Do I need a driveway permit for my metal building site?

That one question sorts it. State highway: TxDOT. County-maintained road: the county. City street: the city. A shop, a warehouse or a storage building on a raw tract usually needs one of the three before a truck reaches the pad.

The state side is the most uniform. A new or changed driveway onto a state highway means filing Form 1058 at the local TxDOT district office, under Texas Administrative Code Title 43, Chapter 11, Subchapter C. Only the owner or an authorized representative may apply, and the application has to be about reaching the property, not about parking or servicing vehicles in the right of way.

The county side shifts at every county line. Six of the seven counties here post a driveway, culvert or right-of-way permit of their own. Frio County posts none, which describes its site and is not a license to cut in an access without asking.

Checked at Texas Department of Transportation, access management manual, driveway permits, 2026-09-13.

A permit in hand before anyone touches the right of way, then notice and an inspection. The right of way stays untouched until the permit is executed in full and TxDOT has 24 hours notice, and a TxDOT inspector looks over the finished drive before it counts as an authorized permitted installation. The manual sets the connection at 75 to 90 degrees, with 45 to 90 degrees allowed only onto one-way frontage roads or lane divided highways. The pages checked post no fee and no review time.

Six of the seven counties fall in one district. The TxDOT San Antonio District, 4615 NW Loop 410, general information 210-615-1110, lists Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Frio, Guadalupe, Kendall, Kerr, McMullen, Medina, Uvalde and Wilson. Karnes County is not on that list, so a Karnes drive belongs to another TxDOT district.

On an industrial building or warehouse whose site plan hangs on where trucks come in, file that application before the building is laid out on paper.

Checked at Texas Department of Transportation, access management manual, driveway permits, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Department of Transportation, San Antonio District, 2026-09-13.

That happens where a city holds the authority. The access management manual lays out how a city can be granted permitting authority over the state highways inside its jurisdiction; a city that has it issues the permits itself, then sends TxDOT a copy of each approved permit within 10 working days and before any access work starts.

So for highway frontage inside a city, call the city first and the district second. No page checked for this site says which cities here hold that authority, so it takes a phone call, not an assumption.

Checked at Texas Department of Transportation, access management manual, approval process for local guidelines, 2026-09-13.

A different office in each county, under a different name, at a different price, and most charge several times more for a commercial drive than a residential one. What each county posts about access onto its own roads, checked at its own site or fee document on 2026-09-13:

• Bexar County. Public Works controls all construction in county-maintained rights of way, including driveways that access county roads, so a right-of-way permit is required. The published fees are $35 per driveway for a driveway, or a driveway and flatwork, $75 per median opening, $75 per auxiliary lane, and $35 per service line connection for utilities. Once the permit is issued the applicant calls the Bexar County inspector to approve construction. Bexar County Public Works, Development Services Section, 210-335-6700. Checked at the county Right-of-Way Permits page, 2026-09-13.

• Medina County. Driveway and utility permits are issued through the individual Precinct Commissioner rather than a central permit office, so the applicant contacts the commissioner for the precinct the property sits in: Precinct 1 at 830-741-6016, Precinct 2 at 830-931-4000, Precinct 3 at 830-741-6006, Precinct 4 at 830-665-8015. The county publishes septic and floodplain fees at its Environmental Health office and no driveway amount, so ask the commissioner what it costs. Checked at the county permit list and the Environmental Health Group page, 2026-09-13.

• Wilson County. A driveway onto a county road is permitted through the county PIPROW permit. The fee sheet prices a commercial driveway at $750.00 for 24 to 100 feet, with an additional $750.00 over 100 feet, a residential and agriculture driveway at $250.00 for 12 to 24 feet, and a temporary or construction driveway at $100.00 credited to the permanent one. The county publishes a driveway specifications standard with the application. Wilson County Permitting and Development, Floresville, 830-393-8357. Checked at the county fee sheet, 2026-09-13.

• Atascosa County. The Comprehensive Fee Schedule sets a commercial driveway permit at $500 per driveway against $25 residential, and commercial utility construction in county right of way at $500 per mile or part of a mile. The county adopted commercial driveway standards and a permitting process on June 25, 2018, and its spacing and sight rules are further down this page. The county states that these fees are subject to change. Atascosa County, 830-769-3093. Checked at the county fee schedule and driveway standards, 2026-09-13.

• Guadalupe County. Road and Bridge charges $100 for a work in right-of-way permit for a private or temporary driveway simple crossing and $500 for a commercial driveway permit, with excavation permits from $1,200 to $2,800. Fees are doubled where development or construction starts before approval. The schedule is effective March 12, 2025, and the department sits at 310 IH 10 West, Seguin, 830-379-9721. Checked at the county fee schedule and County Engineer page, 2026-09-13.

• Karnes County. The county subdivision and development rules require a county driveway permit before any driveway may connect to a publicly dedicated road, built to the specifications stated in the permit, and name the Karnes County Health and Public Safety Office as the issuing office. Those rules are dated May 30, 2013, that office name does not appear in the current county department list, and the Road and Bridge page lists no permits. The online portal offers a road crossing application and no driveway or culvert application by that name, and no driveway fee is published anywhere on the county site. Karnes County Special Projects and Permits, 830-780-3511. Checked at the county subdivision rules and permits page, 2026-09-13.

• Frio County. No driveway permit and no culvert permit appears on the county site. The Road and Bridge page publishes utility and pipeline permits for county right of way, and the fee schedule prices road crossings only in that context, at $500.00 per road crossing, rather than as a driveway. Confirm with Road and Bridge before cutting an access onto a county road. Frio County Road and Bridge Department, Pearsall, 830-505-7402. Checked at the county Road and Bridge pages and fee schedule, 2026-09-13.

