The Woodlands Zoning Attorney

Find the right Zoning Planning & Land Use attorney in The Woodlands, TX

Zoning Planning & Land Use Law in Texas

The Woodlands, Texas has laws which control how individual parcels of land can be used, and how they cannot. These rules aren't always simple, and this article should serve as an introduction to some of the most frequent issues that homeowners might face, though it is not meant to turn a layperson into an expert.

Municipal governments which practice zoning usually follow a similar scheme: the town or city is divided up into "zones," or areas in which particular types of use are permitted. For example, the downtown area might be zoned for commercial and office use, and perhaps for large, multi-unit apartment buildings. The surrounding areas will usually be zoned for residential and small-scale commercial use, and the outskirts zoned for manufacturing and other heavy industry.

Zoning serves many different purposes - but it its main one is to increase or preserve property values by ensuring that conflicting uses don't result in legal disputes. Obviously, if you bought a house in a residential neighborhood, and your neighbor could simply convert his property into a steel mill, your property's value as a residential lot would decrease substantially.

Zoning laws typically acknowledge the necessities of things like factories, sewage treatment plants, and stockyards, but recognize that such activities shouldn't be conducted in residential areas.

Possible Outcomes of Boundary and Title Disputes in The Woodlands, Texas

Zoning laws are commonly quite extensive and meticulous, and it's extremely possible that your property in The Woodlands, Texas contains some minor zoning violation that you don't know about. If this happens to you, you have considerable legal protections.

The most apparent solution is to correct the problem, so your property is no longer in violation of local zoning laws. If the violation is minor, and correcting it would not be very costly, this is likely the best way to go.

What if, however, you've invested a considerable amount of time and money into making an improvement on your property, only to find that it violates your local zoning laws in some minor way? In this case, you can apply for a variance. This is basically an exception to the zoning rules. If declining to enforce these rules would not harm anyone, and would not do much to advance the purpose of The Woodlands, Texas's zoning laws, a variance will normally be granted.

Additionally, zoning ordinances cannot be applied against you retroactively. For example, suppose you built a 3-story house on your property, and your property was zoned to allow 3-story houses to be built at the time of construction. And then, years later, the area you live in is re-zoned, to only allow 2-story houses. Can the local government force you to remove a whole level of your house? Of course not. Applying a law retroactively is unconstitutional. On the other hand, any future changes you want to make to your property will have to comply with the applicable zoning ordinance as it is currently written.

What Can A The Woodlands, Texas Attorney Do?

If you are in the process of physically altering your property, you are almost certain to face some contentions having to do with local zoning laws. If you find that zoning laws are making it very hard to use your property as you see fit, you may have legal recourse, normally in the form of a variance. Of course, your chances of success in any zoning dispute will be immeasurably increased if you have the help of a qualified The Woodlands, Texas attorney.

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Life in The Woodlands

The Woodlands is a community located in Texas. It is within the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area. Per the 2010 census, its reported population is 93,847 people. Specifically, this area is located 32 miles north from Houston.

Top employers include Chevron Phillips, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Baker Hughs, CBI, Hewitt Associates, Maersk Line, and Safmarine.

The legal industry also has a presence in the area because many attorneys call The Woodlands home. Also, with the area being so near Houston, residents and local businesses have access to the top-tier law firms and excellent attorneys that practice in the Houston area.

Celebrities who have once called The Woodlands home include Torrie Wilsom, Laura Wilkinson, Peter Stroud, Nick Mitchell, Larry Izzo, Jack Ingram, Hayes Carll, Michael Glyn Brown and Lance Blanks.

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