FENCE RULES – BASTROP (COUNTY), TEXAS

OVERVIEW

This page applies to residential fence work in unincorporated Bastrop County. Incorporated municipalities have their own rules. County development permitting continues in municipal extraterritorial jurisdictions, while subdivision review is divided under local agreements. Airport hazard zoning and property-specific conditions can add separate requirements.

Bastrop County has no general county zoning and does not issue building permits, but it administers a separate development-permit program for excavation, grading, walls and other development. It does not publish an ordinary front-, side- or rear-yard fence-height schedule or a general fence-material list. Drainage easements, shared flag-lot access, public roads, floodways and Houston toad habitat conditions can be more consequential than ordinary yard dimensions. Wood, vinyl/PVC and chain-link have no published ordinary county material-specific standard. Pool use, animal containment and private restrictions require separate attention. Updated November 2026.

Quick question	Bastrop County answer
Permit or approval	The County does not issue building permits and does not publish a separate ordinary residential fence-permit requirement or exemption. Its separate development-permit program covers excavation, grading, walls and other development. Drainage, floodway, roadway, habitat and other project conditions can add requirements.
Typical fence height	No ordinary countywide front-, side- or rear-yard fence-height schedule is published. The mapped Austin Executive Airport hazard area has separate elevation and aviation-safety restrictions.
Placement & property lines	No general numeric fence-to-property-line setback is published. Keep restricted drainage easements, shared flag-lot access and public roads clear; recorded plats, easements and floodway conditions can control placement.
Common fence materials	Wood: no ordinary county material-specific standard is published. Vinyl/PVC: not specifically addressed. Chain-link: no ordinary county material-specific standard is published. Pool, animal, habitat and private restrictions can affect the design.
Important local conditions	Fence rules may be further affected by drainage easements, shared flag-lot access, recorded subdivision conditions, floodplains and floodways, Pine Forest drainage requirements, public roads, airport hazard zoning, Lost Pines habitat-conservation participation, pools, animal containment, utilities, pipelines and private restrictions.
Official local resource	Bastrop County Development Services

The table above is for quick reference. Additional fence-rule details appear in the corresponding sections below. Before purchasing materials or beginning construction, read the sections that apply to the property, review the linked official sources, and confirm site-specific questions with Bastrop County Development Services or the responsible office identified for that issue.

GOVERNANCE

The Bastrop County Commissioners Court adopts county regulations within its statutory authority. Bastrop County does not administer general zoning in its unincorporated territory. A mapped area near Austin Executive Airport is subject to separately adopted airport hazard zoning under Local Government Code Chapter 241.

Bastrop County Development Services administers the county development-permit program. Engineering & Development and the Floodplain Administrator handle engineering, drainage and floodplain matters. Planning & Platting handles county subdivision review. The County’s Planning & Platting regulations, interlocal agreements and jurisdiction map distinguish subdivision-review responsibility from development and wastewater permitting.

Municipal extraterritorial jurisdictions: The agreements allocate subdivision and related functions. County development permitting continues in the mapped extraterritorial areas. The principal subdivision allocations are:

• Austin: Austin reviews subdivisions in its extraterritorial jurisdiction. A subdivision crossing the boundary follows the agreement’s majority-land rule. The agreement’s subdivision definition excludes site-plan regulation.

• Bastrop: The 2023 agreement generally assigns subdivision applications and plat approval in statutory Area S to the City, and voluntary Area V to the County. Area V development within the specified City water/wastewater certificate or wholesale-agreement circumstances follows the Area S process. Responsibilities also differ for public and private roads. Special-district and development-agreement provisions can change the allocation.

• Elgin: The City handles statutory-extraterritorial subdivisions, subdivisions wholly within its voluntary extraterritorial area, and the agreement’s majority-within voluntary-area branch. The County handles the corresponding majority-outside voluntary-area branch. Special-district and development-agreement exceptions remain applicable.

• Smithville, Mustang Ridge and Webberville: The County generally handles subdivision and development review in their extraterritorial areas, subject to the agreements’ special-district and development-agreement exceptions.

Other responsibilities: The applicable road authority controls public-road and right-of-way work; the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) controls state-highway right-of-way matters. Animal Control administers county animal requirements. Lost Pines Habitat Conservation Plan administration handles participation in that program. The airport regulations assign administration to the administrative agency for the relevant political subdivision and provide for the applicable Board of Adjustment. Private associations and easement holders have separate roles under their documents and Texas law.

PERMIT AND APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS

• Building permits: Bastrop County does not issue building permits or certificates of occupancy. It does not publish a separate ordinary residential fence-permit requirement or fence-permit exemption.

