North Dallas Concrete Permits: What Each Suburb Requires

Your city limits decide the permit, not your mailing address

One rule applies to every Texas city. Local Government Code 214.212 makes the International Residential Code the statewide residential building code, and it lets each city adopt amendments and newer editions on top. That's why The Colony, Frisco, Plano and Carrollton enforce the 2024 IRC while Lewisville and Prosper still list the 2021 edition. Every city also wrote its own permit-exempt list, so North Dallas concrete permits don't line up from one town to the next.

Don't trust your mailing address to tell you who's in charge. South Haven, a 105-home neighborhood off East Belt Line Road, shares Coppell's ZIP code and school district, yet it lies inside the City of Irving, which provides its services. Check the city limits on your tax record before you phone a permit desk. Own a lot in unincorporated Savannah or Paloma Creek? Denton County Development Services is your office. If you're weighing a new concrete driveway or a back patio, the table below shows how each city handles it.

North Dallas Concrete Permits, City by City

Each fee comes straight from that city's posted schedule. Cities revise them at budget time, so ask the desk to confirm the line item before you set a budget.

What It Costs

The posted permit fees above top out at $250, plus Carrollton's per-sq-ft right-of-way inspection fee. The concrete is the bigger line, and below are our ranges for the North Dallas suburbs. Every job starts with a free estimate.

Treat these as ranges, not bids. City approach specs, soil, site access, thickness and the North Dallas concrete permits a job needs all move the number, so we fix it in a free written estimate after we see the site.

The approach is the slab the city inspects hardest

Between your property line and the street lies the right-of-way, and that's the stretch where cities write their strictest specs. The Colony splits inspections by location: Engineering looks at approaches and city sidewalks, and Building Inspections only checks walks within 5 ft of the house. Its packet asks for an 8 inch excavation, #3 bars on chairs at 12 inches each way, #4 smooth dowels at 24 inches epoxied 6 inches into the street, and 4,000 psi concrete. Once the street and curb are cut out, you've got 72 hours to pour the approach. If the gap runs longer, the city can require a new compaction report or have the work removed.

Lewisville's Standard Detail 4.05 sets a different clock and a different mix. You build 6 inches of high-early-strength 4,200 psi concrete with No. 4 bars at 18 inches, and you do it within 5 days of sawcutting the pavement. Plano asks for a 6 inch, 3,000 psi approach reinforced with #3 bars on chairs at 24 inches, an inspection ahead of the pour, and a 4 ft walk holding a 2% grade across the driveway. Carrollton ties approach thickness to the street itself and sets a floor of 7 inches.

In Frisco and Allen, a second office owns this piece. Frisco wants a Public Works right-of-way permit and a free right-of-way contractor registration. Allen put its right-of-way applications online on March 3, 2026, and tells applicants to allow 10 business days. Don't forget water meters. Plano's alley detail bars them from the driveway, and The Colony makes the general contractor call Public Works to relocate one.

Contractor registration and whose name goes on the permit

Each city in this guide keeps a roster of registered contractors, and each one treats homeowners differently. In The Colony, Code Sec. 6-21 bars any contractor who needs a permit from excavation or concrete flatwork unless the city has registered them. Registration runs $75 a year, and a right-of-way permit requires an active one. Homeowners acting as their own general contractor submit a Homeowner Registration Form at no charge.

Plano registers general contractors at $100 a year. Its amended code also lets a homeowner pull permits for work at their own residence without registering. The permit handout includes a warning that bears repeating: walk away from any contractor who says no permits or inspections are required. Lewisville charges general contractors $80 a year and asks for a certificate of liability insurance of at least $100,000. Carrollton charges $0. Allen's fee is $50 a year through the Citizen Self-Service portal, and homeowners who do their own work sign a Homeowner's Affidavit.

Frisco ties the registration number to insurance, so the R-Number lapses on the same day as the contractor's general liability policy. Prosper requires a hired contractor to obtain the permit, since contractors must register with the town, and a homeowner doing the work needs the same permits as a contractor. Before you sign a contract, search for the company on the city's registered-contractor lookup. Plano's eTRAKiT portal and Prosper's CSS portal each offer one.

How Your Job Goes

1. Consultation and design

   We walk the lot and measure it, then work out which city or county desk issues North Dallas concrete permits for that lot, where the right-of-way begins and whether an HOA letter is needed.

2. Planning and preparation

   Before forms go in, we get the permit paperwork, the HOA letter and the Texas811 ticket lined up. The pour date follows the inspection calendar.

3. Installation and completion

   Crews set forms and steel. Where the city wants a pre-pour inspection, we book it. Then we place, finish and cure the concrete ahead of the final inspection.

Patios, slabs and walls: where the size thresholds sit

Patios, slabs and walls carry their own size triggers. The Colony's city sheet puts a Residential Building permit ahead of any flatwork, and its 2026 patio handout sets the trigger at 120 sq ft or 30 inches of height. Plan on pulling a permit for a concrete patio there, and confirm with Building Inspections. That handout also requires a patio to sit at least 3 ft from every property line, stay out of the required front yard, and avoid any platted easement unless a license agreement covers it. Engineered plans are required for structures and foundations of 400 sq ft or more, and for any attached to the house.

