Google gave me the following for "Corpus Christi, TX ordinances":
http://www.cctexas.com/?fuseaction=main.view&page=563
Might search through there.
My city has theirs online as well, and as I remembered from way back when they ban wind turbines as well. The ordinance doesn't come right out and say so, but the way it reads implies the concern was - as you mention - a turbine on a tower tall enough to "properly" work is GOING to fall on a neighbor's house / property if it were to fall thanks to the small lots we have.
Of course, the law was written back in the early '80s when turbines were generally larger, noisier, and less efficient. I decided I'd go ahead and put up my tiny, quiet Air Breeze since I was going to keep it low enough behind the house (about 18 feet high right now) to not be seen from the street. (Besides, with all my ham antennas who's going to really notice?!) I knew I would never get it high enough to get clear wind - thanks to the hill I'm right on the north side of, I'd require a good 60-70 feet just to get to the tops of the trees. No way I'm putting a 100 foot tower in this yard!
So hopefully (and so far) no one cares or notices. If they do say something, I may try talking to someone to modify the ordinance so it reads something like "must fall within your property line" or such. The neighboring town has an ordinance worded like that, so perhaps they'd go for it. Of course, blade failure would be an issue - that's still got a chance of hitting a neighboring house...
I can't say for your particular situation, of course, but you may be disappointed in what kind of performance you can get from 10 feet high. I thought I had pretty decent wind - just lower in strength than I would have at the top of the hill - but have found that while it's strong enough to spin the turbine, it's often just turbulent enough to keep it oscillating around a bit which causes it to repeatedly stall out. Might not really matter for a VAWT.
On occasion I'll get a wind that is relatively straight and clean (pretty much limited to a north wind for me) and the turbine cranks right a long. But everything else is quite stop-and-go. But that's okay - it's still more fun to watch than the solar panels, even though they beat it by an order of magnitude for production! 
