Which office permits your metal building, and everything that follows from the answer

Three answers, three offices. Inside a city limit the city permits the building under its own code; inside Austin a building permit is required to erect, construct, enlarge or alter any building within the city's zoning jurisdiction, reviewed under the locally amended 2024 International Building Code. Each county page names the other cities inside it that run their own permit.

The extraterritorial jurisdiction, the ETJ, is the band of unincorporated land a city has some say over. Austin describes its ETJ as unincorporated land within five miles of the city boundary and not inside another city, where it has no traditional zoning authority, and states that it does not issue new construction permits there and sends those applicants to the county. Local Government Code 212.049 says the development plat subchapter does not authorize a city to require building permits or enforce its building code in its ETJ; 212.046 still bars a building permit there until the city approves a development plat.

In the unincorporated county, read that county's own answer. Local Government Code Chapter 233, read in full, gives a county no general building code, building permit or inspection authority over a commercial building; its Subchapter C is a fire code for the larger counties. Outside city limits Travis County requires a Development Permit, and a commercial project files the non-residential permit with a sealed cost estimate and an engineer-sealed site plan. Williamson County's own pages point instead to the County Engineer's Road and Bridge Division, (512) 943-3330, which issues a Certificate of Compliance verifying whether the property is in a floodplain, and state that the county issues no building permits and has no authority to issue a certificate of occupancy. That split is the reason this site exists.

SourcesCity of Austin Development Services, commercial plan review, read 2026-09-20; City of Austin Development Services, relocation permit, and City of Austin Planning, jurisdictional matters, read 2026-09-20; Texas Legislature Online, Local Government Code Chapter 212, municipal regulation of subdivisions and property development, read 2026-09-20; The statute was read in full and grants no such authority.Texas Legislature Online, Local Government Code Chapter 233, county regulation of housing and other structures, read 2026-09-20; Travis County TNR Development Services, Commercial Site Plan, read 2026-09-20; The source was read and does not list this.Williamson County, frequently asked questions, infrastructure and developers, read 2026-09-20.

Inside Austin, the city: from July 15, 2026 the Development Services Department's target review times are seven business days for new construction up to 10,000 square feet, 10 business days to 25,000 and 20 business days above that. A site plan, a site plan correction or a site plan exemption has to be in place before the commercial building permit application.

Outside the cities, the county. Local Government Code 233.061 lets a county over 250,000 in population, or one adjacent to it, adopt a fire code, 233.062 limits that code to a commercial establishment, a public building and a multifamily dwelling of four or more units, and 233.063 requires a county permit before a covered building is constructed, issued or denied within 30 days. A shop on a house lot or a farm building is not among the three types the fire code covers.

The table is what each county's own site says about a permit outside its cities. A row that records nothing listed describes what that county publishes, and nothing about whether rules exist: the floodplain and septic permits and the state rules on this page still apply. Each county's page: Travis, Williamson, Bastrop, Caldwell, Lee and Burnet.

Three of the six carry a county fire code permit for a commercial building. Travis County Code Chapter 201 requires plan review and a Fire Marshal building permit before construction of any commercial establishment in the unincorporated county, on the 2021 International Fire Code, and excludes private garages, carports, sheds and agricultural buildings from its commercial establishment definition. Unincorporated Williamson County has used the 2018 International Fire Code since November 2020, with a Fire Marshal permit before construction starts, and Caldwell County's fire code, on the 2024 edition, took effect August 13, 2026. The permits guide for Austin and Travis County prints the split, and the six-row permit directory is the one-page version.

SourcesCity of Austin Development Services, commercial plan review, read 2026-09-20; City of Austin Development Services, site plans, exemptions and corrections, and Land Development Code 25-5-2 on Municode (Supp. No. 174), read 2026-09-20; The statute was read in full and grants no such authority.Texas Legislature Online, Local Government Code Chapter 233, county regulation of housing and other structures, read 2026-09-20; Travis County TNR Development Services, Commercial Site Plan, read 2026-09-20; Travis County Fire Marshal, permits and plan reviews, and Travis County Code Chapter 201, read 2026-09-20; The source was read and does not list this.Williamson County, frequently asked questions, infrastructure and developers, read 2026-09-20; Williamson County Fire Marshal, construction permits, and the Williamson County Fire Code, second edition, read 2026-09-20; Bastrop County Development Services, and the Development Services application fees, read 2026-09-20; Caldwell County Development Ordinance, revised February 14, 2023, and the subdivision and development fee schedule, read 2026-09-20; Caldwell County Fire Code adopted August 13, 2026, and the order adopting it, read 2026-09-20; Lee County Development Services Department, read 2026-09-20; Burnet County, on-site sewage facilities and development permits, read 2026-09-20.

