Sec. 42-155(a) gives non-single-family property on a collector or local street a ten-foot building line. That is the whole rule for most commercial tracts on an ordinary street.
Sec. 42-155(b) then makes the requirement responsive to the other side of the road. Where single-family lots directly across the street carry platted building lines greater than ten feet, the commercial line becomes the lesser of 25 feet or the greatest of those residential lines.
Two things follow. The figure is read off recorded plats opposite, not off what is built there — the subsection says "platted building lines". And it is capped: however deep the houses across the street sit, the commercial requirement stops at 25 feet.
Multi-unit residential does not use either figure. Sec. 42-155(c) refers it to Sec. 42-237, which this page does not cover.
| Situation | Building line | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Non-single-family on a collector or local street | Ten feet | 42-155(a) |
| Same, but facing single-family lots platted deeper than ten feet | Lesser of 25 ft or the greatest line opposite | 42-155(b) |
| Multi-unit residential on a collector or local street | As identified in Sec. 42-237 | 42-155(c) |
| Retail centre on a major thoroughfare with ROW 80 ft or less, performance standards met | Five feet | 42-154(a) |
| Same, with an arcade or colonnade at least six feet wide | Zero feet | 42-154(b) |
Sec. 42-154 and Sec. 42-155. The two Sec. 42-154 options are unavailable along a walkable places or transit-oriented development street, and to a retail centre carved out of a larger nonresidential parcel or reserve.
Sec. 42-154 is a trade, not a concession. A retail commercial center fronting a major thoroughfare with a planned right-of-way of 80 feet or less can take a five-foot building line, or zero, but only by accepting a package of standards that add up to a street-facing building rather than a street-facing car park.
Parking goes to the rear or side. Both options require it, without qualification.
Driveways are rationed. A driveway from the thoroughfare to the side of the improvements must be one of exactly three arrangements: a single driveway with two bays of parking up to 62 feet wide, provided driveway and parking together stay under a third of the total frontage; a single two-way driveway of no more than 24 feet to parking at the rear; or two one-way driveways of 15 feet each to parking at the rear.
The building on the line has to be the building. Both options require the improvement along the reduced building line to contain 90 percent of the gross floor area of everything on the parcel. A token liner building in front of a larger box behind does not qualify.
The trees stay. Trees within 25 feet of the property line adjacent to the thoroughfare are protected as corridor trees under Chapter 33, and the Chapter 40 sidewalk and safety buffer standards apply.
The subdivision plat or development plat provides for an arcade or colonnade at least six feet wide along the full face of the retail commercial center parallel to the major thoroughfare;
The two options in Sec. 42-154 share almost every condition. Parking placement, the driveway rationing, the 90 percent floor area test, corridor tree protection and the Chapter 40 sidewalk standards are identical between them.
Two differences decide which you are using.
Five feet buys a strip you improve. Sec. 42-154(a)(1) requires the plat to incorporate a five-foot area within the building line, improved by the applicant with a sidewalk — or with landscaping where the sidewalk is already in the right-of-way.
Zero feet buys a covered walk. Sec. 42-154(b)(1) instead requires an arcade or colonnade at least six feet wide running the full face of the centre, parallel to the thoroughfare. The building may meet the property line because the sheltered walk under it does the work the setback would have done.
The five-foot option also carries a landscaping requirement the zero-foot option does not: Sec. 42-154(a)(7) sets required shrubs at the number of required street trees multiplied by five, distributed along the street frontage in the landscape strip.
Pad sites are excluded. Sec. 42-154(c) removes both options for a retail commercial center on a tract created from a larger parcel or reserve — by subdivision or by lease agreement — where the remainder of the original tract is used for nonresidential purposes. Including lease-created tracts means the exclusion does not depend on a plat having been filed, so a ground-leased pad in front of an existing centre is within it.
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.