Terrebonne Parish, LA Building Setbacks & Zoning: Lot Coverage Limits (2026)

Terrebonne Parish Code § 6-23 does not set a hard ceiling on how much of a residential lot can be covered; instead it creates a mandatory engineering review for commercial and industrial projects once the site crosses an impervious-surface threshold. Before the parish will approve a building permit, an applicant must submit adequate plats, plans, calculations and approvals showing compliance. Two triggers apply: making more than 70 percent of the lot impervious to rainfall through concrete, blacktop or structures, or covering more than 10,000 square feet of the lot with impervious surface, whichever standard is met first.

Any project that was not already engineering-approved by the parish planning commission before Ordinance No. 5293 took effect on August 25, 1994, and that will push a lot's imperviousness above 70 percent, must have its plans submitted to the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government Department of Public Works, and the development must conform to the requirements of the parish's Storm Drainage Design Manual as amended. The section also folds in road-construction standards: any improvement the developer intends to dedicate to the parish must be built to the latest LaDOTD Standard Specifications for Roads and Bridges and comply with LaDOTD standard plans, with exceptions allowed only by written approval of the director of public works.

1 of Appendix B of the parish code. The planning and zoning director can condition a permit's issuance on the timing of drainage mitigation work, and before a certificate of occupancy issues, the project engineer must certify to the parish engineering department that drainage improvements were built to the approved plans and specifications.