Texas Replatting: Application, 30-Day Approval, and Notice Rules

The Texas replatting process lets a property owner redraw the lot lines, easements, or boundaries of an already-recorded subdivision plat by submitting a new plat to the municipal planning authority (for land inside a city) or the county commissioners court (for unincorporated land). The rules live mainly in Chapter 212 of the Local Government Code for cities and Chapter 232 for counties. Most replats can be recorded without vacating the original plat, the reviewing authority has 30 days to act, and residential land carries extra notice and hearing requirements that can trigger a supermajority vote if neighbors protest.

Check Whether an Amending Plat Would Work Instead

Before filing a full replat, look at whether your changes qualify as an amending plat. An amending plat is an administrative shortcut: it skips public notice and hearings and can be signed by the applicants alone. Section 212.016 limits it to a narrow list of purposes, including correcting a survey error, fixing a monument reference, correcting clerical mistakes like lot numbers or street names, adjusting a lot line between adjacent lots when all affected owners sign, and eliminating an encroachment where a building crosses a lot line or easement. Counties have parallel provisions under Section 232.011.¹

The line between amending plat and replat is clear on two points. An amending plat cannot increase the number of lots, and it cannot remove existing deed restrictions or covenants. If your project does either, you need a replat.

Who Reviews Your Replat

Jurisdiction follows location. Land inside a city goes to the municipal planning commission or city council. Land in unincorporated areas goes to the county commissioners court. Land inside a city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction can be subject to municipal subdivision regulations even though it sits outside city limits, and where city and county standards differ, that overlap creates friction.²

Home-rule cities like Houston, Dallas, and Austin typically layer on requirements around zoning compliance, drainage, and utility connections. General-law cities have less regulatory flexibility but still enforce subdivision standards. Counties focus on road access, floodplain management, and water supply. Call the planning office (or the county) before you file to confirm which standards apply to your parcel.

Replatting Without Vacating the Original Plat

Most Texas replats do not require you to vacate the old plat first. Under Section 212.014, a replat can be recorded and control over the earlier plat as long as three things are true: only the owners of the property being replatted sign and acknowledge the new plat, the municipal authority approves it, and the replat does not amend or remove any existing covenants or restrictions.³

That third condition trips up a lot of applicants. If your replat would eliminate a setback line, remove a drainage easement, or strip out deed restrictions binding the subdivision, a simple replat under 212.014 will not carry it. You would need to have the restrictions released through a separate legal process, or in some cases vacate the original plat before recording a new one.

What Goes in the Application

A replat application goes to the municipal planning department or, for unincorporated land, the county commissioners court. The package typically includes a formal plat drawing prepared by a licensed surveyor, legal descriptions of the affected lots, a drainage plan, a utility layout, and any engineering reports the jurisdiction requires. The surveyor must follow Texas Board of Professional Land Surveying standards when establishing the perimeter boundary of the subdivision.

The property owner must acknowledge the plat the same way a deed is acknowledged. An agent can sign on the owner’s behalf with proper authorization, and every owner of property being replatted has to sign, not just the applicant.⁴

Tax Certificates

The county clerk will not record a plat or replat without an original tax certificate from every taxing unit with jurisdiction over the property, showing no delinquent ad valorem taxes. If the certificate does not cover the preceding year, you also need a tax receipt from that unit proving the prior year’s taxes were paid.⁵ This catches people off guard in deals where back taxes have accumulated. The clerk is required to check.

Fees and Survey Costs

Filing fees vary widely. A minor replat in a smaller municipality might cost a few hundred dollars, while a complex replat in a larger city can run into the thousands once per-lot surcharges and engineering review fees are added. The surveyor’s fee for preparing the replat itself typically costs several thousand dollars or more, depending on lot count, terrain, and how much research into prior plats and easements is involved. Get a written estimate from both the surveyor and the planning department before you commit.

The 30-Day Approval Clock

Texas puts a hard timeline on municipal plat review. Under Section 212.009, the reviewing authority must approve, approve with conditions, or disapprove the plat within 30 days after the filing date. If it fails to act inside that window, the plat is approved by default.²

When a city requires approval from both the planning commission and the governing body, each gets its own 30 days. The governing body’s clock starts when the commission approves the plat or when the commission’s 30 days expire without action. Either side can extend the deadline by up to 30 days, but only if the applicant asks in writing and the authority agrees.

