Who issues the building permit for a barndominium in Burnet, TX?
Two desks, split by one line. Inside the city limits the City of Burnet issues it: a permit is required for any construction that physically changes or adds a structure, and dwellings are first on its list. The city adopted the 2021 International Codes, including the 2021 International Residential Code, with the 2021 Fire Code and the 2023 National Electrical Code, for new permits received on or after April 1, 2025.
Outside the line it is Burnet County Development Services, in two classes set by the flood hazard area. Class A, outside any flood hazard area, is application and payment with no county inspection of the structure. Class B, inside a designated flood hazard boundary, asks for an elevation certificate, a site plan showing the flood zone, and two inspections, pre-pour and finished construction. Elevation information on a FEMA Elevation Certificate is certified by land surveyors, architects or engineers authorized by law, so a Class B lot adds a surveyor. Pull the parcel on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center first.
The county will not process an incomplete packet, and will not issue the septic permit without the building permit first. Read the full chain on the Burnet County page, or compare Burnet with the other five in the permit guide for all six counties.
Source: City of Burnet Building Department, read 2026-09-13.
Source: City of Burnet, Burnet Code Adoption 2021 (PDF, city-hosted), read 2026-09-13.
Source: FEMA, Elevation Certificate FAQ, October 2023, read 2026-09-13.
Source: FEMA Flood Map Service Center, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Burnet County On-Site Sewage Facilities and Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Who permits the septic, the floodplain and the driveway in Burnet County?
Three of the four sit in one office. The fourth is your precinct commissioner.
Septic splits again. Burnet County has eight on-site sewage authorized agents, the county and the Lower Colorado River Authority among them, with Granite Shoals administered by LCRA and Bertram by Burnet County. Inside the city limits Burnet is its own agent. The county permits and inspects every system whatever the tract size, which sets aside the state acreage exception.
LCRA is the state's designated authorized agent inside its own jurisdiction, drawn around Buchanan, Inks, Lyndon B. Johnson, Marble Falls and Travis. Four of those are Burnet County water. The zone runs 2,200 feet around the upper Highland Lakes: a Restricted Zone at each lake, plus a Water Quality Zone reaching 2,000 feet horizontally past its outer boundary. Inside it a permit is required before any system is constructed or installed, no matter the lot size, and allow up to 30 days from the date the application is submitted. The county links to LCRA's address-searchable map without saying which lake lots fall inside, so search your own address. The septic permit guide walks the application.
Floodplain: the Floodplain Administrator appointed by Commissioners Court, inside Development Services. One foot of freeboard above base flood elevation is required, two feet recommended in an A zone.
Driveway: your precinct commissioner, on a county road access permit. The commissioner sets culvert location, length and diameter at a site meeting, and approval must be in hand before the 911 address is assigned. TxDOT approves a driveway onto a Farm to Market, Ranch Road or State Highway.
Source: TCEQ OARS county search, Burnet County (CNTY_CD 27), read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ OARS county search, identical entry returned for Travis, Burnet and Llano counties, read 2026-09-13.
Source: LCRA On-Site Sewage Facilities Program, read 2026-09-13.
Source: LCRA On-Site Sewage Facilities Rules, Section 6, Area of Jurisdiction, read 2026-09-13.
Source: LCRA On-Site Sewage Facilities Rules, Section 10.05(b), read 2026-09-13.
Source: LCRA On-site Sewage Rules Frequently Asked Questions, read 2026-09-13.
Source: LCRA Water Quality Jurisdictions map, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Burnet County On-Site Sewage Facilities and Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Does the Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance apply to your Burnet tract?
It applies to the Colorado River watershed in Burnet County above the Regulated Pool Elevation of the Highland Lakes, as drawn on the official Ordinance Map. It regulates buildings, roads, paved storage areas and parking lots, and also land-disturbing activity: clearing, excavating, grading, contouring, mining and depositing refuse, waste or fill. That reaches the pad, the drive and the pasture you clear, not only the house.
An LCRA development permit is required if impervious cover will exceed 10,000 square feet and/or land disturbance will exceed one acre. A single-family residence under both can file a written notification with LCRA instead. Over 10,000 square feet of cover but under one acre disturbed, the notification route stays open only where the site meets the downstream buffer guidelines in the LCRA Technical Manual. Eleven local governments administer part or all of the ordinance under interlocal agreements, so ask LCRA which body administers your address.
That one-acre line shows up twice. The TPDES Construction General Permit TXR150000 separately covers construction disturbing one acre or more, or construction that is part of a larger common plan of development that will disturb one acre or more. Below one acre no coverage is required. Have the site plan measured, not estimated.
Source: LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance, Section 1, Title and Scope, read 2026-09-13.
Source: LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance program page, read 2026-09-13.
Source: LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance program page, Required notifications and permits, read 2026-09-13.
Source: LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance, Section 4.1(b), Written Notification, read 2026-09-13.
Source: LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance program page, Interlocal agreements, read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ, Stormwater Discharges from Construction Activities: Am I Regulated?, read 2026-09-13.
What is under the pad in Burnet, Texas?
Old rock. Burnet is one of the core counties of the Llano Uplift, a large granite batholith and the major structural feature of central Texas, with Precambrian granites and metamorphic rocks forming the central dome. At Inks Lake State Park, on the east edge of the uplift in Burnet County, pink Valley Spring gneiss, a Precambrian metamorphic rock, juts up through the limestone. Whether that contact sits under your tract is a question for the excavator and a test hole, not something the park settles.
The other ground in central Texas is the Edwards Plateau: shallow soils underlain by limestone, many springs, stony hills and steep canyons. Either way the quote question is the same. Ask any builder pricing the site whether rock excavation is inside the number or excluded, and ask the septic designer whether the design assumes a trench or a surface system.
