Houston parking requirement calculator

Houston has no zoning, but it does have a parking table — seventy-two use classifications in Sec. 26-492, each with its own rate. Pick your use, enter the measures, and this returns the required number of spaces, the arithmetic behind it, the sections it rests on, and the four routes that can reduce it.

How to use the parking calculator

Choose the location and use first, then continue to enter the measurements for that use. Check the arithmetic and cited exceptions with your designer before relying on a total.

Use the result as a list of questions for the city and your project team. It is not an approval or a buildable-home count.

Where is the building?

Ask this first. Sec. 26-471(b)(6) and (7) switch off the whole of division 2 — the Sec. 26-492 table and every reduction in it — for a building in the market-based parking area or along a primary transit-oriented development street. For those, the required figure is zero, not a reduced number.

Anywhere else in the city Within the market-based parking area (roughly downtown and Midtown — Sec. 26-472 gives the boundary street by street) Along a primary transit-oriented development street

What is the use?

Pick a use classification

Sec. 26-492 states rates for the seventy-two use rows listed above. For anything not on that list, Sec. 26-493 puts the number in the director’s hands rather than in a table — there is no figure to look up, and the four criteria the director must weigh are the whole of the standard.

What this rests on

Sec. 26-493 — The director determines the minimum parking and bicycle spaces for any use not specified in Sec. 26-492, considering documentation of demand, planning and technical studies, requirements in comparable jurisdictions, and requirements for similar uses. read it

The four ways down

Sec. 26-497 — one space off for every four bicycle spaces above the Sec. 26-496 minimum, capped at ten percent. Not available to single-family or multi-unit residential.
Sec. 26-498 — 40 percent off for a protected landmark or a contributing structure in a historic district.
Sec. 26-503 — 50 percent off on a secondary transit-oriented development street, and nothing at all required within the standard building line. Cannot be combined with either of the two above.
Sec. 26-504 — up to five spaces by administrative modification, at the director's discretion, for an existing use proposing an alteration.

Beyond those, Sec. 26-499 allows off-site parking, Sec. 26-500 allows shared parking between uses with different peak hours, Sec. 26-510 lets a designated special parking area set its own requirements, and division 5 provides for a variance.

Use this calculator on your website

Add the interactive calculator to a client resource page or a project guide. Readers can choose inputs and see the result inside the embedded tool.

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Calculator HTML

<iframe src="https://lotcodex.com/houston/parking-calculator/embed"
  title="Houston parking requirement calculator"
  loading="lazy" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"
  style="width:100%;height:900px;border:1px solid #d5dae0;"></iframe>

Preview the embedded calculator

You can also share the full calculator page in a resource list. Attribution is included inside the tool; adding a separate link is optional.

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.