Brownsville | Zoning Districts

Brownsville Zoning Districts: Which Districts Allow Duplexes, Townhouses and Apartments

Brownsville zones the land inside its city limits. A zoning district is the label on the City's Official Zoning Map that decides which uses a lot may have and how large buildings may be. The rules sit in the Unified Development Code (UDC), which Section 1.3 says took effect on March 31, 2021 under Ordinance No. 2020-235.95. This page lists the districts, shows which ones allow two or more homes, and explains how a rezoning works after the City's June 2026 changes. The Brownsville overview gives the short version.

Where the Current Text Is

The UDC is Subpart B of the City's Code of Ordinances on municode, the online code library the City uses. The current version there is Supplement 26, "Codified through Ordinance No. 2026-1797, enacted January 20, 2026." That supplement does not yet include the UDC ordinances the City Commission passed on January 6, 2026 or June 16, 2026, so this guide reads those from the signed ordinances in municode's ordinance bank. Two of them matter most for zoning: Ordinance No. 2026-235.127 rewrote the district tables and added a small-lot rule for SB 15, and Ordinance No. 2026-235.128 rewrote the notice and protest rules for HB 24. The City's own website answered every VanPlex request with an access error, so no page on it is used.

One more gap is worth knowing. On municode, Sections 4.6.4 to 4.6.13 (fencing, residential adjacency, lighting, accessory buildings, manufactured homes and development in the historic, airport and medical overlays) carry a heading and no text. The district tables still point to them. Ask the Planning and Redevelopment Department for those sections before you design.

The Districts and the Homes Each Allows

Table 4.1-1 in Section 4.1.1 groups the districts in four sets. The residential districts are AG, R-E (written RE in the use chart), R-1, R-2 and R-3. The nonresidential districts are Corridor Commercial (CC), Regional Center (RC), Light Industrial (LI) and Heavy Industrial (HI). The traditional neighborhood and form districts are TN, TN-MU, TN-C, DE, DG and DC; a form district regulates the shape of buildings and their place on the lot as closely as the use. The special and overlay districts are the Historic Overlay, the Airport Overlay and Planned Development Districts, and Ordinance No. 2025-235.118 added a Medical Overlay District (MOD) in June 2025. An overlay is a second layer of rules placed on top of the base district.

Source: Brownsville UDC Sections 4.3.1 to 4.3.3 and the Permitted Use Chart, Supplement 26. Building types in the TN family are limited by district; see the townhomes page.

The district descriptions tell you the City's intent. R-1 "accommodates single-family houses as well as accessory dwellings" and is "intended to maintain existing single-family residential neighborhoods in the city." R-2 accommodates "single-family houses (including zero-lot line), duplexes and forms of attached housing such as townhomes." R-3 adds "small-scale multifamily uses as a transition between suburban and urban environments." The Downtown Edge district, DE, "allows for a range of urban residential uses (single-family, duplex, triplex, and small apartments)."

The Permitted Use Chart for Homes

Section 4.4.3 holds the Permitted Use Chart, the table that lists each use against each district. Section 4.4.1 explains the codes: "P" means "permitted by right," "S" means the use "is allowed only if issued a Specific Use Permit," and "A blank cell indicates that the use is prohibited." A Specific Use Permit is a case-by-case approval with public hearings. A number after the letter points to an extra standard in Section 4.4.4.

Source: Brownsville UDC Section 4.4.3, residential and accessory uses, Supplement 26. Ordinance No. 2026-235.127 changed the parking column for these rows and marked the district columns "unchanged."

Three readings follow from the chart. First, AG, RE and R-1 allow one house and one accessory dwelling unit, and nothing more without a rezoning. Second, R-2 is the first district where a duplex or a townhouse is allowed by right. Third, a building of three or more homes needs R-3, a commercial district, or one of the traditional and downtown districts. LI and HI have blank cells for every home type. The accessory dwellings and duplexes page and the townhomes and multifamily page cover each type.

Section 4.4.2 covers uses the chart does not name. The Planning Director decides which listed use the new use is most like, and an appeal of that decision goes to the Zoning Board of Adjustment.

How a Rezoning Works

A rezoning is a "Zoning Map Amendment," a change to the district boundaries on the zoning map. Ordinance No. 2026-235.128 restated Section 4.2.2 on June 16, 2026. The steps are these:

• An owner, the Planning and Zoning Commission, or the Director may start the change.
• The Planning and Zoning Commission holds a public hearing and makes a recommendation. Written notice goes to all owners inside the area and "within two hundred (200) feet" of it, mailed "not less than fifteen (15) calendar days before the date set for hearing."
• The requested rezoning "must be in accordance with the adopted Comprehensive Plan," the City's long-range plan.
• The City Commission holds its own public hearing, with notice in the newspaper and on the City website before the 15th day, and a sign on the property.
• The City Commission decides by ordinance. Under the June 2026 text, "A zoning map amendment is effective immediately upon adoption of the ordinance."
• If the City Commission denies the request, "the applicant may not submit the same request for at least one (1) year."

The sign rule has two versions. Ordinance No. 2025-235.121, passed January 6, 2026, added a rule that a notice sign be posted "no later than ten (10) days before the Planning and Zoning public hearing," which matches Local Government Code 211.0073. Five months later, Ordinance No. 2026-235.128 restated Section 4.2.1 without that paragraph and put a sign rule in Section 2.4.2.D instead: the applicant posts the sign "Before the 15th day prior to the date of the City Commission public hearing" and pays for it. Both rules set a sign of at least 24 inches by 48 inches. Post the sign early enough to meet both dates.

