A new state law bars Texas cities from banning manufactured homes outright, but The Woodlands' unusual governance structure likely puts the community outside its reach.
Senate Bill 785 took effect Tuesday, Sept. 1. It requires every municipality with zoning regulations to allow new federally certified manufactured homes by right in at least one residential zoning district. The Texas Manufactured Housing Association (TMHA) estimates nearly 400 cities will need to update their codes to comply.
The Woodlands, however, is not a municipality. As an unincorporated community governed by a township board and Montgomery County, it has no zoning ordinances. Instead, private deed restrictions known as covenants control what residents can build and where.
Those covenants predate the law's cutoff for protected deed restrictions. The TMHA's resource center states that private deed restrictions established before Jan. 2, 2025, are exempt. The law also specifies that communities without zoning, such as Houston and Horseshoe Bay, can continue enforcing private deed restrictions.
The Woodlands Township took over covenant management in 2010 from the original community associations. Kim McKenna, director of covenant administration, oversees permitting and compliance for roughly 120,000 residents and 2,100 commercial businesses. The township's existing covenants prohibit trailers, trailer homes and mobile homes from being parked 48 consecutive hours or more on any street or lot visible from the street, according to the township's FAQ page.
Whether those parking-focused restrictions would separately address permanent placement of a new manufactured home as a dwelling is not clear from the publicly available covenant language. The township has not issued a public statement on SB 785.
What SB 785 requires statewide
"The direct answer that I give is, it just means that cities can't ban manufactured housing entirely," DJ Pendleton, executive director of TMHA, told FOX 26 Houston on Wednesday, Sept. 9.
The law covers only new homes built to federal standards set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Used manufactured homes and pre-1976 mobile homes are not included.
Cities cannot require a special-use permit for a new HUD-code home if other homes in the same zoning district do not need one. An application is considered approved unless the city denies it in writing within 45 days.
Before the law passed, the National Zoning Atlas examined 579 Texas municipalities and found 255 would need to take some action. That included 190 cities that did not expressly allow manufactured housing and 65 that required a special permit.
Sen. Pete Flores authored the bill with co-author Sen. Paul Bettencourt, who represents The Woodlands area. Reps. Ryan Guillen and Janie Lopez sponsored it in the House.
Nearby cities adjusting
League City updated its ordinance before Tuesday, Sept. 1, according to FOX 26, allowing new HUD-code homes by right in its RSF-2 residential district. Pearland told FOX 26 its existing zoning already complied, though it requires a minimum three-acre lot in its manufactured-home district. Pearland had received no applications under the new law as of Wednesday, Sept. 9.
Pendleton called large lot requirements a form of "creative compliance" that raises costs for buyers. A new single-section manufactured home averaged $87,300 in 2025, while a multisection home averaged $151,500, according to Realtor.com. Those figures exclude land and taxes.
No Woodlands Township Board meeting has a scheduled agenda item on SB 785. Residents with questions about covenant standards can contact the township's Covenant Administration Department through its 311 portal.
