Building permits, zoning and land rules in Maverick County, Texas

Unincorporated Maverick County does not enforce a general building code, so a typical single-family home, barn or shed does not need a county building permit³. Texas only lets a county require building permits in two narrow situations: a fire code for commercial buildings, public buildings and residential buildings of four or more units, available only to counties over 250,000 people or adjacent to one; and residential construction standards that a county must adopt by its own resolution or order before they take effect². Maverick County's population is about 57,762, well under the fire-code threshold¹. Maverick sits directly on the border with Mexico, which would satisfy the residential-standards distance test, but no resolution or order adopting those standards was found on the county's website, so they do not appear to be in force^2,3. The county's own site lists a Building Inspector and a Code Enforcement office^10,11; call the Building Inspector's office first if your project is commercial, multifamily, or otherwise unusual, since it is best placed to say whether anything applies to it.

Three Maverick County offices handle construction-related questions, and all three sit at the same downtown Eagle Pass address, 500 Quarry St., Eagle Pass, TX 78852^6,10,11. The Building Inspector's office is reached at 830-773-4377 or building.inspector@co.maverick.tx.us¹⁰. Code Enforcement, which handles nuisance and code-compliance complaints in the unincorporated county, is reached at 830-773-4669 or codeenforcer@co.maverick.tx.us¹¹. The Planning Department is reached at 830-773-4377 or planning@co.maverick.tx.us⁶. Call any of the three during normal weekday business hours before starting a project, since none of them publishes a fee schedule or an online permit application.

Unincorporated Maverick County has no county zoning ordinance³. Texas gives counties zoning power only in a short list of specific places named by statute, and Maverick County is not among them⁷. That means there is no county-level ordinance setting minimum lot sizes, use districts, or setbacks on unincorporated land here. Maverick County does list a Planning Department⁶, but its role is not published beyond a name and contact point on the county's site; call it directly at 830-773-4377 or planning@co.maverick.tx.us to ask about any subdivision platting rules before you buy⁶. None of this affects land inside Eagle Pass city limits: the City of Eagle Pass publishes a zoning locator for points in and around the city, so city zoning rules apply there and not on unincorporated land¹².

Maverick County is listed in TCEQ's authorized-agent reporting as a local agent for on-site sewage facilities (septic systems)⁴. A permit and approved plan are required before any septic system is constructed, installed, altered, extended or repaired⁸. TCEQ's regional office in Laredo is the permitting authority wherever no local jurisdiction is authorized, and TCEQ's report does not say whether the county agent's area is limited to unincorporated land, so confirm with the county office below that your parcel, including any inside Eagle Pass, falls in its area⁸. Reach that office at (830) 776-8027 or arodriguez1916@hotmail.com; TCEQ lists its permit-office location as 500 Quarry St, Eagle Pass, TX 78852¹³. Texas law does carve out a narrow 10-acre exemption: if a single-family home sits on 10 or more acres, a licensed site evaluator or engineer signs off, all parts of the system stay at least 100 feet from the property line, effluent stays on the property, and the home is the only dwelling on the tract, the system may be exempt from planning materials, a permit and inspections⁵. Inspections are part of the authorized agent's duties for permitted systems¹⁴. A listed emergency repair does not need a permit first, but it must be reported to the permitting authority in writing within 72 hours after repairs begin⁸. An owner may also install a system for a single-family home the owner owns, on property the owner owns and does not develop for sale or lease, if the permitting authority allows it and all of its requirements are met; ask the county office before planning a do-it-yourself system⁸.

Nothing found on Maverick County's official site or in the state rules on file settles whether you can live in an RV or place a tiny home on unincorporated land long-term³. Code Enforcement is the office that would act on any occupancy complaint on unincorporated land, and Planning would know of any subdivision deed restrictions^6,11. Call Code Enforcement at 830-773-4669 before you park an RV or place a tiny home long-term, and ask specifically about occupancy limits, utility hookups and any minimum-square-footage rule for a permanent dwelling¹¹.

1. Confirm your parcel is outside Eagle Pass city limits; the rules described here apply only to unincorporated Maverick County³.
2. Call the Building Inspector's office at 830-773-4377 to ask whether your specific project needs anything, since the county enforces no general building code but does keep this office¹⁰.
3. Call the Planning Department at 830-773-4377 or planning@co.maverick.tx.us to ask about platting or subdivision requirements before you buy⁶.
4. Apply for an OSSF (septic) permit through Maverick County's TCEQ-authorized agent at (830) 776-8027 before installing any septic system, unless your tract qualifies for the state's 10-acre exemption^8,13.
5. If your driveway will connect to a state highway, submit TxDOT Form 1058 to the local TxDOT district office and give TxDOT 24-hour notice before construction begins⁹.
6. If your access is instead a county road, contact the Road & Bridge Department at 830-757-1248 or rbsupervisor@co.maverick.tx.us¹⁵.
7. Confirm code-enforcement rules for RVs, tiny homes or temporary occupancy while you build by calling Code Enforcement at 830-773-4669¹¹.

Maverick County averages about 19.7 inches of precipitation a year, and the county has been in severe drought roughly 32.8% of years on record, so a private well or rainwater plan needs a real drought margin, not just an average¹. All of the county's land sits at 15% slope or less¹, and only about 3.6% is wooded¹, so most tracts are open, buildable ground rather than cleared-forest lots. No federal land sits inside the county¹. The nearest city of 100,000 or more people is about 89 miles away in a straight line; Eagle Pass itself is the county's own city and seat¹. Typical home insurance in the county runs about $1,449 a year¹, and the effective property tax rate is about 1.4%, with a median annual tax bill around $2,112¹. Farmland has traded at roughly $1,705 an acre and a typical home is valued around $222,798, for scale when comparing raw land to built parcels¹. Confirm flood risk, well-drilling rules and your specific parcel's road access before closing, since none of those are settled by county-wide averages.