This Thursday, March 27, 2025, two bills—HB 24 (the “anti-notice” bill) and (“Church Displacement” bill)—will be heard in the House Land & Resource Management Committee room E.2026 at 8 AM. These bills would allow the city to upzone your property without telling you and allow Mixed-use and Multifamily development on religious properties without requiring a zoning change.
Please take 10 minutes before Thursday at 11 AM to either: ✅ Call committee members to voice opposition (sample script & numbers below); OR ✅ Submit a quick public comment online for each bill (instructions below).
OR do both if you have time.
The Bills at a Glance
📌 HB 24 will allow the city to upzone your zoning citywide without telling you in advance and require 60% for a valid petition against inappropriate rezoning – tripling the current requirement. It also gives community members only 60 days to file a lawsuit against illegal city-initiated upzoning – way out of line with the standard two-year time frame. 📌 HB 3172 allows developers to bypass zoning by building apartments or mixed use projects on religious land. This will incentivize the replacement of churches nestled in the middle of neighborhoods with commercial structures. Adding injury to insult the bill would loosen or eliminate standards that promote compatibility with surrounding homes, such as no limit on building coverage of the lot. The developments would likely not pay property taxes, and the definition of what qualifies as religious land is open to abuse.
Our local Representative Gina Hinojosa is on this committee – you can reach out to her by email or calling her office at (512) 463-0668.
Let the legislature know people don’t want to be “in the dark” about changes affecting their homes.
☎️ Quick Call Script for L&RM Committee Members
📞 “Hi, my name is [Your Name]. I am a supporter of stable family-friendly neighborhoods. I strongly oppose HB 24 and HB 3172, which would negatively impact our neighborhoods and violate our property rights. I urge the representative to vote NO on both bills.”
Committee Members to Call:
- Chairman Gary Gates – (512) 463-0657
- Vice Chair Suleman Lalani – (512) 463-0596
- Daniel Alders – (512) 463-0584
- Yvonne Davis – (512) 463-0598
- Gina Hinojosa – (512) 463-0668
- odd Hunter – (512) 463-0672
- Ray Lopez – (512) 463-0669
- Matt Morgan – (512) 463-0710
- Wes Virdell – (512) 463-0536
✍️ How to Submit Written Comments
- Go to this link: https://comments.house.texas.gov/home?c=c360
- Find the bills at the bottom of the page.
- Select HB 24 and HB 3172, enter your contact information, and submit your opposition.
Sample Comments for HB 24 (“Anti-notice Bill”)
“I oppose HB 24 because it allows cities to upzone homes city-wide without individual notice to the homeowners and residents. I also oppose raising the requirement for state-granted petition rights against inappropriate zoning from 20 to 60%. Finally, this bill would handicap the community from challenging improper city-initiated upzoning in court by requiring such a lawsuit to be filed within 60 days of the effective date of the change – an unreasonable limitation way out of step with current law.
Sample Comments for HB 3172 (“Commercialization of Religious Land Bill”)
“I oppose HB 3172 because it allows large mixed use and apartment developments on religious land with only 5-foot setbacks, no building cover limits, and no zoning oversight in the middle of single-family neighborhoods. This would incentivize developers to take advantage of the community and bypass zoning, leading to overcrowded streets and incompatible development in the middle of family neighborhoods. This bill is ripe for abuse and will turn land intended for sacred spaces into commercial zones.”