of different eras" to illustrate the difficul- chairs when one of these young, articulate, and chief executive officer of the Trans- one hundred percent against." Then, as ties and limitations of deed restrictions as a polite homeowners would explain that l america Criterion Croup, Inc., Houston- I .USC began its work, Rudy was even more way to protect subdivisions. I was trying to defend the residential based investment managers for $10 to Si I surprised to find himsell getting "calls integrity of my neighborhood and I got billion in clients* funds. Miller, a tall man from a number of other prominent real Houston Homeowners Association suet! for more money than I'll ever have with a ritmpled-looking face and modishly estate types, each ol whom said, more or president Gail Williford "would call and in my life."' long, graying brown ban who was then less, Tm probably alone among my peers, say, 'You got your bag ol deed restrictions vice-chairman of the Greater Houston but I think maybe it's time for zoning.'' ready? " Walker remembers. "My presenta- After I.USC heard from the embattled Partnership, told me that when Whitmire He adds. "1 got a lot of those." Naturally, tion included a shopping bag full of deed neighborhoods and its members toured asked him to serve, he "made it clear I was Rndv acknowledges, he communicated his restrictions from Woodland Heights some of them by bus, "everybody felt oriented towards toward the Iree market view ol the changing political realities to subdivision. It had taken two or three [zoning] was an inevitability," asserts the and less regulation." Mayor Whitmire. years of hard work to get them reinstated, Mischer Corporation's Jim Box. Although and before the ink was even dry they were l.USC chairman Charles Miller lives in a Before she formed I .USC, the mayor had under attack by someone who bought a downtown apartment and walks to work. already contracted with the American piece of deed-KStricted property they Box says most of the other committee Institute of Architects for the services ol a wanted to opt out." members live in master-planned commu- Regional and Urban Design Assistance nities or in zoned enclaves like the Team (R/UDAT), a flying squad of out-of- Another element of the horror show was Memorial villages and were genuinely town planners and architects who contributed by John King III, president of shocked to discover "first hand the effect descend on a city to offer analysis and the Eastwood Civic Association, who told of commercial enroachment" and other recommendations. about attempting to rid his 1920s era problems faced by blousion neighbor- 1 neighborhood near downtown of violent hoods. "That had a major impact.' Box The neighborhood insurgents made a cantinas by taking a busload of neighbor- admits. Even the R/UDAI final report, Strategic decision to bombard all of the hood residents to a hearing of the which infuriated partisans such as Mixon groups addressing land use with the legislative commute regulating the by barely mentioning the word zoning. unpleasant evidence ol what the absence ol Alcoholic Beverages Commission - only to stressed the crisis in Houston's residential zoning had meant to Houston neighbor- be rebuffed by "a state representative from neighborhoods and. Box says, acknowl- hoods, and to prove conclusively that deed Last Measles." As King told the story, the edged the need lor some son ol land-use restrictions were an inadequate tool for controls. As Box. speaking lor fellow protecting subdivisions. At appropriate- developers, remembered it, "Everybody Above: hearings ol Greenwood's task force, just saw the handwriting on the wall - U/l'PAT, and 1 I'M , pro/oning forces John Mixon, UN law professor and early it was time to work toward developing an turned out heavily. Explained Rosie ordinance that will accomplish what - Walker, "Whenever a hearing was sched- zoning advocate whose public lectures needed to be accomplished without : tiled . . . we would orchestrate a team of putting us all out of business." on the ABCs of zoning helped to educate ; twelve or fourteen people representing • different neighborhoods and housing stock the public on the role of zoning. Cite kill IW1 r

Below: Medical Center Hilton looms

over the residential neighborhood Southgate.