• Development permits: The Bastrop County Flood Damage Prevention Order establishes a separate development-permit program for unincorporated territory. Development includes excavation, grading, walls and retaining walls, and activities that change the direction, height or velocity of flood or surface water. Fence work involving these covered activities requires a development permit before work begins.

• Permit classifications: A Class A permit covers development on property wholly outside the floodplain. A Conditional Class A permit covers development outside the floodplain on property that contains floodplain. A Class B permit covers development partly or wholly within the floodplain. The proposed work’s location and the property’s floodplain status both matter.

• Application documents: The County requires ownership evidence, a survey or recorded subdivision plat, and a dimensioned site plan showing proposed improvements and existing buildings or structures. Additional project information may be required. Its application requires a recorded easement release when construction extends onto or across an easement. The published fee schedule has no separate ordinary fence category.

• Permit duration: County development permits expire if construction is not completed within three years after issuance. A one-time 180-day development or driveway extension may be granted if requested 30 days before expiration.

• Pine Forest subdivisions: For single-family residential development in these subdivisions, the County requires pre-development and post-development drainage exhibits signed and sealed by a registered professional engineer.

• County residential-construction program: The County adopted the Local Government Code Chapter 233 program in 2009. It concerns a new single-family house or duplex on a vacant lot, or a qualifying addition increasing square footage or value by more than 50 percent. For covered construction, the statutory choices are the International Residential Code published as of May 1, 2008 (the 2006 edition), or the version applicable in the county seat. The builder arranges the required residential inspections. A standalone existing-lot fence has no published county house-inspection requirement.

• Additional project approvals: Floodway encroachments, work in public rights-of-way, airport nonconforming structures or hazards, and habitat-conservation participation have the separate conditions described below. Utility notice, easement consent and private architectural approval are separate from County development approval.

FENCE PLACEMENT RULES

• Property boundaries: The County does not publish one general numeric fence-to-property-line setback. Confirm the legal boundary and recorded restrictions before locating posts. An existing fence, ditch, mowing line, pavement edge or GIS parcel line may differ from the legal boundary, easement or right-of-way.

• Subdivision drainage easements: Subdivision Regulations Section V.4(b) requires plat restrictions keeping drainage easements clear of fences, buildings, planting and other obstructions that affect water flow or drainage-facility operation and maintenance. Open-channel easements must be at least 25 feet wide or sized to accommodate the 100-year floodplain. County employees have access to drainage easements. The applicable easement and plat determine the affected area.

• Shared flag-lot access: Section VII.3(e)(2) prohibits fences, walls and other obstructions within a Joint Use Access Agreement area. The associated roadway must be at least 18 feet wide, with a minimum six-foot clear zone on each side of the pavement.

• Existing subdivisions and recorded plats: Previously approved subdivisions generally follow the requirements in effect at approval; revised plats follow the current regulations. A recorded plat can preserve drainage, access and other continuing conditions affecting an existing residential lot.

• Public roads and rights-of-way: Public roads must remain clear of obstructions under Transportation Code Section 251.008. A legal right-of-way can extend beyond the pavement or ditch. County roadway, driveway and utility-work approvals concern their particular work; state-highway right-of-way work has its own TxDOT requirements. The County publishes no universal fence setback measured from the visible pavement edge.

• Drainage and floodways: Fence bases, masonry walls, grading and accumulated debris must be considered for their effect on water movement. The flood order prohibits adverse effects on other properties through increased flood stages, velocity, flows, erosion or sedimentation unless mitigated. Water Code Section 11.086 separately prohibits damaging overflow caused by diversion or impoundment of natural surface water, subject to its statutory qualifications.

• Regulatory floodways: Encroachments, including fill and other development, are prohibited unless the required hydrologic and hydraulic analysis demonstrates no increase in flood levels during the base flood. A Texas professional engineer must provide the required no-rise certificate. The order also contains a separate process for encroachments involving the federal flood-map-revision requirements.

• Continuing agricultural use in floodplains: The flood order exempts continual agricultural use, but requires permits for specified changes affecting waterways, floodplain conveyance or storage, erosion or flood levels, and for listed construction, grading and excavation activities.

• Joint or attached fence removal: Agriculture Code Sections 143.121–143.123 restrict removal of a dividing fence in which the removing person is a joint owner, or a fence attached to one owned or controlled by another person, except by mutual consent or the statutory process. A person owning an interest in a fence attached to a fence owned wholly or partly by another person may disconnect and withdraw their attached fence after giving six months’ written notice of the intended separation. Separately, an owner whose fence is wholly on that owner’s land may require the owner of an attached fence to disconnect and withdraw it after six months’ written notice. Each notice must be given to the owner of the attached fence or that person’s agent, attorney or lessee.

