Oh, there's zoning in Texas - it's just not as onerous and restrictive as in a lot of other states. Less government here, ya know?
And here, even our HOAs aren't run by Nazis. They mostly do a good job. My neighbor runs the local association -- he's active in the NRA and the Tea Party. We have a blast on Earth Day when we fire up all kinds of motors, turn on all the lights and generally make a point to annoy the guy across the street who hails from Nashua, NH and whose car has that stupid COEXIST sticker next to his Obama 2012 sticker.