Building in Unincorporated Travis County: Chapter 482 Rules

Chapter 482 is Travis County's rulebook for plats and land permits outside full city limits. It covers lot layout, roads, drainage, stormwater, water supply, and care for the land. It does more than one building permit, but it is not a full city code.

The first question is not just, 'Am I outside city limits?' A parcel may sit in a city's ETJ, the area just beyond those limits. A city and the county may split the review work there. Austin-area plats may also use a joint Title 30 process. Aquifer zones, floodplain, land use, and old plats can add more steps.

Ask Travis County Development Services which path covers the parcel before paying for a final plan. Bring the address or property ID and a short account of the project. That answer is safer than using one hard-surface limit across the whole county.