Cutting a Driveway or Building in the Floodplain in Comal County

People moving onto Hill Country acreage in Comal County often assume that with no zoning out here they can do as they please. Mostly true, but the moment your project touches a county road or a floodplain, the County Engineer's Office at 195 David Jonas Drive gets a say. Two permits trip up newcomers more than any others.

The first is the driveway permit. Anytime you cut a new driveway, widen an old one, or even do landscaping inside the public right-of-way, that strip of county land between your fence and the road, you need a Private Improvement within the Public Right-of-Way permit, which everyone shortens to PIPROW. The county wants the connection built so it drains right and doesn't dump water onto the road.

The second is floodplain work. If your septic plan (an OSSF permit) lands inside the regulatory floodplain, a Floodplain Development Permit rides along with it. And if you're building near a creek or the Guadalupe with no septic in the picture, the Engineer's Office still issues a floodplain determination so you know before you pour a slab whether the high-water line runs through your build site. The office takes questions at 830-608-2090, and asking before you dig is a lot cheaper than moving a foundation that ends up in the floodway.