The lack of zoning in Houston has its upsides and downsides, but it has comparatively little to do with the sprawl. The sprawl is mostly a result of the manner

The lack of zoning in Houston has its upsides and downsides, but it has comparatively little to do with the sprawl. The sprawl is mostly a result of the manner by which Houston chose to grow: by annexing neighboring municipalities that were growing quickest to gobble up their tax dollars. And even for all that famous sprawl, Houston is seeing the same sort of urban in-fill that every other major US metro area is seeing... it just has a lot more land to fill before it achieves similar density.