As yet anothor note in this thread about Houston (from a long-time Houstonian) and less in direct response to OP -- the lack of zoning bit is actually a bit mor

As yet anothor note in this thread about Houston (from a long-time Houstonian) and less in direct response to OP -- the lack of zoning bit is actually a bit more complicated than at first glance. While it's true there is no zoning, there are two other forces at work that exacerbate the sprawl issues here: (1) Minimum parking lot size requirements (as others mentioned). Commercial properties are required to have X amount of parking spaces available. (2) Political issues and how money gets invested: despite public "protests" (maybe more like "kvetching"), there's continued investment in freeway expansion / car-centric infrastructure due to lobbying/other political efforts instead of public transportation. Our sprawl is more due to (1) and (2) rather than lack of zoning regulation. But also to Houston's credit, things are slowly (SLOWLY) getting better.