If the authority misses its deadline, you can request a certificate stating the filing date and confirming the authority did not act. That certificate substitutes for the formal approval endorsement and lets you proceed to recording.

Extra Requirements for Residential Replats

Standard replats move through review without a public hearing. Section 212.015 layers on extra requirements when the land has a residential history. The extra rules apply if either condition is true: during the preceding five years, any part of the area was zoned for residential use at no more than two units per lot, or any lot in the existing plat carries deed restrictions limiting it to residential use at no more than two units per lot.²

When those conditions apply and the replat needs a variance or exception from existing regulations, a public hearing must be held before the planning commission or city council.

Notice

Notice of the hearing has to go out at least 15 days before the hearing in two forms. The municipality must publish notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the county. It must also send written notice to owners of lots inside the original subdivision within 200 feet of the lots being replatted, based on the most recent tax rolls. The written notice must include the protest provisions.

The 20 Percent Protest Rule

If the replat requires a variance and owners of 20 percent or more of the land within 200 feet of the affected lots file written protests, the replat cannot pass on a simple majority. It needs at least a three-fourths vote of the governing body. That threshold gives neighbors real leverage over changes they see as harmful, especially proposals that would raise density in established residential blocks.

Approval, Conditions, or Denial

The governing body can approve outright, approve with conditions, or deny. Conditional approval is common and often requires the applicant to complete infrastructure work, add drainage features, or modify the plat drawing before final recording.

A conditional approval or denial must come with a written statement spelling out each condition or reason. Each reason must relate directly to the subdivision code and cite the specific statute or ordinance that supports it. The reasons cannot be arbitrary.² A vague finding like “not in character with the neighborhood,” without a cited ordinance, does not meet the statutory standard.

After a conditional approval or denial, you can submit a written response addressing each condition or fixing each reason for disapproval. The authority cannot impose a deadline on that response. Once you submit it, the authority has 15 days to make a final decision. If a denial appears arbitrary or beyond the municipality’s authority, the written statement creates a record that can support a legal challenge, though such challenges are expensive and slow.

Recording the Approved Replat

An approved replat is not final until it is recorded with the county clerk in the county where the property sits. The clerk verifies that the plat carries the required approval endorsements and tax certificates before accepting it for recording.⁵ Recording fees vary by county but generally start around $25 for the first page plus a few dollars per additional page, with plat recordings sometimes carrying higher flat fees.

Recording without proper approval carries criminal exposure. Under Property Code Section 12.002(f), filing a plat or replat without the required approvals or tax certificates is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $10 to $1,000, up to 90 days in county jail, or both. Each violation counts as a separate offense and is treated as prima facie evidence of fraud.⁵ An improperly recorded replat can also cloud title and make the property hard to sell or finance.

Financial Guarantees for Required Improvements

When approval is conditioned on infrastructure work like roads, drainage, water lines, or sewer connections, the municipality can require financial security to guarantee the work gets built. Acceptable forms are a performance bond from a corporate surety, a cash deposit, or a letter of credit from a federally insured financial institution. For a letter of credit, the presiding officer of the governing body must be the sole beneficiary. The bond amount cannot exceed the estimated construction cost.²

When You Have to Vacate Instead of Replat

Sometimes a replat is not enough and you have to vacate the existing plat entirely. Section 212.013 sets two tracks based on whether any lots have been sold.

If no lots have been sold, the proprietors of the tract can vacate at any time by signing and acknowledging a vacating instrument, having it approved, and recording it the same way the original plat was recorded. Once recorded, the vacated plat has no legal effect, and the county clerk marks the original plat “Vacated” with a reference to where the vacating instrument is recorded.⁶

If lots have been sold, vacation gets harder. All lot owners in the plat must join the application, and the vacation goes through the same approval process required for the original plat. In a subdivision with many individual owners, getting universal consent is often impractical, which is why developers in that position usually pursue a replat under Section 212.014 rather than a full vacation.

1
State of Texas. Texas Local Government Code Chapter 232 – County Regulation of Subdivisions
2
State of Texas. Texas Local Government Code Chapter 212 – Municipal Regulation of Subdivisions and Property Development
3
State of Texas. Texas Local Government Code 212-014 – Replatting Without Vacating Preceding Plat
4
State of Texas. Texas Local Government Code 212-004 – Plat Required
5
State of Texas. Texas Property Code Chapter 12 – Recording of Instruments
6
State of Texas. Texas Local Government Code 212-013 – Vacating Plat