State Law | HB 24 (2025)

Texas HB 24 (2025): New Rules for Zoning Protests

In Texas, nearby owners can file a written protest against a zoning change. A valid protest raises the number of council votes the change needs. HB 24 rewrote that rule for changes that allow more housing: the protest must now come from owners of 60 percent of the land within 200 feet, and a simple majority of the council can still approve the change. If your duplex, triplex or fourplex needs a rezoning, this is the law that decides how hard the vote will be.

What HB 24 Is

HB 24 is Chapter 909 of the Acts of the 89th Legislature, Regular Session, "relating to procedures for changes to a zoning regulation or district boundary." Its primary author was Representative Angelia Orr and its Senate sponsor was Senator Hughes, according to the bill history. The House passed it 83 to 56 on May 6, 2025. The Senate passed it with amendments 30 to 1 on May 25, and the House agreed to those amendments 104 to 30 on May 29. The Governor signed it on June 20, 2025, and it took effect on September 1, 2025.

An identical Senate bill, SB 844, did not pass on its own; its last action was May 6, 2025. HB 24 added a Section 211.0011 that defines a "proposed comprehensive zoning change." SB 840 (2025) added a different Section 211.0011, so cite the HB 24 one as "Section 211.0011, added by HB 24."

HB 24 applies only to zoning proposals made on or after September 1, 2025. It repealed the former subsections (d) and (f) of Section 211.006 and moved the protest rule to Section 211.0061. The enrolled bill shows the old text struck through: before HB 24, a 20 percent protest from nearby owners raised the vote needed to three-fourths of the council for every zoning change.

Who Can Protest, and the Vote It Triggers

Source: Local Gov. Code 211.0061(b) and (d), as amended by HB 24.

The 60 percent rule in Section 211.0061(b)(3) applies when "the proposed change has the effect of allowing more residential development." For a change that also allows commercial or industrial use, it applies only when those uses are limited to ground-floor uses of up to 35 percent of the project. Otherwise the 20 percent neighbor rule and the three-fourths vote still apply.

The vote count uses all members of the council, including members who are absent. A three-fourths vote on a council of 11 members, for example, means 9 votes, because 8 is less than three-fourths of 11. A majority of all 11 members means 6.

How the protest area is measured

Section 211.0061(c) sets two counting rules. The land within 200 feet includes streets and alleys. And the area is counted "in the aggregate for all tracts of land subject to the change," which means it is added up across every tract in the change, instead of tract by tract. Texas counts land area, so one owner of a large lot next to the change can hold a large share of the protest area.

Changes Neighbors Cannot Protest

Section 211.0061(a) limits protest rights to changes that are not a "proposed comprehensive zoning change." Section 211.0011, added by HB 24, defines that term to include three kinds of city action:

• adopting a new zoning code or zoning map that applies to the entire city;
• a uniform change across a whole zoning district that allows more residential development;
• an overlay (an extra set of zoning rules for a mapped area) that allows more housing along a major roadway, highway or transit corridor.

For these changes, Section 211.0063 says published notice, plus the notice owed to owners of nonconforming uses (uses that were legal before the rules changed), "are the only notices required." When a city rewrites its whole code or map, or changes a whole district at once to allow more housing, no protest petition is available.

Notice Rules and Deadlines

Source: Local Gov. Code chapter 211 in the official statutes and the HB 24 enrolled text.

The sign rule is new. Section 211.0073, added by HB 24, applies to home-rule cities, which are cities that run under their own charter. The sign goes on the property, or on the public right-of-way (public land such as a street) when the city itself starts the change. The city may make the applicant pay for it.

The 60-day rule protects housing changes once they pass. Under Section 211.0065, a zoning change that allows more housing "is conclusively presumed valid" if no one files a suit to annul or invalidate it before the 60th day after it takes effect. If you win a rezoning, note that date before you close on land or order plans.

What HB 24 Means for a Multiplex Owner

If the city code already allows two or three homes on your lot, as Austin's does in SF-1, SF-2 and SF-3, you need a permit and no rezoning. HB 24 matters when the code does not allow what you want. If you ask the city to rezone a single-family lot to a district that allows a fourplex, that is a change that allows more residential development. Neighbors within 200 feet now need 60 percent of the land area to file a valid protest, and even then six votes on an 11-member council can approve it.

Two practical steps follow. First, map the land within 200 feet of your lot, including streets and alleys, and note who owns the largest shares. Second, check whether your request adds any commercial use; if it allows commercial or industrial uses beyond ground-floor uses of up to 35 percent of the project, the 20 percent rule and the three-fourths vote apply. On commercially zoned land in a large city, you may not need a rezoning at all: SB 840 already allows three or more homes there.

Routes That Need No Rezoning

A rezoning is one way to add homes. Before you file one, check the routes that skip the protest process:

• Your city code may already allow it. Austin's HOME Phase 1 ordinance made duplex, two-unit and three-unit uses permitted in SF-1, SF-2 and SF-3. San Antonio's RM-4 district allows four units on a lot of 4,000 square feet. See the Austin and San Antonio pages.
• Houston has no zoning code. Its lot rules sit in Chapter 42 of the city code, so a Houston project follows those rules and the deed restrictions on the lot. See the Houston page.
• Commercial land in a large city. In the 19 cities that SB 840 (2025) covers, land zoned for office, commercial, retail, warehouse or mixed use must allow three or more homes, with no rezoning, variance or special use permit first.
• Dallas neighborhood overlays. Since 2018 Dallas has offered an accessory dwelling unit overlay, an extra set of zoning rules for one neighborhood, that starts with a petition signed by more than 50 percent of the owners in the area and then goes to City Plan Commission and City Council hearings. See the Dallas page.

If none of these routes fits, the rezoning goes to the zoning commission first, with mailed notice to owners within 200 feet, and then to the council. Section 211.003 of the Local Government Code is the source of the council's power to set density and land use, and HB 24 sets the vote it needs when owners protest.

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: Austin in the global multiplex zoning comparison and the Texas multiplex guide overview.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)