The rock decides the water too. The Ellenburger-San Saba Aquifer is a minor aquifer in parts of 16 counties in the Llano Uplift area, and the Hickory Aquifer carries radionuclides derived from the Precambrian granite of the uplift. On a well rather than a city or district meter, ask the driller which formation the well is completed in and what the water is tested for before you close.
Source: Texas Water Development Board, Report 360 Chapter 9, Paleozoic Aquifers of the Llano Uplift, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas Water Development Board, Report 360 Chapter 9, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Ecoregions, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas Water Development Board, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas Water Development Board, read 2026-09-13.
What do barndominium builders in Burnet, TX run into first on a lot?
The sequence, before anything physical. The county fixes the order: 911 address, then building permit, then septic permit. But driveway approval from your precinct commissioner has to be in hand before the 911 address is assigned. So on a raw tract the first call is the commissioner and a site meeting about a culvert, not a builder and a floor plan. Then the plat question: a split is exempt from platting only where every lot is over 10 acres with no new streets, and even an exempt split is registered with Development Services.
Price the dirt separately from the shell. The Central Texas cost guide holds the one builder figure this site publishes and explains why the septic, the driveway, the power, the water, the rock and the pad get priced on your own tract instead. In the same county, Marble Falls requires a building permit for all construction inside its city limits, under a later code year, the 2024 International Residential Code. For the whole run from raw land to finished slab, start with building a barndominium in Central Texas.
Source: City of Marble Falls FAQ, Do I need a permit within the city limit?, read 2026-09-13.
Source: City of Marble Falls Building Division, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Burnet County On-Site Sewage Facilities and Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
How do you check barndominium builders in Burnet, TX?
Not through a state roster, because there is not one. Texas does not require a state license to work as a general contractor, and the Texas Residential Construction Commission was abolished when its enabling Act expired on September 1, 2009. Every barndominium builder in Burnet is an independent contractor, so ask which of the permits above the builder pulls in their own name and which stay in yours.
The trades are verifiable. Plumbers are licensed through the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, electricians through TDLR, where non-exempt electrical work must be done through a licensed electrical contractor, and any on-site sewage installer, apprentice, maintenance provider or maintenance technician through TCEQ, Installer I for standard systems and Installer II for all types. All three agencies run a public license lookup. Check the septic one hardest here, because the county permits and inspects every system whatever the tract size.
On a lake lot that paperwork keeps running after the build. Inside LCRA's jurisdiction an inspection is required on every transfer of ownership before it will approve the new owner for continued use, and an aerobic treatment unit needs a maintenance contract for the first two years. After that the owner may do the maintenance, but only after taking the class and passing the test.
Scope, shell versus finished house, changes what a quote covers, and barndominium construction sets out what sits in each one before you start collecting bids.
Source: Office of the Texas Governor, Business Permit Office, Texas Business Licenses and Permits Guide, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Electricians program, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ, Occupational Licenses: On-Site Sewage Facilities (Septic Systems), read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ, On-site Sewage Facilities: Information for Regulators, read 2026-09-13.
Source: LCRA On-site Sewage Rules Frequently Asked Questions, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Burnet County On-Site Sewage Facilities and Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Nearby: Bertram, Marble Falls, Buchanan Dam, Briggs, Oakalla, Kingsland. County page: Burnet County. Next town on the chain: Marble Falls.
Questions people ask about building near Burnet
- Does the City of Burnet issue a building permit for a barndominium?
- Yes, inside the city limits. Burnet requires a building permit for any construction that physically changes or adds a structure, and dwellings are first on its list. The city adopted the 2021 International Codes, including the 2021 International Residential Code, plus the 2021 Fire Code and the 2023 National Electrical Code, effective for new permits received on or after April 1, 2025. The City of Burnet is also its own on-site sewage authorized agent inside those limits.
- Do I need a county building permit outside Burnet city limits?
- Yes. Burnet County Development Services issues a Class A or Class B building permit outside city limits, and the county will not issue the septic permit without it. Class A covers a site outside any flood hazard area and is application and payment only, with no county inspection of the structure. Class B covers a site inside a designated flood hazard boundary and requires an elevation certificate from a surveyor or a letter from an engineer, a site plan showing the flood zone, and two inspections, pre-pour and finished construction.
- What has to happen first on a raw tract in Burnet County?
- The driveway. Approval from your precinct commissioner, on a county road access permit, has to be in hand before the 911 address is assigned, and the 911 address comes before the building permit, which comes before the septic permit. The commissioner sets culvert location, length and diameter at a site meeting. The county will not process an incomplete packet, so the order is not optional.
- Who permits septic on a lot near Lake Buchanan or Inks Lake?
- It depends on whether the lot falls inside the Lower Colorado River Authority's water quality zone. LCRA is a TCEQ-designated authorized agent and its on-site sewage jurisdiction is drawn around Lake Buchanan, Inks Lake, Lake LBJ, Lake Marble Falls and Lake Travis, running 2,200 feet around the upper Highland Lakes. Inside that zone a permit is required before any system is constructed or installed, whatever the lot size, and you should allow up to 30 days from submission. Outside the zone it is Burnet County, which also permits and inspects every system regardless of tract size. Search your address on LCRA's jurisdiction map to find out which desk you are at.
- Is a barndominium builder in Texas licensed by the state?
- No. Texas does not require a state license to work as a general contractor, and the Texas Residential Construction Commission was abolished when its enabling Act expired on September 1, 2009. A builder here is an independent contractor. The trades are licensed: plumbers through the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, electricians through TDLR with non-exempt work done through a licensed electrical contractor, and on-site sewage installers and maintenance providers through TCEQ. Each of those three agencies runs a public license lookup you can check yourself.
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