RV Campgrounds and RV Parks in Fannin County, Texas

A dedicated ordinance, not a subdivision-rule afterthought

Fannin County's Commissioners Court adopted a standalone Order Adopting Recreational Vehicle Park Regulations on November 14, 2023, and amended it again on January 23, 2024 -- meaning RV parks here are governed by their own dedicated county ordinance rather than being treated as an incidental subdivision type folded into the county's general platting rules. That distinction matters for anyone planning an RV park or campground: the applicable rulebook is a document written specifically for this use, and it has already been revised once within its first few months, which is worth keeping in mind when relying on any older summary of its terms.

The application path runs through the county's Director of Development Services: a landowner intending to develop RV park land must submit three copies of an Infrastructure Development Plan (IDP), along with supporting documentation, to that office. The Commissioners Court then has up to 60 days from submission to approve or reject the application -- a specific, checkable timeline rather than an open-ended review, though it's still worth confirming current turnaround in practice, since a stated maximum and an actual typical wait aren't always the same thing.

Water certification, emergency access, and the Ranchette carve-out

Two requirements stand out as genuinely specific to Fannin County's RV park process rather than boilerplate. First, the regulations tie plat approval to a groundwater certification requirement for the park's water source -- a plat lacking that certification can be denied on that basis alone, which means securing and documenting a compliant water source is a precondition for approval, not a detail to sort out after the fact. Second, the ordinance requires that RV parks have specified street or road plans sufficient to provide ingress and egress for fire and emergency vehicles, a life-safety standard the county evidently considered worth writing into the RV-specific rules directly rather than relying solely on general road standards.

Perhaps the most specific finding: Fannin County's subdivision framework explicitly prohibits both RV parks and Mobile Home Rental Communities within land platted as a "Ranchette" subdivision -- a defined subdivision category in the county's own regulations. That means the zoning-adjacent question for a prospective RV park site in Fannin County is not just "is this unincorporated land," but specifically "is this parcel platted as a Ranchette subdivision," since that classification forecloses the use outright regardless of acreage or road access. Confirm a specific tract's platted subdivision type with the county before assuming an RV park is a permitted use there.

Before developing an RV park or campground in Fannin County

1. Get the current, amended text of the RV Park Regulations (as revised January 23, 2024) directly from Fannin County Development Services rather than relying on the original November 2023 version.
2. Confirm whether the target parcel is platted as a "Ranchette" subdivision before planning an RV park there -- that classification specifically bars both RV parks and Mobile Home Rental Communities under the county's own rules.
3. Line up a groundwater source and its required certification early, since plat approval can be denied without it -- this is a precondition, not a follow-up item.
4. Budget the full 60-day Commissioners Court review window into a project timeline, and confirm current typical turnaround with the Director of Development Services rather than assuming the maximum equals the average.
5. If the site sits within 5,000 feet of Lake Bonham, Lake Ralph Hall, or Bois d'Arc Lake, check the separate Lake Zoning Regulations covered on the county hub and its standalone zoning page -- those rules apply on top of, not instead of, the RV Park Regulations.