If it is a business building and the estimated construction cost is $50,000 or more, yes, and the registration comes before the local permit. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation says a project under $50,000 is not submitted for registration or plan review, though the Texas Accessibility Standards still apply to it, and a project of $50,000 or more submits a full set of construction documents under its Rule 68.50; Government Code 469.101 puts the same line in statute.

Government Code 469.003 lists them, and two categories are privately funded: a public accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and a commercial facility under that Act. A single-family home is not among the listed categories, and 469.003(c) excludes a place used primarily for religious rituals within a building of a religious organization. The statute stops at those categories. Whether a given building is an ADA public accommodation or commercial facility is the design professional's call against 469.003, and a church or community building is the case to raise with the department early.

The timing catches people. Government Code 469.102 puts the duty to submit on the architect or engineer with overall design responsibility, due by the 20th day after the plans are issued, and a local permit official may not accept a permit application for a building subject to the line unless registration is verified. Fees, the inspection after completion and the special registration under the line are in the TDLR registration guide.

SourcesTexas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Architectural Barriers frequently asked questions, read 2026-09-20; Texas Legislature Online, Government Code Chapter 469, elimination of architectural barriers, read 2026-09-20.

A pre-engineered metal building is a steel frame designed and cut by the manufacturer for your dimensions, loads and site: rigid frames, purlins and girts, sheeting, and a set of drawings and column reactions that tell the foundation engineer what the frame will push and pull on the slab.

Whether a Texas professional engineer has to seal the building's own drawings turns on size and use. Occupations Code 1001.056 exempts from engineering licensing the plans for a one-story building of no more than 5,000 square feet with no clear span over 24 feet on the narrow side, so long as no engineering services are offered to the public; over 24 feet, only the trusses, beams or other roof supporting members have to be engineered or pre-engineered. The same section lifts the requirement off a private dwelling, off a garage or other structure that belongs to one, and off a private building used only for farm, ranch or agricultural work. A commercial metal building or a warehouse above those limits sits outside the exemption, and inside Austin all plans for work in a building over 5,000 square feet have to be sealed by a professional engineer, with a site-specific geotechnical report on new construction.

An architect is a separate question. Occupations Code 1051.606 exempts a person who does not hold out as an architect and prepares plans for a privately owned commercial building of no more than two stories or 20,000 square feet, a warehouse with limited public access, or a privately owned farm, ranch or agricultural building.

The slab is the next sheet, and the frame reactions and the dirt together decide it. Here the dirt changes across one line. The 1974 Soil Survey of Travis County puts the county astride the Balcones Escarpment, western soils formed over limestone, dolomite and marl, eastern soils over clay and chalky marl. East of it the survey groups the Blackland Prairie soils as mainly clays with high shrink-swell potential, and says outright that shrinking and swelling causes much damage to building foundations. West of it the Brackett association, shallow gravelly loams over limestone and marl, covers about 38 percent of the county.

The 1983 Williamson County survey reads the same: Grand Prairie limestone soils in the west, Blackland Prairie clays in the center and east. Its Branyon-Houston Black-Burleson unit, about 27 percent of the county, has high shrink-swell potential, and the survey says buildings and streets buckle and crack on it if not properly constructed; west of Interstate 35 the Eckrant and Denton units sit on limestone that gives a good base for foundations but is hard to excavate.

The same shop sits on different ground ten miles apart, and only a soil report and the frame reactions tell the foundation engineer what to draw. One licensing rule follows the clay: Occupations Code 1001.056(c) withdraws the small-building engineering exemption for a residential slab on expansive soil unless the work meets the International Residential Code as applied in the jurisdiction. The order: soil report, frame reactions, foundation design, then the slab with the anchor bolts set to the manufacturer's template before the steel arrives. The slab and foundation guide carries each stop, and the pad grading and site prep guide the ground under it.

