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.
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.
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.