Meritage Homes' 147-Lot Harris County Replat Returns to Hearing

Houston’s Planning Commission has scheduled two replats for a public hearing at its Oct. 29, 2026 meeting, the only two items out of 94 on the agenda routed to “Replats requiring Public Hearings with Notification” instead of the routine consent agenda. In a city with no zoning, the plat process is the closest thing to a land-use record, and a public-hearing flag on a replat signals something about the application did not fit the consent lane.

The larger of the two is Meritage Homes’ replat of Mill Ridge Village Sec. 1, a 20.86-acre gated patio-home subdivision off Saathoff Drive, east of Mill Ridge Drive, in Harris County. The application, Case 2026-1485, first drew a public hearing date of Oct. 15, then was deferred, city records show, landing back on the Oct. 29 agenda as item 73 still flagged DEF1. The replat carves the tract, formerly Lot 1, Block 1 of Regency Green Place, into 147 lots, 15 reserves and seven blocks, with a roughly 79-lot second phase to follow.

The hearing exists because Meritage’s engineer, Bob Terry of McKim & Creed Inc., filed a Chapter 42 variance asking to end Regency Wood Drive in a cul-de-sac inside the subdivision rather than extend it as a through street. The filing argues a through street would cut the gated development in half and that an existing nearby intersection on Saathoff Drive already satisfies the city’s spacing rule. Under state law, if enough adjoining owners file a written protest before the hearing closes, the replat needs a three-fourths Commission vote instead of a simple majority to pass.

Why it matters

In Houston, a Chapter 42 variance is how a developer asks to deviate from the subdivision code, and a replat hearing is where a neighbor’s protest can raise the vote threshold. The deferral and return hearing put the cul-de-sac request in front of the Commission a second time. The record does not say who requested the deferral.

The numbers

• 147 lots, 15 reserves and 5.119 acres of restricted reserve on the 20.86-acre Mill Ridge Village Sec. 1 tract, Case 2026-1485.
• Case 2026-1569, Kafi Commons: a partial replat of two Greenwood Addition lots at 4710 W. Alabama St. into a single unrestricted reserve, filed by applicant JP Anders of Windrose on behalf of an undisclosed developer, with no variance requested.
• Public hearing Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, 2:30 p.m. CT, City Hall Annex, 900 Bagby St.

What’s next

Neither replat has been approved. State law requires the Commission to approve a plat that meets Chapter 42, but the Mill Ridge variance gives it room to attach conditions, or, if a qualifying protest is filed, to require a supermajority vote. A second deferral would push final action on either item past Oct. 29.

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