Texas Development Fees

Live Texas Jurisdictions

How Development Fees Work in Texas

Texas is a Dillon Rule state, but the legislature has granted broad fee authority to municipalities and certain counties through specific enabling statutes. The most important is Texas Local Government Code Chapter 395 (Impact Fees), which authorizes municipalities and certain counties to charge impact fees on new development to fund roadway, water, and wastewater capital improvements. Chapter 395 establishes a uniform procedural framework: cities must adopt land use assumptions, a capital improvements plan, and a maximum fee per service unit (LUE - Land Use Equivalent) by ordinance after public hearings, with an Impact Fee Advisory Committee reviewing the program semi-annually.

A Texas impact fee is calculated by multiplying the city-adopted maximum fee per service unit by the project's service unit count, then by the city's adopted collection rate (which may be at or below the maximum). The fee is charged at plat approval or building permit issuance, depending on the city's ordinance. Service areas are geographically defined; the same project may face different per-LUE amounts depending on which roadway service area or utility service area it sits in. Cities are required to update their Roadway Impact Fee Study and Water/Wastewater Impact Fee Study at least every five years.

Beyond impact fees, Texas cities charge zoning and development application fees from a city-adopted fee schedule: rezoning, special use permits, variances, planned unit development amendments, platting (preliminary, final, replat), site plan review, civil engineering review, traffic impact analysis review, and zoning verification fees. These are set by each city's adopted Master Fee Schedule or Development Services Fee Schedule and are subject to periodic council update. They cover the cost of staff review rather than infrastructure capacity.

Cities also charge utility tap fees and meter fees for new water and wastewater connections. These differ from impact fees: tap fees recover the cost of physically connecting a service line and installing a meter, while impact fees recover the cost of off-site capacity. Some Texas cities additionally charge a capital recovery fee or buy-in fee, especially in fast-growth suburbs where existing infrastructure has been expanded primarily for new growth. Special-purpose districts (Municipal Utility Districts, Water Control and Improvement Districts) may layer additional fees on top of city fees within their boundaries.

Texas Statutory Anchors

• TLGC Chapter 395 - Impact Fees. Authorizes municipal and county impact fees for roadway, water, and wastewater. Establishes procedural requirements (public hearings, advisory committee, semi-annual reports, five-year study refresh). (statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LG/htm/LG.395.htm)
• TLGC Chapter 211 - Municipal Zoning Authority. Authorizes municipal zoning ordinances and the application/permit fees adopted under them. (statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LG/htm/LG.211.htm)
• TLGC Chapter 212 - Municipal Subdivision Regulation. Authorizes platting, subdivision review, and associated fees. (statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LG/htm/LG.212.htm)
• TLGC Chapter 214 - Municipal Regulation of Housing and Other Structures. Authorizes building permit, inspection, and related fees. (statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LG/htm/LG.214.htm)
• Texas Water Code Chapter 49 - Provisions Applicable to Districts. Authorizes Municipal Utility Districts and Water Control and Improvement Districts to levy fees within their boundaries. (statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/WA/htm/WA.49.htm)