• Pipeline easements: Health and Safety Code Sections 756.121–756.123 require operator notice for covered construction on, across, over or under a pipeline easement or right-of-way. Work must satisfy the operator’s no-increased-risk determination; payment of the reasonable, necessary and documented protective-work costs before proceeding if increased risk is determined; an existing written agreement; or the specified prompt disaster-response work by a regulated utility. Contrary written agreements and other statutory exceptions can affect applicability. An 811 request does not replace this process.

• Before digging posts: Request a Texas811 locate, wait the applicable lawful period, check ticket responses and site markings, resolve missing or conflicting information through the ticket process, protect markings and excavate carefully. Utilities Code Chapter 251 generally covers powered or mechanized digging, including augering, 16 inches or deeper. Ordinary notice is at least 48 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, and no earlier than 14 days before work. A statutory Saturday-notice branch affects the lawful start time; follow the actual ticket. Railroad Commission pipeline rules separately can cover manual digging beyond 16 inches and have their own response, careful-excavation and record duties, a default 14-working-day ticket life and refresh requirements for unfinished work. A longer ticket life requires the prescribed signed, dated written agreement between excavator and operator. Required pipeline records generally must be retained for four years. Private irrigation, pool and other customer-owned lines may require separate locating.

FENCE HEIGHT AND VISIBILITY RULES

• Ordinary residential yards: Bastrop County does not publish a countywide front-, side- or rear-yard fence-height schedule, a fence-specific height-measurement method, or a countywide fence sight-triangle dimension.

• Austin Executive Airport hazard area: The adopted Austin Executive Airport hazard regulations and maps govern a limited mapped area. Their height datum is mean-sea-level elevation. The regulations establish approach, conical, horizontal and transitional height surfaces. Land uses must avoid electrical interference, misleading lights, glare, impaired airport visibility and other aviation hazards. Where airport zones overlap, the more restrictive height limitation applies.

• Mapped airport elevation limits: The horizontal surface is 770 feet above mean sea level, or 150 feet above the established airport elevation. The conical surface rises at 20 horizontal feet for each vertical foot over 4,000 horizontal feet to 970 feet above mean sea level. The approach surface rises at 40 horizontal feet for each vertical foot from the primary surface for 50,000 feet; transitional surfaces use a seven-to-one horizontal-to-vertical slope. The adopted maps and the site’s ground elevation determine the applicable limit.

• Airport approvals: Replacing, rebuilding, substantially changing or repairing a nonconforming structure requires a permit from the administrative agency with jurisdiction. A permit may not establish an airport hazard, allow a nonconforming structure to exceed its original height, or allow it to become a greater hazard to air navigation than it was when the regulations were adopted. A proposal exceeding the applicable height surface or creating the described hazardous use requires a variance through the applicable Board of Adjustment, accompanied by the required Federal Aviation Administration determination. A variance requires findings that literal application or enforcement would cause practical difficulty or unnecessary hardship, and that relief would produce substantial justice, would not be contrary to the public interest, and would accord with the spirit of the regulations. The regulations generally preserve existing nonconforming structures, including phases of a multiphase structure begun before effectiveness and diligently prosecuted. Permit or variance conditions can require hazard marking, lighting or other reasonable protections.

MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION LIMITS

• Wood, Vinyl/PVC and Chain-link: Bastrop County does not publish an ordinary residential material-specific standard for wood or chain-link; vinyl/PVC is not specifically addressed. No ordinary countywide material list, finished-side requirement or opacity standard is published. The County does not publish ordinary residential fence-material standards specifically addressing barbed wire, razor wire or electric fencing. Pool use, habitat conditions, animal containment and private restrictions can impose different design requirements.

• Walls and retaining walls: These are expressly included in the flood order’s development provisions. Their excavation, foundations and effect on water movement require the development and drainage treatment described above.

• Lost Pines habitat-conservation participation: The Lost Pines Habitat Conservation Plan and participation guidelines provide a voluntary route to incidental-take coverage for the endangered Houston toad. Participating properties must follow the applicable certificate, management plan, conservation easement and land-use guidelines. These conditions apply within the program’s scope.

• Low-density conservation subdivisions: Appendix C Section 3.1 allows conservation-area fences that do not impede Houston toad movement. Only hand clearing is allowed for fence construction outside the development-use area.

• Clustered conservation subdivisions: Appendix C Section 3.2 requires subdivision applicants to fence primary habitat areas within the conservation area to limit human access, while allowing Houston toad movement. Management and recorded protection conditions continue after subdivision development.

• Participating construction-certificate properties: The published certificate conditions permit clearing a 16-foot-wide linear path for maintaining an existing fence or constructing a new fence line. Other vegetation-protection and conservation-area conditions applicable to the property remain relevant.

