Do I need a permit for a metal building in San Antonio or Bexar County?

For commercial construction, yes. The city puts commercial projects through plan review at Development Services, in this order: zoning, plan intake, plan review, permit, inspections, utility release, certificate of occupancy. The completeness check on the submittal usually takes up to three business days, and the plan review fees come due once it is done.

An application or a permit with no proof of work or progress lapses at 180 days, and the city may grant one or more 180-day extensions for good reason. The city pages checked here are written for commercial construction, so confirm a building on a house lot with the city instead of assuming it follows the same path. A commercial steel building inside city limits is the case those pages describe.

Checked at City of San Antonio Development Services, business and commercial projects, 2026-09-13.

It turns on occupancy group and square footage. The city commercial project application guide sets these turnarounds:

Checked at City of San Antonio Development Services, commercial project application guide, 2026-09-13.

Size only sorts business and mercantile work; every other occupancy group in the table is a complex plan at any square footage. The occupancy group gets settled at intake, not guessed from the shape of the steel. Once issued, the permit stays active 180 days, and every inspection performed adds another 180.

Checked at City of San Antonio Development Services, commercial project application guide, 2026-09-13.

The city prices a commercial building permit on valuation, not square footage, and charges plan review as a separate fee. Both schedules:

Checked at City of San Antonio Development Services, FY 2027 development fee schedule, 2026-10-03.

Not you alone. The fee schedule says Development Services sets minimum values for the cost of commercial remodels and swimming pools from International Code Council published costs, with the Army Corps of Engineers modifier for San Antonio, fixed when the building plans are submitted, and plan examiners may check the valuation again during review. Those are the city's paperwork fees, not the cost of the building, which is not priced publicly by any metal building company serving the San Antonio area.

Checked at City of San Antonio Development Services, FY 2027 development fee schedule, 2026-10-03.

An engineer, on the structure. The commercial project application guide requires every structural sheet, foundation and structural framing, to be designed and stamped by a Texas professional engineer, and says trade and civil documents may need engineering too, depending on scope. For the architect side, the city lists architect-sealed construction documents as a submittal item and points to its design professional requirements, with no size or valuation threshold of its own.

State law draws separate lines. Occupations Code 1051.606 lets someone who does not present themselves as an architect draw the plans for a commercial building in private hands that stands no more than two stories and covers no more than 20,000 square feet, or for a warehouse the public has limited access to. The buildings that must have an architect under 1051.703 are public: a new building costing over $100,000 to build, owned by a state agency, a political subdivision or another public entity and used for education, assembly or office occupancy, plus certain alterations to those buildings.

On the engineering side, Occupations Code 1001.056 lets a building skip the state engineering chapter when nobody holds out to offer engineering services to the public and the building is one story, 5,000 square feet of floor or less, whose widest clear span between supports, measured across the narrow side, is 24 feet or less. Where a building that size does have an unsupported span over 24 feet, the engineering requirement falls only on the roof framing, meaning its trusses, beams and other members holding up the roof, which has to be engineered or pre-engineered. Also exempt under that section: a private home, a garage or other structure pertinent to one, and a private building serving only farm, ranch or agricultural use. A clear span past 24 feet puts a building over that line.

Checked at City of San Antonio Development Services, commercial project application guide, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Legislature Online, Occupations Code Chapter 1051, architects, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Legislature Online, Occupations Code Chapter 1001, engineers and engineering, 2026-09-13.

A tree application goes in before any development of property in San Antonio. Where the work removes trees or disturbs vegetation, a tree preservation plan goes in with it, under Unified Development Code section 35-523. A site with no protected trees, or a job that will not damage the protected trees there, files a tree affidavit instead; a tree permit is required where protected trees come out or where there is a previous rights determination. The city tree pages are silent on whether any of this reaches the extraterritorial jurisdiction.

The city posts the tree fees: $115.00 for a tree plan review, $115.00 an hour for tree preservation review, and $115.00 apiece for tree preservation validation and tree review for a demolition permit. A commercial tree permit is $201.25 plus a $25.00 tree canopy fee. Starting site work without a tree permit brings a penalty fee, $2,300 at the least, which is why this is the first call on a lot with trees on it, not a late one.