By force of personality, Miller - who asked for a CiO-day delay. Greenwood The pivotal meeting, an eight-hour co-opted the "old age pension*1 scheme continues to observe that "zoning takes knew the momentum was with him but marathon, took place on New Year's live in championed by Louisiana senator .un.\ away property rights" and that "every oilier says he "began to get paranoid and saw all Rudy's conference room at 1 2 Grecnway likely l-'tlR challenger I lucy I! I oiig. big city in the country is zoned and every the terrible, terrible things that could Plaza. Mayor Whitmire attended most of one has declining-value neighborhoods" - happen in M\iy days." He began instead of that session, as did Al Haines, the city's In this case, however. Greenwood helped put his free-market stamp on the LUSC to line up support for a four-week chief administrative officer. Says Green- Whitmire steal his thunder. By agreeing to final report. Delivered to the mayor on postponement. This won overwhelming wood, " I he main thing that was added in a four-week delay, he says. "I kept the train Halloween 1990, it cautiously concluded support despite Whitmircs strong that session was the neighborhood at the station long enough for her BO gei that although Houston might need advocacy of the longer hiatus. protection team, which amounted in i on." In fact, to extend Greenwood's some added planning tools and controls, hcclcd-up attempt to support ordinances metaphor, he allowed her to scamper into "traditional zoning" was definitely not The next week, the councilman and his already on (he books" - a key proposal of the engine car and join him at the throttle among them. confreres began to negotiate with Alan LUSC. A three-year phase-in period for and brakes. By enabling the mayor to Rudy, whom the mayor had asked to zoning also was agreed on. advocate a minimalist form of zoning Meanwhile, Greenwood - who had represent her in dealing with Greenwood. gracefully. Greenwood got more or less attended most of I.USCs sessions - already As Rudy saw it (and members ol Green- Greenwood and Whitmire met again 4 what he had been seeking. But he gave up had persuaded city council to set aside wood's task force agree), "The ordinance January, and the next day, at a city hall his chance to run tor mayor as the avatar $720,001) for "neighborhood land-use Jim constructed pretty much assumed we press conference, Whitmire endorsed of a zoning movement that by now had planning" and another $230,000 for would have traditional zoning in Hous- Houston style zoning." Though alread) acquired some of the characteristics of a beefed-up enforcement of deed restric- ton." Rudy also thought the deadlines the telegraphed to insiders, it was a historic religious crusade. tions, lather 1 list 's approach or that of (ireenwood ordinance tailed lor seemed reversal for Whitmire and Houston - akin Greenwoods task force, he argued, would unreasonable, 'lb Rudy, who said he spent to franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration of In politics, however, tuning is everything. require binding. As each of his sub- •)0 hours in December and January Soual Security in the 1930s, when I PR fhe prozoning momentum was at flood committees - Goals, Education, and Com- working on the issue, the point was to lide. Ami it the council was to institute munity Participation; Comprehensive provide "maximum protection for neigh- zoning in strong-mayor Houston, Green- Planning and Urban Design: Research and borhoods and maximum freedom for wood knew, "it was essential the mayor of Drafting; and Stafl and Budget- issued developers large and small, including the Houston be on board." After all, he or its report between August and November, guy who wants to expand his store and the she would decide whether and how to Greenwood circulated copies to fellow one who wants to remodel his house. spend the money to enforce it. and she council members and to mam' others, would hire the new director of planning including the members of I.USC. From 1 or Rudy and the mayor there were two and zoning. And so, finally, on 11 lanuarv August to October, the neighborhood critical issues. Rudy says, first, the 1991 - "a date that will live in infamy," activists - Brandy Wolf, Gail Williford, ordinance called for creating five-member Greenwood chuckles - I louston's city Kay Crooker, and others - hegan to neighborhood advisory councils, which council created a planning and zoning mobilize their associates in civic clubs to had veto power over nonconforming uses commission authorized under Chapter 211 pepper council members with resolutions, and could be overruled only by a three- of the Texas Municipal Code. Timetables letters, phone calls, and other indications fourths vote of the planning and zoning aside, what Houston-style zoning will of support for zoning. A flood ol such commission. While Whitmire was actually look like and what it will mean sentiment reached each council member. "prepared to accept that," Rudy says, she remain cloudy even to those who have Late in October, members of the civic badly wanted to name die members of the been drafting proposals. What happens ^ lubs also began asking the cit} set n tat) advisory councils. Brandy Woll and Gail next depends largely on the mayor elected to put them on the agenda to speak to the Williford, negotiating on behalf of in November, on 1 louston's developers - council about the subject. neighborhoods, agreed to give the mayor and on the movement that prodded thai power - a concession that Rudy calls the change. • Around this time. Greenwood says, LUSC "the linchpin [that] allowed everything else member Bill Ncuhatis and his fellow to take place." The other crucial point - Kaplan, lUrry ). "Urban lX-velnpnirni. Lumomic architect frank S. Kelly came calling to say discussed at length, Rudy says - was a Growth, JIIJ Personal Liberty;The Rhetoric ol'thc the local AIA chapter, of which Kelly was compromise establishing that single-family Houston Anti-Zoning Movements, 1947-1962," l then president, would oppose the zoning neighborhoods would be "sort of domi- Soutbwatern Historical QuarterlyM (I )K<>), ordinance "because they thought we were nated by traditional zoning" while other *•* pp. 133-34. putting too much importance on zoning parts of the city would be regulated by IWiUey: IGS Press, 1991. and not enough on planning." After a performance- standards such as those heated 45-minute discussion. Greenwood articulated in the development ordinance says, the pair "agreed to take another look and off-street parking ordinances. I IK at their position." He concedes, "They ordinance was to be simple - there would had a misperception of what the ordinance- be just five zoning categories, including called for because I had not kept them residential neighborhoods. Lveryhody put informed." Ultimately the AIA backed the a high priority on keeping bureaucracy ordinance, after securing a change in to a minimum. language to stress the ideas that compre- hensive planning was the foundation of ' )\ ei the Christmas holidays, the Greater the ordinance and zoning a too! to support Houston Partnership held three meetings planning, finally, in mid-November, on the subject; Greenwood attended two. (ireenwood passed out copies of a He also met with the Mischer Corpora- ® proposed zoning ordinance to the council tion's Jim Box and the board of the anti- members and announced that he would zoning Houston Apartment Association. put the matter on the agenda on 5 December (later posiponed to 12 Decem- . ber). As the vote approached, the mayor