While Houston doesn't have zoning use restrictions, apparently many neighborhoods have private land covenants that restrict redevelopment: https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/2020/01/09/no-zoning-in-Ho... So in practice large projects usually will only occur in less wealthy neighborhoods where residents aren't savvy enough to enforce restrictions, and patterns of development end up looking pretty much like most of California. I'm sure it's still much cheaper to build in Texas, though, because the real costs in California aren't the restrictions, per se, but the uncertainty and time delays. Time is the real budget killer, and a silent one that helps to hide the externalities that policies create.

California has a lot of land, too, and more habitable then texas imo.

People don't want sprawl. The live in sf because it's a city with an urban center. It's why, despite hours of traffic, people live in sf instead of mountain view, cupertino, etc. It REQUIRES densification. Sprawl will not meet this demand.