Do I need a permit for a driveway or patio in Arlington, TX?

The approach is the apron of concrete from the back of the sidewalk, or your front property line, down to the street curb. It looks like part of your driveway, but it is not on your land. That strip is public right-of-way, and the City of Arlington's own homeowner guide is blunt about it: for drive approaches, a City permit is required, and the City recommends a licensed contractor do the work because a homeowner's insurance does not cover what the City asks of anyone working in the right-of-way.

The reason is the curb. Cutting a curb, tying a new apron into a concrete street or an asphalt one, and matching the gutter line so storm water keeps moving are all things that affect the street, the drainage and the people walking past. The City wants the approach built to its standard detail and inspected, and the same department has project engineers who answer questions about right-of-way work.

On a driveway replacement we pull the approach permit, pour the approach to the City's detail and schedule the inspection as part of the job. If you are only replacing the driveway on your side of the line and leaving the approach alone, the approach permit does not come into it.

For a one- or two-family home, the City's Work Exempt From Permitting bulletin lists an uncovered deck or uncovered patio that is 30 inches or less above grade at any point as work that does not need a building permit. A ground-level patio slab is exactly that. The City's permit FAQ also lists sidewalks not in City right-of-way as work that needs no permit, which covers a walkway on your lot. A driveway slab on your side of the property line is not named on either list, so ask the City at 817-459-6502 before you pour it. Add a roof, walls or a raised deck and you are back in permit territory.

Exempt from the permit is not exempt from the rules, and the bulletin says so. Two conditions sit right under the patio exemption. First, a slab that sits more than 12 inches above the average level of the adjoining ground cannot intrude into any building setback or a zero-lot-line maintenance easement. Second, placing a patio cannot re-divert surface water onto the adjoining property or get in the way of maintenance in an easement. That second rule is the one we design around, because it is also the difference between a patio that lasts and one that floods.

A patio that sheds water toward the neighbor's fence is a code problem. A patio that sheds water toward your own foundation is a worse problem, for you. We set the slope away from the house, about 1/8 inch per foot at minimum, so the water leaves the slab and reaches a place that can take it. Subgrade matters for the same reason: concrete over loose fill settles, the slope reverses, and the water goes where it should not. Compacted base first, then concrete.

A concrete pad is judged by what goes on it. The City's guide says a storage shed over 100 square feet requires a permit, and the exemption bulletin matches it: a one-story detached accessory structure used as a tool or storage shed is exempt only while the floor area is 100 square feet or less. A 10 by 10 shed slab is under the line. A 12 by 16 is not, and the permit covers the building and the slab together.

Carports have their own rules in the City's Unified Development Code, and the year your house was built and whether the carport goes in the front yard both affect what is allowed. The City asks you to call 817-459-6502 and ask for the Planner, or read Section 3.3.6 of the UDC, before you plan one. We pour the pad, and our sister shop CJM Metals builds the steel carport on it, so the permit, the anchor layout and the slab get planned as one job instead of two.

Setbacks apply to anything that counts as a structure, and the City does not permit structures inside them. Your site survey shows the setback lines and the utility easements on your lot. If you do not have one, the City tells homeowners to get a survey rather than guess, and we agree. A shed slab poured two feet into a drainage easement is a slab that may have to come out.

Arlington's Unified Development Code sets a maximum lot coverage for single-family lots, and the City's own permit guide lists lot area coverage as one of the first things to check. The exact percentage, and whether paving in your front yard carries its own limit, depends on your zoning district, so look your property up on the City's online zoning map and check the residential district standards in Section 2.2 of the UDC, or ask Planning and Development Services. A wide driveway extension or a large patio on a small lot can run into that ceiling even when the slab itself needs no permit.

The point of the coverage rule is drainage. Every square foot of concrete is a square foot of rain that no longer soaks in and has to go somewhere. The patio exemption says it in plain words: do not re-divert surface water onto the adjoining property. We grade the slab, the edges and the landscape around it so the water has a path, and on a tight lot we will talk you out of paving the whole thing.

There is one rule that pushes the other way. Arlington's nuisance code says a vehicle parked in a front yard must sit on a concrete or asphalt surface suitable for parking, and the side and rear yards need the same or a screening fence. If you have been parking on the grass, a driveway extension or a parking strip is how you get legal. Corner lots carry higher parking standards, so ask Code Compliance before you pour one there.

Permits run through Planning and Development Services. Apply online at arlingtonpermits.com, which opens the City's Arlington Permits portal at ap.arlingtontx.gov, or go in person to the One Start Development Center on the second floor of City Hall, 101 W. Abram Street. Questions go to 817-459-6502. Expect to show a simple site plan with the slab location, dimensions and its distance to the property lines.

For right-of-way work, the contractor normally pulls the permit, and the City's guide steers homeowners that way on purpose. Whoever does it, put it in the contract in writing so it does not fall through the gap between you and the crew. If you are in an HOA, its approval is a separate step and does not replace the City's permit, and most HOAs want to see a patio or driveway change before it is poured, not after.

Skipping the approach permit means an unpermitted cut in a City street, and that can bring a stop-work order, a citation or an order to tear it out and rebuild it to standard. Flatwork poured into a setback, an easement or over the coverage limit can face the same removal order even though no permit was ever due. Demolition is the one part of a concrete job nobody enjoys paying for twice. Call us at (214) 603-9142 and we will tell you up front which pieces of your project need paper and which do not.