Travis County, TX Building Setbacks & Zoning: Setback Rules (2026)

Texas counties cannot zone, so Travis County never adopted front, side or rear yard setbacks tied to a zoning district. 941, Setbacks from Critical Environmental Features and Waterways. Around a cave, sinkhole, spring or wetland, the minimum setback is 150 feet from the edge of the feature; a point recharge feature's setback follows its contributing drainage area but can never be less than 150 feet or more than 300 feet. Classified waterway setbacks scale with drainage size: 100 feet from the centerline of a minor waterway, 200 feet for an intermediate waterway, 300 feet for a major waterway, and 400 feet along each bank of the Colorado River below Lady Bird Lake.

2 percent annual chance floodplains. Lake Travis and Lake Austin carry their own shoreline setbacks measured from a fixed mean-sea-level contour: 100 feet inland generally, reduced to 75 feet for a detached single-family home. Inside any of these setbacks, natural vegetation must be retained, construction is prohibited, and no wastewater irrigation, golf course or wastewater collection line may run through the zone. A residential lot of 5,750 square feet or less cannot have any part of it fall inside a waterway setback. 037(d)(3)) impose on surface-irrigation disposal systems, a septic standard, not a building setback.