Dave Garrett wrote:
In article ,
says...

You mention Houston. A former poster, Heybub, lived in Houston (Harris
County) and implied there were no local building codes. You might see
a strip joint, bar and church built in close proximity to each other.

There is no zoning in Houston, so you can indeed have an odd mixture of
commercial buildings in close proximity to residential areas and vice
versa. There have been several initiatives to implement zoning, but
every time a referendum has been held, the pro-zoning forces have failed
to muster enough votes to make it happen.

There are local building codes, but building codes are not the same
thing as zoning.

Exactly. The building/electrical/plumbing inspectors have been all over the place making sure that
all repairs meet the current building codes.