SourcesTexas Legislature Online, Occupations Code Chapter 1001, engineers, read 2026-09-20; City of Austin Development Services, commercial building plan review and inspection permit fees (FY 2025-26) and the commercial building application checklist, read 2026-09-20; Texas Legislature Online, Occupations Code Chapter 1051, architects, read 2026-09-20; USDA Soil Conservation Service, Soil Survey of Travis County, Texas (1974), climate and parent material sections, read 2026-09-20; USDA Soil Conservation Service, Soil Survey of Travis County, Texas (1974), general soil map and engineering uses of the soils, read 2026-09-20; USDA Soil Conservation Service, Soil Survey of Williamson County, Texas (1983), natural resources and parent material, read 2026-09-20; USDA Soil Conservation Service, Soil Survey of Williamson County, Texas (1983), general soil map unit 1 and the Houston Black series, read 2026-09-20; USDA Soil Conservation Service, Soil Survey of Williamson County, Texas (1983), general soil map units 2, 3 and 6, the Eckrant series, and parent material, read 2026-09-20.

Where the ground drains toward the recharge zone, and for any one parcel the honest answer is whatever TCEQ's official maps show. TCEQ names eight counties for the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program; Travis and Williamson are the two on this site it names, handled by its Austin Regional Office at (512) 339-2929. Before building on the recharge, transition or contributing zones the plan has to be reviewed and approved by the program first.

The construction general permit's definitions section defines it as the area where runoff flows downgradient to the recharge zone, upstream and generally north and northwest of it: for Travis County all areas except the Colorado River watershed above a point 1.3 miles upstream from Tom Miller Dam, and for Williamson County all areas except the Lampasas River watershed above the Stillhouse Hollow dam.

A Contributing Zone Plan is required for any regulated activity in the contributing zone under 30 TAC 213.21, approved before construction begins; TCEQ's decision page asks whether the work is a regulated activity and whether it will disturb at least five acres or is part of a larger plan of development or sale, and if not, no plan is needed. TCEQ says its map viewer is informational and not suitable for legal, engineering or surveying purposes, and no page read describes a written zone determination for a parcel, so the office to ask is the Austin Regional Office. The fees and the review clock are in the contributing zone guide.

Stormwater is the other TCEQ file, and it opens at one acre of disturbed ground, because it is a state permit. TCEQ regulates construction under general permit TXR150000 by acreage: under one acre, and not part of a larger common plan disturbing one or more, is not regulated; one to under five acres is a small construction activity; five or more, or part of a common plan that will reach five, is large.

On a small site the operator files no Notice of Intent. It implements a stormwater pollution prevention plan before construction and posts the signed small construction site notice, form TCEQ-20963, at least two days before starting, and TCEQ states that no Notice of Intent, no Notice of Termination and no fee is required under that option. At five acres the primary operator submits a Notice of Intent and the fee through STEERS, $225 electronic or $325 on paper.

Count the whole disturbance, not the building: the pad, the driveway, the parking and the drainage work all count, and when the project is part of a larger plan the total acres under that plan count. Where the site is regulated under 30 TAC Chapter 213, Part II.C.5 of the same permit says construction may not begin until the Edwards Aquifer plan is approved. The tiers and the notice are in the pad grading and site prep guide.

SourcesTexas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, read 2026-09-20; Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, TPDES general permit TXR150000, 2023 construction general permit, Part I.B definitions, read 2026-09-20; Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, what plans you might need, and the Contributing Zone Plan page, read 2026-09-20; The agency pages were read and describe no written parcel determination.Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer map viewer, read 2026-09-20; Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, stormwater general permit for construction activities (TXR150000), read 2026-09-20; Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, stormwater discharges from small construction activities, site notice steps, read 2026-09-20; Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, stormwater discharges from large construction activities, steps, read 2026-09-20; Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, stormwater discharges from construction activities, less than one acre, read 2026-09-20.

A rural lot brings its own water, power and septic, and the septic system needs a permit before it is built. TCEQ says a permit is required to construct, install, alter, extend or repair an on-site sewage facility, and that the permitting authority has to approve or deny the application within 30 days of receipt. Applications go to the local permitting authority for the county, which TCEQ calls an authorized agent: Travis County Development Services in unincorporated Travis County, and the Williamson County Engineer's Office in Williamson County. Who designs it depends on the system, not the word commercial: under 30 TAC 285.5 a professional engineer or professional sanitarian prepares the planning materials for a non-standard system, for multiple systems on a large tract and for every new system in the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone. Every county's septic office and published fees are in the septic, water and electric guide.

Power depends on whose territory the lot sits in. Inside Austin Energy territory a commercial project gets its site plan approved by Development Services first, then submits an intake request in the Austin Build + Connect portal; new Austin Water connections are installed by the owner from plans prepared by a Texas licensed professional engineer. Pedernales Electric Cooperative's tariff lists Burnet, Caldwell, Travis and Williamson among the counties it may serve; Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative runs retail centers at Bastrop, Lockhart, Giddings and Manor; Oncor is the wires company in parts of Williamson County; Bartlett Electric Cooperative serves areas of Williamson and Lee counties. A driveway onto a state highway is a permit from the TxDOT Austin District, and one onto a county road is the county's where its site shows one: the driveway access guide.

