It’s also functionality illegal to build anything but single family homes in most of the Bay Area and it’s now out of places to do that. Houston does have more space, but also doesn’t prevent you from building a duplex on your own land.
Pretty much all of the HOAs that are de facto zoning boards of the Houston area would most definitely prevent you from doing anything like that. HOA by-laws are where you'll find the real zoning regulations over there.
You mean trying to violate the deed restriction with compliance mandated by Section 26-475 (and other applicable places) of the Houston Code of Ordinances? I don't think a lawsuit would hold up very well, unless you could could convince the judge that the city can't regulate land use.
