Subdividing Land in Gonzales County, Texas: The 2024 Rewrite

From a 12-year-old ordinance to a 149-page rewrite

Gonzales County's Commissioners Court unanimously approved a completely new subdivision ordinance on October 28, 2024, replacing rules that had originally been adopted in 2007 and last amended in 2012 -- more than a decade without a substantive update before this rewrite. The new, 149-page ordinance was drafted by attorney Eric Gomez of Braun & Gresham, a land-use and real estate law firm based in Dripping Springs that works with a number of fast-growing Texas counties on exactly this kind of subdivision-code modernization. Getting to the final vote wasn't friction-free: contemporaneous local reporting on the commissioners-court workshops describes tense exchanges between Precinct 2 Commissioner Donnie Brzozowski and a local developer over whether the court was moving too quickly, exchanges that reportedly widened into a broader disagreement about development conditions in the county more generally -- a sign that the rewrite responded to real, felt development pressure, not an abstract legal cleanup.

The headline change: road frontage jumped from 50 to 100 feet

The single most consequential provision in the new ordinance is a doubled minimum road-frontage requirement, from 50 feet to 100 feet for a new lot created by subdivision. Local reporting on the change was direct about its purpose: the increase "should basically do away with flag lots" -- the long, narrow parcels that reach a public road through only a thin access strip while the bulk of the lot sits behind other properties. That's a real, structural shift in what a rural land split can look like here going forward: a landowner planning to carve off a back portion of a larger tract for a family member or a sale, using a narrow road-access strip, needs to check the new 100-foot standard against the specific tract's road frontage before assuming a common older subdivision pattern will still work.

The ordinance also addresses driveway standards off a county road, including a minimum required distance between driveways, and covers minimum lot sizes, provisions for public streets and any streets the county might choose to accept for maintenance in the future, and water-availability requirements for a proposed subdivision. Separately, the new rules give the Commissioners Court explicit authority to grant a variance or exception for anything not already addressed by the Texas Local Government Code itself -- a formal, discretionary release valve that didn't necessarily exist in the same form under the prior 2007/2012 rules.

What to check before subdividing or buying a recently split tract

1. Measure the actual road frontage on any tract being considered for a subdivision plan, and confirm it against the new 100-foot minimum -- don't assume a narrower, flag-lot-style layout that might have worked under the old rules still qualifies.
2. If buying a lot that was already created by a subdivision recorded before October 28, 2024, ask the county whether it was platted under the prior rules and whether that status is grandfathered, since the new ordinance's frontage and lot-size standards apply going forward rather than retroactively voiding an already-recorded plat.
3. Check the new ordinance's driveway-spacing and water-availability requirements directly against a specific development plan -- both were specifically identified as new or revised provisions, not carryovers from the 2007/2012 rules.
4. If a planned subdivision can't meet the new frontage or lot-size standards, ask the Permits Office directly about the variance/exception process the Commissioners Court now has explicit authority to grant, including its own application form and any fee.