Cameron County, TX Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

Article 5, Section Q of the county's Flood Damage Prevention and Building Regulations restricts where a junkyard, automotive wrecking and salvage yard, recycling business, or flea market can operate. None of those uses may locate within 50 feet of the right-of-way of a public street or state highway, inside a subdivision the county has identified as urban density, or within 50 feet of the nearest property line of a residence inside an urban-density subdivision. Article 2's definitions section spells out what counts: a 'junkyard' is a business that stores, buys or sells materials discarded or sold at a nominal price by a previous owner and keeps some or all of that material outdoors until disposing of it, while an 'automotive wrecking and salvage yard' is a business, other than a salvage pool operator under Occupations Code Chapter 2302, that stores three or more wrecked vehicles outdoors to sell them whole or dismantle them for parts.

Beyond siting, Section Q caps how high a junkyard or salvage yard can stack its inventory: materials cannot be accumulated or stacked higher than eight feet above ground level anywhere in unincorporated Cameron County. The section carves out one exemption, for a junkyard or salvage yard used only for farm equipment, which escapes both the siting and stacking limits Section Q otherwise imposes.