Checked at City of San Antonio Development Services, tree preservation, 2026-09-13.

Checked at City of San Antonio Development Services, FY 2027 development fee schedule, 2026-10-03.

Inside San Antonio, building, remodeling, repairing or tearing down a structure on a property typically takes a building permit. The city exempts one-story detached accessory structures used as tool and storage sheds, playhouses and the like, up to 300 square feet of floor and within the setbacks in Unified Development Code section 35-370(b). That 300 square feet is the only size exemption for an accessory building the city states, so a metal shop building of any useful size is permitted work. A 400 square foot figure on the same pages sorts which kind of contractor is listed, not whether a permit is needed, and carports are permitted work alongside room additions, accessory structures, decks and patio covers.

The city fee schedule charges $184.00 for carport covers and decks and $184.00 for repairing an existing foundation, while plan review and permit fees on new residential construction go by the square footage of the project.

Checked at City of San Antonio Development Services, residential permits and no permit required list, 2026-09-13.

Checked at City of San Antonio Development Services, FY 2027 development fee schedule, 2026-10-03.

The Bexar County Fire Marshal Office, 210-335-0300. Outside the cities, that office decides when structures or areas not for single-family dwelling use need building permits, and a single-family dwelling there means one structure holding three or fewer dwelling units. The permit reaches site clearing, construction, renovation and a change of occupancy, so it starts the day the brush comes off the pad, not the day the steel shows up. The county pages list no county building permit requirement for a dwelling of one to three units.

The sequence is set. A Building Permit Authorization from Public Works must be completed, signed and approved first. Then the application goes in person, by appointment only; the county's clock to issue or deny is 30 days, and the permit is good for 180 days from issue.

Public Works handles that first step at 210-335-6700, and the Fire Marshal books appointments at 9810 Southton Rd. in San Antonio, 210-335-0300, option 2. The Permit Verification Form is the first two pages of the Fire Marshal building permit form, and the county charges nothing to review and process it.

Plans in the unincorporated county are checked against adopted codes. Commissioners Court adopted the 2021 International Fire and Building Codes on December 12, 2023, in force January 1, 2024, along with the county amendments.

Checked at Bexar County, building permits and fire marshal code enforcement pages, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Bexar County Fire Marshal, code enforcement and inspections, 2026-09-13.

Yes, and it goes in well ahead. Bexar County Public Works reviews every construction activity on property near the 100-year floodplain, the land with a 1 percent chance of flooding in any year. It may ask for a flood study by a professional engineer. The fee is $50 per activity, and stormwater and floodplain permits are due at least 45 days before the Permit Verification Form.

The county floodplain application names clearing and grading, fill, excavation, a driveway, culverts, drainage structures, a parking lot, septic and utilities among the kinds of development that set it off, which is most of what happens to a lot before a building goes up on it.

Checked at Bexar County, Floodplain Development Permits, 2026-09-13.

A city cannot issue a building permit out there, but it can still stall the job. Local Government Code 212.049 says the development plat subchapter does not let a city require its building permits, or otherwise enforce its building code, in its extraterritorial jurisdiction, and 212.003 keeps a city from regulating there how a building is used, the bulk, height or number of buildings on a tract, or how big a building on a tract can be. Section 212.046 cuts the other way: where a city has adopted the development plat subchapter, a building permit may not be issued by any city, county or official of another government, or any other kind of development permit, on a covered tract until that city has the development plat filed and approved.

How far that ring reaches depends on city population, up to five miles past the city limits for a city of 100,000 or more. Splitting a tract inside the city or in that ring into two or more parts to lay out a subdivision or lots takes a plat, filed and recorded with the county clerk.

Bexar County adds the on-the-ground steps. Public Works says a property inside the City of San Antonio extraterritorial jurisdiction needs its Permit Verification Form and site plan stamped by City of San Antonio Storm Water Review staff at the development and business services center on South Alamo Street, and that tree, irrigation and signage permits come from the city whose jurisdiction the property sits in.

