No, you do have to remove the filter housing. It makes the front cover too "deep" from back to front, and you can't remove it. If you had the subframe dropped, it will work that way. But I just spent $100 to get the car aligned, and I didn't want to drop the cradle.
Just remove belts, coolant bottle, water pump pulley, the coil pack bracket and then there's like 8 bolts that hold the cover on.