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TOMBALL, TEXAS
Fig. 23–25
Speaker 2 I’m going to take you now to Tomball, Texas, a suburb north of Houston in the growing megaregion known as the “Texas Triangle.” Houston is widely known as the largest American city without formal zoning regulations, and it is precisely the sprawl enabled by this lack of regulation that inspired the well-defined, almost rigid zoning code in Tomball. As the outer reaches of Houston’s suburbanization approach Tomball, the city has put in place a series of planning mechanisms to control its growth, economic development, and historic preservation. Like the other case studies, Tomball was one of a few hotspots of demonstrable housing instability resulting from our early analysis.24 After a qualitative review of these potential sites, it was ultimately chosen in light of the representative nature of its relationship to Houston. Towns across the country are finding that as urban regions grow, new development may threaten their character and local identity. Still, Tomball stands to gain a great deal from a station along the high-speed rail linking it to Houston, including improved employment opportunities for its residents.