El Paso County, TX Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

8(p), Flood Hazard Areas. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the tract must be built out according to two sets of rules at once: the regulations the Commissioners' Court has separately adopted, the county's Flood Plain Regulations (a distinct order, not part of this platting document), and the National Flood Insurance Program rules as published in the Federal Register, Volume 41, Number 207. 8(p) gives the Commissioners' Court an outright veto: when the Court decides it is necessary for the health, safety, or welfare of the present and future population, it may prohibit subdividing any land that lies within the flood plain of a stream or drainage course altogether, regardless of what mitigation a developer proposes.

8 treats low, flood-prone land as off-limits for lot-area credit: subsection (o)(2)(D) requires land along a watercourse that floods or overflows during storms to be kept in its natural state as a drainage way, whether or not it was already dedicated, and bars a subdivider from counting that acreage toward a lot's minimum size. Because El Paso County itself does not issue building permits in the unincorporated area, a developer inside a mapped flood hazard area works through the plat-approval process described in these Regulations, not a permit counter, and compliance is checked at the plat stage before any lot can be sold or built on.