Buying Land in Dallas County, Iowa

Zoning and subdivision: one department, in a county rewriting its own rulebook

Unincorporated Dallas County is governed by Chapter 45 (the Zoning Ordinance for the Unincorporated Area of Dallas County) and Chapter 42 (Subdivision Regulations), both part of Title V of the county code and both administered by the Department of Planning and Development. The county created this department in the early 1990s specifically because the unincorporated county's needs were already outgrowing an ad hoc approach -- decades before Dallas County became a nationally recognized growth story. The department handles subdivision review, rezonings, conditional use permits, building inspection, code enforcement, and floodplain management, with the Planning and Zoning Commission reviewing preliminary and final plats, conditional use permits, and zoning-map and comprehensive-plan amendments before they reach the Board of Supervisors.

What's specific to Dallas County: the county is, as of this review, actively rewriting its Comprehensive Plan with a 2045 planning horizon, having selected MSA Professional Services as its lead planning consultant after a request-for-proposals process that closed in January 2026. The county's own framing is direct -- as one of Iowa's fastest-growing counties, it needs a genuinely updated, forward-looking policy guide, not an incremental patch to an older plan. For a land buyer, this means the current zoning map, comprehensive plan, and even parts of the zoning and subdivision ordinances themselves are a target actively being revised, not a settled backdrop. Confirm with the Department of Planning and Development whether a specific parcel's zoning district, or any nearby zoning-map changes under consideration, are affected by the plan update before treating the current map as a long-term certainty.

Iowa law also lets a city establish, by its own ordinance, an extraterritorial review area extending up to two miles beyond its boundaries in which the city reviews new subdivisions in addition to the county; where a parcel falls within both the county's subdivision jurisdiction and a city's declared review area, the subdivision must go to both bodies for approval. With Waukee, Adel, West Des Moines, Clive, Dallas Center, Perry, and Van Meter all active in a fast-growing county, this two-mile mechanism is more likely to matter here in practice than in a slower-growing Iowa county -- confirm directly with the Department of Planning and Development whether a specific unincorporated parcel falls within any city's extraterritorial review area before assuming a county-only subdivision process applies. See our dedicated subdividing-land page for this county for more on what that means in practice.

Wells and septic: a dedicated Environmental Health Department since the early 1970s

Dallas County Environmental Health -- an agency of the county Board of Health, founded in the early 1970s -- is the administrative authority for private septic and private well permitting countywide, separate from the Department of Planning and Development. A soil analysis and system design from an approved entity is required before the county will issue a septic installation permit. For wells, any work that meets the Iowa DNR's definition of 'well services' (well construction, reconstruction, or plugging) must be performed either by the well's owner or by an Iowa DNR Certified Well Contractor. The department also runs well testing, reconstruction, and closure services under the state's Grants to Counties Program, along with broader water-quality, solid-waste, nuisance, indoor-air/radon, and public-pool/tattoo-shop inspection programs under contract with the Iowa Department of Public Health. Reach Environmental Health directly at (515) 993-5803 for septic and well questions -- this is a different office and phone line than Planning and Development.

Floodplain: the Raccoon River, and a documented 1993 flood well above the 100-year mark

The Raccoon River (and North Raccoon River) runs through Dallas County, including Van Meter Township, and the Department of Planning and Development maintains the current FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps used to determine a specific parcel's flood-hazard status. The county's flood history here is real and quantified rather than theoretical: the flood of July 9-11, 1993 produced a peak discharge of 70,100 cubic feet per second on the Raccoon River at Van Meter, 1.3 times the calculated 100-year recurrence-interval discharge for that stretch of river, according to a USGS open-file report on the event. Downstream, forecast impact statements for the North Raccoon River near Perry describe real, specific consequences at moderate flood stages -- at 21.6 feet, water covers a two-block stretch of Grove Street in Adel and runs two to three feet deep over the south entrance to the Dallas County Fairgrounds.

For a buyer, the practical takeaway is that Dallas County's flood risk is not confined to a narrow, obviously-riverside strip -- the 1993 event exceeded modeled 100-year expectations by 30%, and documented flood impacts extend into Adel's streets and the county fairgrounds at moderate flood stages. Pull the current FIRM for any parcel near the Raccoon River or North Raccoon River, and confirm flood-zone status and any floodplain development permit requirements directly with the Department of Planning and Development before assuming a parcel's distance from the riverbank alone settles the question.