Shed pads follow accessory-building limits. Plano and Carrollton trimmed the model code's 200 sq ft shed exemption to 120 sq ft. Allen exempts sheds up to 120 sq ft as well. Lewisville wants a permit once a shed passes 120 sq ft, and it keeps the building 5 ft off side and rear lines. A concrete slab under a larger shop starts the permit process.

Walls show the widest gaps. The Colony permits a retaining wall taller than 4 ft or standing 2 ft above grade. Plano exempts walls up to 4 ft with no surcharge. Carrollton permits walls from 4 ft up, and since January 1, 2026 it also permits any wall within 4 ft of a right-of-way at any height. Our retaining wall page covers the build itself. Plano's amended code also requires a Texas-registered engineer to design and seal every foundation or footing, so new concrete foundations there start at the engineer's desk.

Front-yard paving caps that limit a wider driveway

Zoning stops a wider driveway before concrete ever does. Each city limits how much of the front yard you can pave, and the limits differ enough that a plan legal in one town fails in the next.

• Plano: in single-family and two-family districts, front-yard pavement tops out at 55% of the area between the property line and the building face. Approaches run 12 to 24 ft wide.
• Frisco: front-entry lot guidelines hold impermeable surface to 50% of the area between the property line and the building line, and a driveway meeting a street can reach 22 ft at most.
• Lewisville: a front-yard parking surface stops at 27 ft wide on lots 60 ft or wider. On lots over 4,000 sq ft, parking and driveway together can cover no more than 45% of the required front yard. When the lot backs an alley, the driveway has to use it.
• The Colony: a front entry driveway stays at 24 ft wide or less, and vehicles, RVs and trailers may sit in the front yard only on that designated driveway.
• Carrollton: total driveway width may not exceed 50 percent of the lot's frontage on each street, and a circular driveway takes at least 65 ft of frontage.

Work through these limits on your own lot before you ask anyone to price an extra parking pad. Our guide to HOA approval for driveways and patios covers the association side of the same question, and the Plano driveway page digs further into that city's approach.

Inspections, weather calls and how long permits take

Getting your North Dallas concrete permits is half the schedule. The inspection calendar decides when you can pour. Lewisville inspects driveway and flatwork jobs after the steel goes in and before the concrete shows up. Next-day requests close at 3 p.m., and a Monday inspection has to be requested before 10 a.m. on Friday. Plano requires a driveway inspection before the pour and a final, and the permit holder requests both. Carrollton runs one inspection round a day. Book before 7 a.m. for same-day service, and don't count on Friday afternoons. Frisco contractors request inspections through eTRAKiT, and the city takes no inspection requests by phone.

Weather can cancel an inspection even when your forms are ready. The Colony skips concrete when the inspector judges the ground too wet, and it also skips it unless the temperature is at least 38 degrees and rising. Lewisville passes on concrete inspections in wet conditions too. The cold season makes that real, because DFW Airport averages 10.6 days at or below freezing in January.

The cities post their review times. In The Colony, a plan review response takes 10 to 15 business days, and Prosper reviews minor flatwork permits in five business days. State law caps the wait: Local Government Code 214.904 gives a city 45 days to grant or deny a building permit application, explain in writing why it can't, or agree on a deadline; miss that and it can't keep the fee. Pouring without a permit costs more than waiting for one. The Colony and Frisco charge double for work started without a permit, and Carrollton tacks on an investigation fee equal to the permit fee.

Texas811, lake land and floodplain sign-offs

A few approvals come from outside the permit office. Texas law requires anyone excavating to contact the one-call center at least 48 hours before digging and no sooner than 14 days ahead, weekends and holidays not counted. Texas811 adds that every excavating party needs its own ticket. Allen has a city step on top: email its locate desk your right-of-way permit number and the 811 ticket at least 48 hours in advance. The city doesn't locate private water lines past the meter, nor sewer or irrigation lines, so book a private locate for those.

Lakefront lots pull in federal rules. At Lewisville Lake, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers holds a flowage easement on land at and below the 537.0 ft contour, and work inside it needs written Corps permission. The Colony adds its own layer: a lot beside Corps lake property needs a separate permit from the Lake Manager's Office, submitted with the city application.

Floodplain lots bring another sign-off. The Colony asks for a Floodplain Development Permit on projects in the fully developed 100-year floodplain. Denton County requires a permit to excavate in a flood zone in unincorporated areas, and a residential development permit costs $250 there instead of $100. Out in unincorporated Collin County, a driveway tying into a county road needs a Culvert/Driveway Permit from Collin County Engineering, built 12 to 20 ft wide. Pull your parcel up on the FEMA flood map before planning a pour near a creek. Put these outside sign-offs on the checklist beside your North Dallas concrete permits, and your pour date stops being a guess.