Travis County, TX Fire Regulations: Wildfire Zones (2026)

Travis County Code Sec. 202(e), the Dual Access rule inside the county's subdivision (platting) standards, sets the baseline: a new subdivision must have at least two access streets, and each must connect to a different external street. The County Executive can approve a single access street only if it does not cross land carrying a high wildland fire protection rating under National Fire Protection Association Bulletin 299 (1992), is not flooded more than nine inches in specified storm events, has a paved width of at least 36 feet near the intersection, and either runs no more than 2,000 feet while serving no more than 30 single-family homes or functions at Level of Service C or better as an arterial or collector.

Even where those thresholds are met, Commissioners Court can still require a second access after weighing fire and flood safety, topography, density, and whether traffic through the subdivision should be limited. Because Travis County has no zoning power under Texas law (counties regulate land through Local Government Code Chapter 232 platting, not Chapter 211 zoning), this access-street standard, not a mapped 'wildfire zone,' is the mechanism that actually controls development in the county's fire-prone hill country. The rule sits inside Chapter 482, Subchapter B, Subdivision Standards, and applies countywide outside city limits and city ETJs, where a municipality's own subdivision rules can control instead.

Right-of-way minimums under the same section run from 50 feet for curb-and-gutter streets up to widths set by the metropolitan transportation plan for major thoroughfares, all factored into how a wildfire-area subdivision is laid out before a plat can record.