The county and the ditch decide, and only one county here posts the detail. Bexar County posts typical details for a drive without a curb, drawn both with and without a culvert pipe, so it plans for both. Checked at the Bexar County Right-of-Way Permits page, 2026-09-13.

No document checked for this site sets a pipe size, pipe material or ditch grade in any county here, so this site prints none. Where a county has a standard, the permit is issued against it: Wilson County posts a driveway specifications standard with its application, and Atascosa County adopted commercial driveway standards in 2018. Get the one for your road before the dirt work goes out to bid.

The city permits it, and not always through its building department. Devine, in Medina County, sends public works inspections for driveways, curb cuts and culverts through its Code Compliance Department, apart from the outside company that does its building inspections. Checked at the city adopted codes and building requirements document, 2026-09-13.

Devine is the only city in these seven counties whose own pages, as checked for this site, say anything about a driveway or a curb cut. For every other city here, San Antonio included, the pages checked cover building permits and plan review and give no driveway rule, so ask the city instead of reading a rule into the silence.

They reach it, and in Bexar County the form says so. Bexar County Public Works reviews every construction activity on property near the 100-year floodplain, and the county application lists clearing and grading, fill, excavation, a driveway, culverts, drainage structures, a parking lot, septic and utilities among its triggers. The fee is $50 per activity, a flood study by a professional engineer may be required, and the county suggests filing stormwater and floodplain permits at least 45 days ahead of the Permit Verification Form.

The other six get to the same ground through their own definitions of development. Medina County requires a permit for any man-made change to real estate in the floodplain, listing filling, grading, paving and storage of materials, at $45.00. Guadalupe County defines development to include filling, grading, paving, excavation and drilling, with a $300 fee. The Frio County application covers non-residential structures by name. Atascosa County names its Emergency Management Coordinator Floodplain Administrator. The Karnes County subdivision and development rules mention a floodplain development permit by name, but the county posts no standalone floodplain permit page, no fee and no named administrator, and the question runs through the county development permit application, so call the permits office at 830-780-3511. Checked at each county site, 2026-09-13.

A driveway is filling, grading and paving. A drive that dips through a low spot on its way out can bring a floodplain permit onto a job whose building sits high and dry, so put the access on the flood map when you put the pad there.

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

On the recharge zone, the plan covers it. On the recharge, transition or contributing zone, construction cannot start until TCEQ approves an Edwards Aquifer protection plan, and for the San Antonio region its program pages list Bexar, Medina, Comal, Uvalde and Kinney counties. On the recharge zone, nothing regulated happens without an approved water pollution abatement plan, and TCEQ's list covers putting up buildings, utility stations, roads, highways and railroads, plus clearing, digging, and anything else that disturbs the lay of the ground, its geology or how it takes in recharge.

A drive also counts as impervious cover. TCEQ counts rooftops, driveways, concrete pads, sheds and sidewalks, and that total is the math behind the private-residence cases where a homeowner may not need an individual plan. A long paved approach to a storage building for equipment or RVs can move that percentage by itself. Only parts of the aquifer are regulated, and TCEQ sends you to its own map viewer to see whether a lot sits over a regulated zone.

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

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, what plans you might need, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer private residences, 2026-09-13.

No page checked for this site gives a dimension, and this site will not make one up. The records do give the outline a design must fit. Atascosa County spaces commercial drives at least 60 feet apart, 120 feet on major thoroughfares, allows only one drive on a commercial tract with 95 feet or less of public street frontage, and sets a 300-foot sight requirement. Wilson County prices a commercial drive in width bands, 24 feet minimum and 100 feet maximum before the second fee. TxDOT sets the connection angle on a state highway at 75 to 90 degrees.

The rest of a dock approach is engineering: the turning radius a tractor and trailer need, the pavement section under the wheel loads, the cross slope that keeps water away from the door. Put those on the site plan before the footprint is fixed, since moving a door is cheap on paper and costly in steel. The pad and the drive are one dirt job, planned together on the pad and site prep sheet.

Sooner than most owners expect, because the construction traffic runs on it. Concrete trucks, a crane and the steel delivery all cross the ground the finished drive will sit on, and a temporary access nobody permitted is still an access onto a public road. Wilson County prices that case outright: $100.00 for a temporary or construction driveway, credited toward the permanent one. Checked at the Wilson County fee sheet, 2026-09-13.

The permits run on clocks nobody on the job controls. TxDOT posts no review time at all, Bexar County lists right-of-way permit review at 15 to 30 days, and the same county suggests filing stormwater and floodplain permits at least 45 days ahead of the Permit Verification Form. Checked at the TxDOT access management manual and the Bexar County Public Works Permit Verification Guidelines, 2026-09-13. So: settle where the access goes, file the access and floodplain applications, then shape the pad. The whole sequence: the start-to-finish San Antonio guide.

The dirt work and concrete are contractor scope. The application usually falls to the owner, since TxDOT says only the owner or an authorized representative may apply. The culvert and apron get built to a county detail and inspected before the access counts as permitted.

Texas does not license the builder, so on this job the paper that counts is the executed permit and the inspector who signs off the finished apron. One independent metal building contractor coordinates the access work and prices it.

Ask any contractor bidding the job which of these are in the contract and which stay with you: the access application and fee, the culvert, the apron, the inspection call, and the temporary drive. Get the split in the written estimate. The rest of the county list, for Bexar County, TX and the six counties around it, is its own sheet.

Checked at Texas Department of Transportation, access management manual, driveway permits, 2026-09-13.

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