Permit Office (AHJ)
City of Houston Permitting Center (Houston Public Works)
Houston, TX · Licensed Professional Engineering
Site engineering that clears local review — grading, drainage, and utilities designed to each jurisdiction's published standards from day one.
Civil work in Houston is fundamentally a drainage problem on flat, poorly draining terrain. The city's Infrastructure Design Manual Chapter 9 sets stringent detention requirements (tightened in 2021), and the Chapter 19 floodplain ordinance requires elevation to two feet above the 500-year flood level - a direct response to Harvey. Harris County Flood Control District criteria and, for larger tracts, MUD/utility-district coordination also apply. TCEQ construction general permit coverage and a SWPPP apply to disturbances over an acre. Because there is no zoning, detention volume, fill-mitigation, and finished-floor elevation are the constraints that most reshape a site plan, so we block them out in the first grading pass.
Code adoptions and local amendments change on multi-year cycles. The state source verification date is 2026-07-28; we verify the governing editions with City of Houston Permitting Center (Houston Public Works) at project kickoff.
Commercial permits are submitted online through the Houston Permitting Center's e-permitting/e-plan review system, with in-person support at 1002 Washington Avenue. Houston has no zoning, so review centers on the construction code, life-safety, floodplain (Chapter 19), and drainage/infrastructure (Chapter 9) rather than land use; deed restrictions are enforced separately and are not part of the building permit.
Houston's amendments modernized the construction code to the 2021 IBC and 2021 IECC and, critically, its Chapter 19 floodplain ordinance requires new/substantially improved structures in the 500-year floodplain to be elevated to two feet above the 500-year flood elevation - stricter than the FEMA baseline. There is no zoning, but drainage and floodplain rules effectively govern site development.
Service upgrades, primary extensions, and transformer procurement run through CenterPoint and can carry long lead times for large loads, so we engage them at schematic design. Water and wastewater are City of Houston Public Works services inside city limits.
Houston construction is anchored by the energy sector, Gulf Coast petrochemical and LNG expansion, the Texas Medical Center's continuous healthcare buildout, port-driven industrial/warehouse demand, and strong multifamily starts. Because there is no zoning, floodplain and drainage compliance - not land use - is the entitlement bottleneck that most often reshapes a project.
Reviewed 2026-09-11. Code editions and local requirements can change; confirm the current requirements with the authority having jurisdiction before design.
With a team of licensed PEs and a multi-discipline engineering team, we're ready to take on projects of any size — and we turn quotes around fast. Send us your scope and get a clear proposal: deliverables, timeline, and fee.
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