Houston’s ordinary building lines follow the type of street a lot fronts. The six sections here work differently: each responds to something present on or beside the property — a pipeline, an intersection, the blunt end of a stub street, a designated transit street, an access arrangement, or fire damage.
Two of them override rather than supplement. Sec. 42-164(d) gives the transit-street rule priority over the building line otherwise required or authorised by the chapter, subject only to a special minimum building line designation. And Sec. 42-161’s visibility triangle is a prohibition rather than a distance — it constrains wherever the underlying building line would otherwise let you build.
| Condition | Building line effect | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Undefined pipeline easement, flammable material under pressure | 15 ft from the pipeline centerline | 42-160(a) |
| Corner of two intersecting streets | No encroachment into the triangle; 15 ft legs, 20 ft high | 42-161 |
| Rear/side-access lot with a 5 ft reduced line on a collector or local street | May encroach the triangle above 10 ft vertically | 42-161 |
| End of a stub street not required to be extended | Ten ft from the end, and ten ft either side of a ten-ft projection | 42-163 |
| Primary walkable places or TOD street | Zero feet, with Article IV compliance | 42-164(b) |
| Secondary walkable places or TOD street | Zero feet if Article IV is met, otherwise the standard line | 42-164(c) |
| Rear or side access housing meeting entry feature standards | A reduced line; porch or stoop may encroach 4 ft | 42-165 |
| Rebuild after casualty at 75% or less of replacement cost | This division does not apply | 42-162(b) |
Sec. 42-160 through Sec. 42-165. Sec. 42-164(d) makes the transit-street rule prevail over the chapter’s other building lines, except where a special minimum building line requirement applies.
Sec. 42-161 is easy to picture in plan and easy to misapply in section. The triangle is drawn by measuring 15 feet from the intersection point along each street’s right-of-way and joining the ends — but the section then gives it a maximum height of 20 feet measured vertically from the ground. The purpose stated in the section is sight lines for vehicular traffic approaching the intersection.
The exception added for rear-access housing follows from that purpose. Where a lot or multi-unit residential site sits on a collector or local street, takes rear or side access under Sec. 42-188, and qualifies for a reduced building line of 5 feet, encroachment is permitted above 10 feet vertically. A driver’s sight line is near the ground; a second storey oversailing it is not the thing the triangle protects.
A reduced building line within the city boundary will be allowed for single family and multi unit residential developments having rear or side access to the units, if units fronting the street meet the following entry feature criteria: 1. Each structure with frontage on a street, not including an alley, must provide at least one entry feature; 2. To be considered street-facing, an entry feature must face the street it is intended to serve. An entrance directly accessed from a porch, stoop or recessed entry on the street-facing side, counts as a street-facing entrance, regardless of if it faces the street.
Sec. 42-165 was added by the same 2023 ordinance as courtyard style development, and it does something similar: it lets a project pull closer to the street in exchange for facing the street properly.
The bargain applies inside the city boundary, to single family and multi-unit residential developments with rear or side access. Seven criteria have to be met by the units fronting the street. The functional ones are that the entrance give both pedestrian ingress and egress to the first storey, that it reach occupiable space on that storey, and that it connect to the nearest public sidewalk or street by a walk at least three feet wide — with a separate pedestrian gate where a fence is provided.
Criterion 2 quietly resolves a design question. An entrance reached directly from a porch, stoop or recessed entry on the street-facing side counts as street-facing "regardless of if it faces the street" — so a door turned sideways within a street-facing porch still satisfies the requirement.
The porch itself gets an allowance: a porch or stoop may encroach up to 4 feet into the required building line, provided there is adequate room for required sidewalks and all utilities, and provided it carries no occupiable space above the first floor.
Two casualty tests, and they differ at exactly 75 percent. Sec. 42-162 exempts a rebuild from this division where the cost is "75 percent or less" of replacement cost excluding the foundation. The parallel parking provision, Sec. 26-588, requires the cost to be "less than 75 percent". At precisely 75 percent the building line division does not apply and the parking article still does. Sec. 42-162 also requires no increase in floor area and no change of use, where Sec. 26-588 requires no increase in the parking factor and no change of use classification — related tests, not the same one. Sec. 42-162(c) additionally requires the figures to come from a certified cost estimate by an architect or contractor, approved by the building official.
This is how the code reads; confirm with the city — or ask a builder who's actually pulled this permit in Houston. The authoritative text is the Houston Code of Ordinances; permitting questions go to Houston Permitting Center.