Buying Land in Maverick County, Texas

Subdivision rules: a border county carries real, additional requirements

Most of what our Texas state page says about county subdivision authority -- that Texas counties can regulate platting under Local Government Code Chapter 232 but generally can't zone -- is still true in Maverick County. What's different here is that Maverick County's proximity to the border pulls in an entirely separate statutory framework aimed at preventing new colonias: unsafe, underserved subdivisions that historically proliferated in border-area counties without basic water, sewer, or road infrastructure. Because Maverick County sits within 50 miles of the border, it's classified as a "Subchapter B" county under the state's colonias-prevention laws and must apply the Texas Water Development Board's Model Subdivision Rules -- originally drafted in 1990 and formally adopted effective February 2000 -- to new residential subdivisions, regardless of whether the county receives Economically Distressed Areas Program funding. A standalone subdividing-land page covers what those rules actually require of a subdivider here, including specific setback, utility, and financial-guarantee provisions.

Water: no traditional district, but a genuinely new deep-aquifer story

This research did not find a traditional Chapter 36 Groundwater Conservation District covering Maverick County, which means Texas's rule of capture -- pump what you can put to beneficial use, without a district permitting or spacing layer -- applies to ordinary shallow groundwater wells here. But the water picture in Maverick County is more dynamic than "no district" alone suggests: in 2021, the Railroad Commission of Texas's Groundwater Advisory Unit announced the identification of a substantial new deep aquifer, informally named the "Maverick Basin," located thousands of feet down in the Glen Rose Formation and tentatively mapped across Maverick, Zavala, Dimmit, Kinney, and Uvalde Counties. The Railroad Commission has been processing applications (known as P-13 applications) to convert old oil-and-gas wells in the formation into water-supply wells, with some showing artesian flow strong enough to support Eagle Pass Water Works' own federal grant application for new water infrastructure. A standalone well-water page covers what's confirmed about this emerging resource and what a landowner should still verify directly before counting on it.

Existing irrigation in the county leans heavily on surface water rather than groundwater: Maverick County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1, established in 1929, draws from the Rio Grande to serve roughly 45,000 acres of irrigable farmland (about 38,500 of which are currently farmed) through 849 total water accounts, including 549 dedicated irrigation accounts. For agricultural land in the district's service area, water rights and delivery through this long-established district -- not a private well -- are likely the more relevant water question to ask about upfront.

Septic permitting and agricultural valuation

Maverick County falls within TCEQ Region 16, headquartered in Laredo, and this research found no evidence the county has taken on OSSF (septic) authorized-agent status -- plan on that regional office handling permitting for unincorporated land rather than a dedicated county department, and confirm current forms and fees directly. Given the county's real irrigated-agriculture and ranching base, it's also worth confirming directly with the Maverick County Appraisal District what documentation is required to maintain or transfer an agricultural (1-d-1) valuation, since a change in ownership or use can prompt a review and a rollback tax recapturing prior years' tax savings if the land is converted away from qualifying use.