Waco, TX Solar Energy: Panel Permits (2026)

Division 2 of Waco's zoning chapter, Sec. 28-901 through 28-907, sets the lot area, width, yard and height rules for every district, and Sec. 28-906 lists the specific items a property owner may place inside a required side or rear yard without violating those base requirements. Solar collecting equipment is grouped with central air-conditioning units, heat pumps and rainwater collection tanks in subsection (1): all four are capped at no more than four feet from the principal structure and must be properly screened from view.

The code does not define an approved screening material, so the building official reviews the plan case by case against that four-foot setback and the screening requirement when a homeowner applies for the permit for the mounting structure. The obstruction allowance is limited to side and rear yards; the section opens with the exception 'Except on corner lots as provided in section 28-904,' meaning a corner-lot side yard fronting a street is controlled by the stricter street-side yard rule in Sec. 28-904 instead of this four-foot allowance.

Every listed obstruction, solar equipment included, is also subject to sight-distance-zone restrictions in the city traffic code, so panels cannot be placed where they would block visibility at a driveway or corner. Sec. 28-906 separately permits wind power generating facilities under item (10), governed instead by district height limits and the noise levels in chapter 16, article VII, a distinct standard from the item (1) solar setback. There is no separate solar-specific permit application in the zoning chapter; a solar installation is folded into this general obstruction rule and the standard permit process, and it must still meet the district's other yard, height and coverage rules for anything the four-foot allowance doesn't cover.