• Participating wildlife and agricultural management: Wildlife guidelines recognize food-plot fencing to control livestock and deer access and discourage forestland fence construction during the Houston toad breeding and emergence period, January 1 through June 30. Agricultural guidelines recognize existing and new agricultural fencing and recommend fencing selected ponds, wooded and riparian areas for habitat protection. These are activity-specific program practices.

• Pool-barrier use: A fence serving a pool has a separate safety function. For pools associated with qualifying residential construction, the applicable construction requirements matter to the barrier design. Health and Safety Code Chapter 757 covers its specified property-owners-association and multiunit-rental pools. State public-pool rules have separate use classifications. An association or common-area pool can have different enclosure requirements from a private single-family pool.

• Dog containment: The County’s animal order prohibits dogs at large. Its definition contains exceptions for dogs actually working livestock, greyhound racing, locating or retrieving wild game in season for a licensed hunter, assisting law enforcement, participating in an obedience show or class, or training for those pursuits. Its secure-enclosure definition requires locking and prevention of public entry and dog escape. For a legally defined dangerous dog, state law additionally requires the enclosure to be marked as containing a dangerous dog and to meet applicable local animal-control requirements. An owner must use the prescribed leash control or secure enclosure. These provisions do not publish a general yard-fence height.

PRIVATE RESTRICTIONS

Recorded covenants, HOA architectural rules, conservation restrictions, private easements and fence-location or maintenance agreements can impose independent conditions within Texas statutory limits. County approval does not settle ownership, authorize entry onto a neighbor’s land or allocate fence costs. The County does not place or interpret private deed restrictions.

HOA security fencing: Property Code Section 202.023 protects security measures, including perimeter fences, subject to express retained controls. It excludes the specified condominiums and Chapter 215 master mixed-use associations. An association may regulate fence type and prohibit fencing that obstructs a defined license area, a public or community sidewalk, or a drainage easement or area. It may require a driveway gate to be at least 10 feet from the right-of-way where the driveway meets a defined laned roadway. A restrictive covenant may prohibit new fencing in front of the dwelling’s front-most building line.

Existing fencing and enhanced security: Section 202.023 protects maintenance of perimeter fencing or fencing in front of that building line installed or constructed before September 1, 2025. The front-building-line prohibition has an exception for owners with legally confidential residential addresses or the specified law-enforcement documentation supporting enhanced security needs.

HOA pool enclosures: Section 202.022 protects a qualifying nonclimbable enclosure made of transparent mesh or clear panels in metal frames, no more than six feet high, that complies with applicable safety requirements. Associations may regulate appearance and colors, but may not prohibit the specified black transparent-mesh enclosure in metal frames. Public safety and property-right requirements remain applicable.

REVIEW AND ENFORCEMENT CONTEXT

Fence issues are typically reviewed during permit or approval review when required, and through complaint-based code enforcement. Examples include:

• Development review: Whether excavation, grading, wall construction and required application documents meet the County’s development requirements.

• Placement and drainage: Whether fences obstruct restricted drainage easements, shared flag-lot access, public roads or floodway conveyance.

• Special property conditions: Whether Pine Forest drainage requirements, airport hazard rules or habitat-conservation participation conditions apply to the work.

• Pool, animal and utility conditions: Whether the fence meets its applicable pool or animal-containment function and whether covered excavation and pipeline-easement duties have been satisfied.

• Existing fence and private matters: Statutory joint/attached-fence removal requirements are separate from private ownership, maintenance, cost-sharing and HOA disputes.

USING THIS INFORMATION

This page provides general orientation on how residential fence rules are structured and applied within unincorporated Bastrop County. Updated November 2026.

In addition to local fence rules, certain Texas laws apply statewide. See Statewide Fence Laws in Texas.

It is not legal advice and does not replace official statutes, ordinances, orders, permits, certificates, development approvals, applicable building-code requirements, surveys, recorded documents or professional guidance. Rules and interpretations may change, and application may vary with municipal or unincorporated location, applicable extraterritorial authority, zoning or special-area status, code adoption and amendments, site conditions, subdivision or plat conditions, easements, rights-of-way, drainage and floodplain requirements, historic or design districts, pool use, agricultural operations and stock laws, fence ownership or attachment, coastal or public-access conditions, utility and pipeline excavation requirements, and private restrictions subject to Texas law. Before purchasing materials or beginning construction, confirm current requirements and site-specific limitations with Bastrop County Development Services and the responsible office for each applicable issue, and review applicable private agreements. If this page conflicts with controlling law, adopted regulations or official requirements, the controlling authorities govern. For legal advice or legal interpretation, consult a licensed attorney.