Coverage Detail by Jurisdiction

What This Coverage Includes

ZoneFee currently has 38 Texas jurisdictions live across the Central Texas / I-35 corridor, the DFW Metroplex, the South Texas / I-35 corridor, the Tarrant County region, the East Texas hub, the Houston metro southeast and Bay Area, the West Texas / Permian Basin, and the Brazos Valley. The Central Texas group covers the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown MSA (Austin, Georgetown, Leander, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Pflugerville, Hutto, Buda, Kyle, San Marcos, New Braunfels, and the county-level records at Hays County, Williamson County (the north Austin-metro county), and Travis County (the Austin metro core county)). The DFW group covers the City of Dallas (Dallas County) plus Collin and Denton counties (Frisco, Denton, McKinney, and Celina, the fast-growing DFW-north city on the Collin/Denton line above Prosper), Tarrant County (Fort Worth), the tri-county DFW north suburb of Carrollton (Dallas/Denton/Collin), Lewisville (Denton County, on the I-35E corridor between Dallas and Denton), the Town of Flower Mound (Denton County, on the SH 121 / FM 2499 corridor near Lake Grapevine), and Mansfield (southeast Tarrant County, with portions in Johnson and Ellis Counties, on the US-287 / SH 360 corridor). The South Texas group adds the City of San Antonio (Bexar County). The East Texas group adds Tyler (Smith County seat). The Houston metro adds Pearland (Brazoria/Fort Bend/Harris) and League City (Galveston, with Harris overlap; the largest city in Galveston County). The West Texas / Permian Basin group adds Midland (Midland County seat) and Odessa (Ector County seat). The Brazos Valley group adds College Station (Brazos County), and the Greater Houston group adds Conroe (Montgomery County seat, on the I-45 / Lake Conroe corridor) and Sugar Land (Fort Bend County, a master-planned MUD-developed city on the US-59/I-69 and Grand Parkway SH 99 corridor), and the Gulf Coast group adds Galveston (Galveston County seat, a barrier-island city in the Houston MSA that administers a TLGC Chapter 395 impact fee program adopted at a $0.00 collection rate). A new Far West Texas group adds El Paso (El Paso County seat, a US-Mexico border city on the Rio Grande whose City has not adopted a Chapter 395 impact fee program and whose water and wastewater connection charges are administered separately by El Paso Water). Each jurisdiction page is published under ZoneFee's Partial-Verified Publication Standard with at least one development-fee family confirmed verbatim from an official primary source (city ordinance, codified municipal code, adopted fee schedule, or fee-study PDF) with SHA-256 source hashes recorded. Authority pages for separate water and wastewater utilities (Austin Water, SAWS, Travis County WCID 17, and others) are published or queued as separate authority records.

Researching Texas Fees: What to Expect

Looking up Texas development fees typically requires consulting four document types per jurisdiction: (1) the city's adopted Master Fee Schedule or Development Services Fee Schedule (for application, platting, site plan, and permit fees); (2) the city's Roadway Impact Fee Study and Water/Wastewater Impact Fee Study (for impact fee maximums and adopted collection rates); (3) the codified impact fee ordinance chapter (typically Chapter 395-equivalent in the city code, often at eCode360 or Municode); and (4) the city's utility department or Public Works tap fee schedule (for water, wastewater, and where applicable electric connection costs). For projects in Municipal Utility Districts or Water Control and Improvement Districts, the district's own rate order adds a fifth document. ZoneFee jurisdiction pages bring these together into one record per covered city, with verbatim source quotes and direct .gov links.

Texas Development Fees - Frequently Asked Questions

What Texas Coverage Is Not Yet on ZoneFee

Texas coverage is expanding. The 24 jurisdictions named above are currently live; additional Central Texas, DFW, South Texas, East Texas, and Houston-area jurisdictions are queued in our expansion plan but have not yet reached ZoneFee's verification standard. We do not list pending jurisdiction names on this page; transparency on what is and is not yet covered lives on the ZoneFee coverage page. If your project is in a Texas jurisdiction we have not yet covered, the city's own Development Services or Planning and Zoning department remains the binding source for current fees, with the impact fee study published on the city's Engineering or Public Works section.

Texas Sources Used on This Page

• Texas Local Government Code Chapter 395 - Impact Fees. Accessed 2026-04-27.
• TLGC Chapter 211 - Municipal Zoning Authority. Accessed 2026-04-27.
• TLGC Chapter 212 - Municipal Subdivision Regulation. Accessed 2026-04-27.
• TLGC Chapter 214 - Municipal Regulation of Housing and Other Structures. Accessed 2026-04-27.
• Texas Water Code Chapter 49 - Provisions Applicable to Districts. Accessed 2026-04-27.

State-level framework last reviewed: 2026-04-27. Live jurisdiction record verification dates range from 2026-03-27 (Georgetown) through 2026-05-09 (San Antonio); per-jurisdiction last-verified dates are shown on each page. For the full ZoneFee coverage list, see the ZoneFee coverage page.