Checked at Texas Legislature Online, Local Government Code Chapter 212, municipal regulation of subdivisions and property development, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Legislature Online, Local Government Code Chapters 42 and 212, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Bexar County, building permits, 2026-09-13.

Of the other six, two post one: Atascosa County and Guadalupe County, each on its own terms. Read Wilson County slowly, because its answer lives in two places: the office that posts its unincorporated-area permits lists three (development, septic and driveway) and no building permit, while the county Fire Marshal prices a commercial building permit under the fire code the county adopted October 27, 2025. Medina, Karnes and Frio post permit lists with no building permit on them, which describes those lists and does not mean a building there goes unregulated.

The table below gives each county in its own words, with who to call, the number, and when the source was checked. The state and county permits further down reach every address in all seven. The floodplain, septic and driveway offices that go with those permits, and the cities inside each county whose own permit pages were checked, are on the San Antonio permit office list.

Only in a narrow lane, which is why seven counties give seven answers. Local Government Code Chapter 233 leaves a county without power to adopt a general commercial building code, or a structural, mechanical, plumbing or electrical code, for the unincorporated area. The one power in the chapter that reaches a commercial building is the fire code permit.

Section 233.061 limits that power to the commissioners court of a county of more than 250,000 people, or of a county bordering one that size. Section 233.062 points the code at three building types outside city limits: multifamily residential dwellings with at least four units, public buildings, and commercial establishments, in each case in the unincorporated area. It exempts an industrial plant with a fire brigade that meets federal occupational safety rules. The code has to match the International Fire Code or the Uniform Fire Code as each stood on May 1, 2005, or set protective measures beyond those standards, and the commissioners court may adopt a later edition.

Once a county has one, section 233.063 bars building or substantially improving a covered building in the unincorporated area without a county building permit, gives the commissioners court 30 days to issue or deny after the application and fee arrive, and makes the county start a final inspection within five business days of a written request. Substantial improvement there means work costing more than half the building value on the county certified tax appraisal roll for the year before, or a change of occupancy classification, and no covered building may be occupied until the county issues a final, conditional or partial certificate of compliance. A fire code violation carries a civil penalty of up to $200 a day for as long as it lasts.

Whole chapter checked; it gives counties no such power. Checked at Texas Legislature Online, Local Government Code Chapter 233, county regulation of housing and other structures, 2026-09-13.

Yes, and the statute makes it a gate, not paperwork on the side. Government Code 469.101 sends the plans and specifications for building or substantially renovating a covered building to TDLR for review and approval once the job's estimated construction cost hits $50,000. Section 469.102 gives the design professional 20 days from issuing the plans to send them in, keeps the owner from applying for a local building permit or breaking ground until they are sent, and keeps a local permitting official from accepting an application without first confirming the building is registered at TDLR. Plans changed substantially after approval go back under 469.103.

TDLR describes the same duty as registration, plan review and inspection, with the full construction set going to a registered accessibility specialist under Administrative Rule 68.50. A job under $50,000 need not be registered but is still held to the Texas Accessibility Standards, and the owner may register it anyway on the Special Project Registration form for the project filing fee. What counts toward the estimate, and what TDLR charges: the TDLR sheet for jobs over $50,000.

The local offices send you to the same door. The San Antonio commercial project application guide says the city does not ask for accessibility sheets in its own review, and that a job valued over $50,000 has to go to TDLR for state review. In Atascosa County the Fire Marshal office may refuse the permit application, and construction may not start, until the project is registered at TDLR where Government Code Chapter 469 applies, with the registration number and TDLR Form AB042 turned in (Atascosa County Fire Marshal and Emergency Management Office, permit and inspection process overview, checked 2026-09-13).

Checked at Texas Legislature Online, Government Code Chapter 469, elimination of architectural barriers, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Architectural Barriers frequently asked questions, 2026-09-13.

Checked at City of San Antonio Development Services, commercial project application guide, 2026-09-13.

This one goes by how much soil the job disturbs, not by county. Work disturbing an acre or more of soil, with stormwater running to surface water in the state, needs coverage under the TCEQ construction general permit, and the stormwater pollution prevention plan must be ready and running before the first day of work.

