Pearland, TX Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Downtown Design Guide (2026)

The Old Townsite District comprises three sub-districts, OT-GB (General Business), OT-R (Residential), and OT-MU (Mixed Use), each layering modified lot, yard, and height rules onto a base zoning district (General Business for OT-GB, the R-4 Single Family Dwelling District for OT-R). ' Subsection (c), Development Requirements, applies the same design rules to any project in the district regardless of sub-district. Drive-thru windows may not face the primary streetscape and cannot block pedestrian flow around adjacent buildings. New construction, or renovation exceeding 50% of an existing building's value, must bury its utilities.

Rear-facing buildings and loading docks are barred outright from street facades on seven named streets: Main, Broadway, Grand, Orange, Mykawa, Walnut, and Galveston. Non-residential facades facing a public street, park, plaza, or public space must be at least 15% transparent, with 25% of the ground-floor façade in storefront windows; residential buildings need at least 15% window coverage on their facades. Projecting elements such as awnings, canopies, balconies, colonnades, and arcades can extend into the public right-of-way with city approval, subject to minimum sidewalk clearances (8 feet under awnings, 10 feet under balconies and colonnades), and any element over a state road also needs Texas Department of Transportation sign-off.

Wood and hardy plank siding are allowed on facades here even though the base UDC restricts those materials elsewhere. Lots that predate the code's July 10, 2006 adoption date can still build at their original, narrower widths under the sub-district grandfather clauses. Where a project can't meet the transparency percentages, or wants uses like upper-floor residential or an institutional occupancy in OT-GB, the code channels that relief through a Conditional Use Permit reviewed by the city rather than allowing it by right.