Building permits, zoning and land rules in Tom Green County, Texas

Unincorporated Tom Green County appears not to require a county building permit for an ordinary single-family home, cabin, barn or shop. The county's published regulations list subdivision platting, on-site sewage (OSSF), roads and drainage, and floodplain development as its areas of authority, and we found no county building-permit rule or procedure¹. Because no official county page states this outright, confirm with Tom Green County Environmental Health before you design around it⁶. Three county permits can still apply to a given parcel: an OSSF permit if you need septic, a floodplain development permit if you are in a regulated, mapped floodplain, and a driveway or road-cut permit if you access a county road^5,6,7. Inside the incorporated City of San Angelo the picture is different: the city has its own zoning and has adopted the 2021 International Building and Residential Codes and administers its own zoning through a Zoning Board of Adjustment, so land inside city limits follows city rules, while septic permits outside city limits still come from the county^3,4,6.

For septic and floodplain permits, contact Tom Green County Environmental Health at the Edd B. Keyes Building, 1st Floor, 113 W Beauregard Ave, San Angelo, Texas 76903, 325-658-1038⁶. For a driveway access or county road-cut permit, the application goes to your precinct commissioner for a site visit, and the completed, approved permit and payment are then turned in to the Tom Green County Clerk's Real Estate Section^7,8. Subdivision plats and manufactured-home-rental-community Infrastructure Development Plans also go through that same Real Estate Section process before Commissioners Court approval and filing^8,12. If your land instead sits within the City of San Angelo's extraterritorial jurisdiction under its annexation plan, the county directs applicants to file with the City of San Angelo Planning Department instead¹³.

Unincorporated Tom Green County has no county zoning ordinance, so the county sets no zoning district, minimum dwelling size, zoning setback, lot-coverage limit or building-height limit². Texas counties have no general zoning power over unincorporated land². The City of San Angelo administers its own zoning ordinance inside city limits³. Subdivision rules still set lot sizes in unincorporated Tom Green County: lots need at least a half acre with public water and at least 1 acre without public water¹.

Off-grid sanitation is allowed through an on-site sewage facility in Tom Green County's OSSF jurisdiction, but Environmental Health must permit and inspect the system before issuing a permit to operate⁵. The county's jurisdiction excludes incorporated cities and areas already regulated under an existing rule⁶. Tom Green County does not exempt properties of 10 acres or more from OSSF permitting, so tract size does not remove the local permit and inspection requirement⁵. Soils make early planning worthwhile: only 5% of county soils are free of severe limits for a conventional drain field, so arrange the site evaluation before settling on a homesite or house plan¹¹.

On an individual parcel in unincorporated Tom Green County, the county has no zoning ordinance that restricts temporary camping or tiny-home occupancy or sets a minimum dwelling size². Sanitation is separate: an off-grid OSSF still needs a county permit and inspection, and tracts of 10 acres or more receive no local exemption⁵. RV parks and manufactured-home rental communities follow a different path, including a Commissioners-Court-approved Infrastructure Development Plan before construction and a county Certificate of Compliance before utilities connect^9,10. A development in the City of San Angelo annexation-plan portion of the ETJ instead files with the city Planning Department¹³.

First, check FEMA flood maps; development in a regulated, mapped floodplain needs a permit through Environmental Health⁶. Second, confirm the tract was lawfully divided. The agricultural plat exception applies when land is primarily for agricultural use and the daughter tract is greater than 100 acres; septic, floodplain, road, access, and health rules can still apply¹. Third, arrange a septic site evaluation, since only 5% of county soils are free of severe limits for a conventional drain field, then apply to Environmental Health for the required OSSF permit^5,6,11. Fourth, handle county-road access through the precinct commissioner or state-highway access through TxDOT^7,14. Finally, build: we found no county building-permit review for an ordinary home outside these permit categories, so confirm that with Environmental Health first^1,6.

Check the water plan before buying: in a regulated subdivision, the minimum lot is a half acre with public water and 1 acre without it¹. Annual precipitation is about 22.6 inches, and severe drought occurs in 18.3% of years¹¹. Only 5% of county soils are free of severe limits for a conventional septic drain field, so make an acceptable OSSF site part of the purchase decision¹¹. Check flood maps and legal access, and verify that any recent land division was properly platted or qualifies for a specific exception^1,6. Typical effective property tax is about 1.4%, with a median annual bill near $2,523¹¹.