Please please read about this before repeating it. They have most of the nonsense in zoning, just written differently.

Do they really? You can just build a factory in your back yard and pursue the American Dream? Or do they still effectively have zoning laws?

While Houston technically doesn't have zoning they do have defacto zoning laws that look like other city zoning just more broken up.

Deed restrictions, density restrictions, lot size restrictions, buffering ordinances, tax incremental investment zones, history preservations, airport zoning, neighborhood petitioning, etc.

That's not true though. They have the same rules, they just call them ordinances.