• Five acres or more (large construction): the primary operator puts in a Notice of Intent through STEERS before work starts and a Notice of Termination within 30 days of final stabilization. Filing online costs $225; on paper, $325.

• One acre to under five (small construction): no Notice of Intent; post a signed small construction site notice at the site and send a copy to the storm sewer operator at least two days before work starts.

• Under one acre, when the lot is not part of a wider common plan of development or sale: outside the permit. The current general permit is in force March 5, 2023 through March 5, 2028.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, construction stormwater general permit TXR150000, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, general permit TXR150000, fees, 2026-09-13.

The county, everywhere on this site. Building, installing, altering, extending or repairing a septic system (an on-site sewage facility, in the state's words) requires a permit and approved planning materials, and the permitting office has 30 days from receipt to say yes or no to both the planning materials and the permit application. TCEQ says it is usually not that office itself, and that local programs can be stricter than the state minimums.

All seven counties have their own county authorized agent on the TCEQ record, every one in the TCEQ San Antonio region, so TCEQ is the permitting office nowhere in these seven. Coverage is uneven: the Bexar County agent covers the county except four incorporated places the record names, and the record does not say who permits inside those four; the Guadalupe County agent covers the county except the City of Marion, while Seguin, New Braunfels and San Marcos run their own; and the Wilson and Karnes county agents cover only the unincorporated county.

Who may design the system is set by state rule. A professional engineer or professional sanitarian has to prepare and seal the planning materials for non-standard treatment or disposal and for all new construction on the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, and it has to be a professional engineer where secondary treatment is required. The rules count any building that is not a single-family home or a duplex as a commercial or institutional facility, and that is where a shop or warehouse on its own septic system falls.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, getting a permit for an on-site sewage facility, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality publication RG-472, on-site sewage facility rules compilation, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, On-Site Activity Reporting System, authorized agent search by county, records read for Bexar, Medina, Wilson, Atascosa, Guadalupe, Karnes and Frio, 2026-09-13.

Only on a regulated zone, and only two counties on this site are on the list. On the recharge, transition or contributing zone, construction cannot start until TCEQ approves an Edwards Aquifer protection plan, and for this region its program pages list Bexar, Medina, Comal, Uvalde and Kinney counties. Only parts of the aquifer are regulated, and TCEQ sends you to its own map viewer to find out whether a given site sits over one.

The review calendar is why it goes first. TCEQ sets the administrative review two weeks after submission and gives it up to 30 days; technical review then has 90 calendar days, with two 14-day windows to answer deficiencies; and no construction or other regulated activity may start before approval. What that means for a pad, a parking lot and a schedule: the Edwards Aquifer sheet for Bexar and Medina.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer application and review process, 2026-09-13.

No office posts a total, and the clocks on this page do not all run at once. The longest, where it applies, is the aquifer plan: up to 30 days administrative, then 90 calendar days technical, and no regulated activity before approval. The septic office gets 30 days to rule on planning materials, and Bexar County asks for floodplain and stormwater filings 45 days ahead of the Permit Verification Form. Sequence the job by the longest clock, not the first form. None of this is your project schedule, and this site makes no promise about how fast any office works; these are the windows each office posts for itself.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer application and review process, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, getting a permit for an on-site sewage facility, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Bexar County, Floodplain Development Permits, 2026-09-13.

Six answers, and they are the same six that set the price: the county, and whether the lot is inside a city or inside a city extraterritorial jurisdiction; what the building is for; the footprint and clear span; whether any of the lot is in the 100-year floodplain; whether it sits on a regulated Edwards Aquifer zone; and how the drive gets to the road.

Texas keeps no state license for a home builder or general contractor; there is no state builder license to check before a metal building goes up, and this site never calls a contractor licensed. Electricians, air conditioning and refrigeration contractors and plumbers are licensed by the state on their own. The building goes up under one independent metal building contractor; where the city or the span calls for it, a Texas professional engineer stamps the structural sheets.

Lot, slab, frame and finish, in order: the start-to-finish San Antonio guide.

Checked at Sunset Advisory Commission, Texas Residential Construction Commission; TDLR regulated industries list, 2026-09-13.