SourcesTexas Commission on Environmental Quality, getting a permit for an OSSF such as a septic system, read 2026-09-20; Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, RG-472 on-site sewage facility rules compilation, 30 TAC 285.5 and 285.32, read 2026-09-20; Austin Energy, apply for electric service, and the City of Austin Utilities commercial fees and deposits page, read 2026-09-20; Austin Water, new service connections, the utility permitting office, and rates and fees, read 2026-09-20; Pedernales Electric Cooperative, service for individual residential or commercial locations, and the tariff and business rules, read 2026-09-20; Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, line extensions, line design appointment, and the commercial developers package (revised June 4, 2024), read 2026-09-20; Oncor Electric Delivery, new construction (commercial), read 2026-09-20; Bartlett Electric Cooperative, about us, application for service, and service fees, read 2026-09-20; Texas Department of Transportation, Access Management Manual, chapter 2 section 4, permits, and the Use of Right of Way by Others Manual, access driveways, read 2026-09-20; Travis County TNR Development Services, commercial on-site sewage facility permit, read 2026-09-20; Williamson County, on-site sewage facilities, and the OSSF program fee sheet, read 2026-09-20; Travis County TNR Development Services, commercial driveway permit, read 2026-09-20.

The steel arrives as a package; the erector turns it into a building, and on this site that is an independent local metal building contractor who works your county. The contractor checks the anchor bolt pattern against the slab, stands the rigid frames, sets the purlins and girts, squares and plumbs the frame, and hangs the sheeting, trim and doors.

Owners arrive at that step two ways: one buys the building from the contractor, who orders the package, has the slab poured and erects it under one contract; the other buys the package from a manufacturer and needs a slab and an erector: steel erection for pre-engineered packages. What gets built on this path, sorted by use:

• Commercial metal buildings: retail, office, flex and service buildings, where the permit review and the TDLR registration both run.

• Warehouses and industrial buildings: clear span, dock height and the county fire code where there is one.

• Metal shops and workshops: the residential and small-business shop.

• Detached garages and RV garages: the accessory building, inside a city and out.

• Equipment and RV storage buildings: ranch and fleet storage, open-sided and enclosed.

• Pole barns and post-frame buildings: farm and equipment framing on posts.

• Church and community buildings: assembly use and the accessibility review.

• Covered courts and indoor pickleball buildings: the open canopy court and the conditioned court.

• Steel erection for pre-engineered packages: the owner who bought the steel and needs an erector.

No metal building contractor whose own site names Austin or these six counties publishes a price for a finished building; each offers an estimate by form or phone, read at the builders' own pages on 2026-09-20, which is why no such price prints here. The one published figure in the record is a Texas manufacturer's price for a steel kit alone, and it prints only inside the labeled box on the cost guide.

What moves the number: the footprint and eave height, the clear span, the wind loads the manufacturer designs to, the doors, the insulation, whether the building will be heated and cooled, the slab the ground dictates, the site work and driveway, the utility extension, and the agency fees, which are the only part anyone can quote in advance.

Financing programs, named and not priced: the U.S. Small Business Administration's 504 loan may be used for the purchase, construction or renovation of buildings or land, and not for working capital, inventory or investment in rental real estate; the SBA 7(a) loan lists acquiring or improving real estate and buildings among its permitted uses; the USDA Farm Service Agency's Farm Ownership Loans cover the construction of farm buildings, through the local FSA office. Each may be offered to an owner who qualifies, amounts and eligibility change, and the linked agency page is the one to read. Only the independent local contractor who walks your lot can put a number on the finished building, and pricing it costs nothing.

SourcesThe builders' own pages were read and print no such price.Seven Texas metal building company websites, five of them naming the Austin area, read 2026-09-20; Mueller, Inc., Standard Series Big Workshop 30 x 40 x 12 and Big Barn XL 40 x 60 x 16 product pages, and its Texas branch location pages, read 2026-09-20; U.S. Small Business Administration, 504 loans, and the 504 loan program fact sheet for borrowers, read 2026-09-20; U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) loans, and the SBA lender resources page, read 2026-09-20; USDA Farm Service Agency, Farm Ownership Loans, and the Farm Loans Overview fact sheet (October 2025), read 2026-09-20.