Protests Under HB 24

A protest is a signed petition against a rezoning that raises the number of votes the City Commission needs to pass it. HB 24, in force September 1, 2025, rewrote the state rule in Local Government Code 211.0061. It keeps two protests that matter here. Under 211.0061(b)(1), owners of "at least 20 percent of the area of the lots or land covered by the proposed change" can force a vote of "three-fourths of all members of the governing body," for any change. Under 211.0061(b)(3), for a change that "has the effect of allowing more residential development" and adds no commercial or industrial use beyond a limited first floor, a protest by owners of the adjoining land within 200 feet needs "at least 60 percent" of that land, and the change then needs "a majority of all members of the governing body." The statute also keeps, in 211.0061(b)(2), a 20 percent protest by adjoining owners for other changes, with the three-fourths vote.

Ordinance No. 2026-235.128 added these rules to Section 4.2.2.F and G. The City's text has three printing problems. It lists the 60 percent protest as item "b" and hangs the residential test under it as an unlettered "or," so the 20 percent protest by adjoining owners for other changes drops out. Section 4.2.2.G then gives the three-fourths vote to protests under items "a" and "b" and the majority vote to an item "c" that does not exist. And Section 4.2.2.F.3 cites "TLGC Section 211.061(c)," a number that should read 211.0061(c). Where the City text and the statute differ, the statute controls. Before June 2026, the Supplement 26 text required three-fourths for every protest by 20 percent of the land inside or within 200 feet of the change.

Section 4.2.2.H adds a rule of the City's own: after the Planning and Zoning Commission recommends denial, the City Commission needs a three-fourths vote for a change protestable under items a or b, and a simple majority for the residential case. HB 24 repealed Section 211.006(f) of the Local Government Code, effective September 1, 2025. Ask the City Attorney how the City applies Section 4.2.2.H. The September 22, 2026 agenda lists a mayor and six commissioners, so by VanPlex count three-fourths of all members is 6 votes and a majority is 4.

Two state rules now help residential rezonings. Under Section 211.0065, a change that allows more homes "is conclusively presumed valid" if no suit is filed within 60 days after it takes effect, and Section 4.2.2.J of the June 2026 text repeats it. Section 4.2.2.F.1.a exempts comprehensive changes, such as a new zoning code for the whole city, from the protest rules.

Rezonings Brownsville Adopted in 2026

The ordinance bank shows the changes the City Commission makes for small residential projects. These ordinances, each listed with its adoption date, moved land into a district that allows more homes:

• No. 235-2025-026 (January 20, 2026): R-1 to R-3 "TO ALLOW FOR A TOWNHOME DEVELOPMENT" on a 2.82-acre tract.
• No. 235-2026-001 (March 3, 2026): R-1 to R-2 "TO ALLOW A DUPLEX" on 0.167 acres at 4715 Bowie Road.
• No. 235-2026-902 (April 7, 2026): R-1 to R-3 to allow multifamily on a 7.5-acre tract on Laredo Road.
• No. 235-2026-004 (June 2, 2026): R-1 to R-2 "TO ALLOW A DUPLEX AND ADU" on 0.87 acres at 1005 Robindale Road.
• No. 235-2026-008 (June 16, 2026): R-1 to R-2 to allow a duplex on 0.501 acres at 4464 Waco Road.
• No. 235-2026-904 (September 1, 2026): R-1 to R-2 "TO ALLOW AN EXISTING DUPLEX SUBDIVISION," Hidden Meadows Section 2.

Each of these was a map change for the land it names, so a neighbor in R-1 who wants the same result files a separate application and goes through the same two hearings.

Planned Developments, Specific Uses and Overlays

A Planned Development District (PD) is a zoning district written for one project. Under Section 4.3.4, a PD "may be used to permit new or innovative concepts in land use not permitted by other zoning districts," and the project "must provide a higher level of amenities" than the code usually requires. Ordinance No. 235-2026-012-PD (September 1, 2026) rezoned 3.205 acres on Vasquez Ranch Road from R-1 to R-2 with a PD "TO ALLOW A TOWNHOME DEVELOPMENT WITH AN INTERIOR ACCESS EASEMENT," a private drive the homes share.

The Historic Overlay (O-H) protects areas "of historical or cultural significance." Section 4.2.5 requires a Certificate of Appropriateness, an approval of exterior work, "prior to issuance of a Building Permit." The Historic Preservation Officer may approve some work alone, including an accessory building in the rear yard that cannot be seen from the street. The FY 2027 schedule adds new fees, such as $50 for a residential certificate decided by the Historic Preservation Commission. The Airport Overlay (O-A) is meant to keep development near the airport compatible with the "BRO Airport Master Plan"; its development rules belong in Section 4.6.12, which is blank on municode.

What Zoning Applications Cost

Source: Exhibit A, FY 2027 Master Fee Schedule, adopted by Ordinance No. 2026-1761-B, in the City Commission agenda packet of September 22, 2026. The ordinance takes effect on second reading; the draft minutes in the October 6, 2026 packet record it passing 5 to 0.

A variance is permission to break a dimension rule, such as a setback, because of a hardship on the land. Under Section 4.2.11.D the Board of Adjustment may not grant one "based solely upon economic gain or loss," and the applicant must show the hardship is "neither self-imposed nor generally affecting all or most properties" in the district. An appeal of a staff decision to the Board needs "the concurring vote of seventy-five (75) percent" of its members under Local Government Code 211.009(c).

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the Brownsville overview, HB 24 and zoning protests and how Texas zoning works.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)