Flat Texas Gulf coastal prairie with brackish sloughs, cordgrass, and wind-shaped live oaks leaning inland.
Nueces County 2021 IRC as adopted here TDI windstorm area

Barndominium Builders in Corpus Christi, TX

Two codes reach a Corpus Christi barndominium, and they are there for different reasons. The City of Corpus Christi enforces the 2021 International Residential Code at Code section 14-291, with a long list of local amendments and several outright deletions, and that is the edition the permit and the city's inspections are measured against. Separately, because Nueces County lies wholly inside the designated catastrophe area, 28 TAC section 5.4013 requires work begun on or after 1 April 2026 to comply with the 2024 IRC or 2024 IBC to be eligible for catastrophe property insurance. The city's own Building Division published a bulletin saying so in January 2026. Neither displaces the other. And Corpus Christi still has land: about 30,000 acres inside the limits carry Farm-Rural zoning at a five-acre minimum, where a house and agriculture are both permitted by right.

Corpus Christi at a glance

County
Nueces County
Population
317,247
Where we build
Corpus Christi, Nueces County, San Patricio County, Aransas County

ZIPs 78401, 78402, 78404, 78405, 78407, 78408, 78409, 78410 and more

Site visits
We come to the land — Corpus Christi and the rest of Nueces County alike
Start your project

Building conditions in Corpus Christi

What actually changes from one Texas jurisdiction to the next: who issues the permit, whether the residential code is enforced there at all, what the structure has to be engineered to, and what the ground is like. These are the numbers your drawings have to satisfy.

Build conditions for Corpus Christi , Nueces County, Texas : design wind speed 140/150 mph. BUILD CONDITIONS CORPUS CHRISTI, TXNueces County2021 IRCDESIGN WIND SPEED140/150 mphThe city publishes a filled-in Table R301.2 in Code section 14-291 and the Speed (mph) cell reads140/150, with windborne debris zone Yes, topographic effects No and special wind region No. The…ZONING · FR (FARM-RURAL) AND RE (RESIDENTIAL…5 acres in FR; 1 acre in RE; 22,000…UDC Table 4.3.3 sets the single-family minimums: FR 5 acres and 150ft width, RE 1 acre and 100 ft, then RS-22 at 22,000 sq ft down to…RESIDENTIAL BUILDING PERMIT AND PLAN REVIEW…$0.461 per square foot permit, $0.14…Code section 14-1313 fee schedule: new residential construction,additions and remodels at $0.461 per square foot with a $146.41…WHO ISSUES THE PERMITCity of Corpus Christi Development S…2406 Leopard Street, Corpus Christi TX 78408; mailing address P.O.Box 9277, Corpus Christi TX 78469. Phone (361) 826-3240, fax (361)…
Build conditions for Corpus Christi, drawn from the sourced facts on this page. Every figure above is cited in the quick-facts panel below, with its source and vintage.
Two codes, two purposes - the permit and the insurance are not the same test
The city's adopted edition governs the permit. The city enforces the 2021 International Residential Code, adopted with local amendments at Code section 14-291, and that is what the plan review and the city's inspections are measured against. The TDI rule governs whether TWIA will insure the finished building: 28 TAC section 5.4013 requires structures in the designated catastrophe area constructed on or after 1 April 2026 to comply with the 2024 IRC or 2024 IBC to be eligible for catastrophe property insurance. Neither displaces the other, and the newer edition is not a stricter code than the IRC - it is the IRC, three years on. What is unusual is that the insurance rule updates on a code cycle while a Texas municipality's adopted edition stays where the council put it.

Corpus Christi Code of Ordinances secs. 14-291 and 14-201; 28 Texas Administrative Code sec. 5.4013; TDI, Adopted Building Codes (tdi.texas.gov/wind/adopted-codes.html)

The city told its own customers, in writing, in January 2026
Development Services Informational Bulletin 021, dated 26 January 2026 and created by the Building Division, gives notice of TDI's adoption of the 2024 ICC codes and states that effective 1 April 2026 all submittals must be designed to comply with the TDI-adopted wind speed design criteria. It prints the 2024 IBC section 1609.3 basic wind speeds - 140 mph for Risk Category I, 150 for II, 160 for III, 170 for IV - and gives the 2024 IRC figure as a basic wind speed of 150 mph for applicable windstorm areas. A city bulletin that tells builders a state insurance rule governs their submittal is the clearest possible sign that the two tracks are real.

City of Corpus Christi Development Services, Informational Bulletin 021, TDI 2024 ICC Code Adoptions, 26 January 2026 (corpuschristitx.gov)

The WPI-1 and the engineer's windstorm drawings go in with the permit
The city's own list of what a complete submission for a new home contains includes a completed Texas Department of Insurance WPI-1 form and windstorm drawings sealed and signed by a Texas licensed professional engineer, showing hold-down locations and capacities, uplift from plate to plate and top plate to rafter, the shear transfer method, wall stud grade and size, labelled shear and load-transferring walls with fastening details, anchor bolt sizing and placement, details for non-prescriptive design and construction methods, a wind load summary, and a statement that the engineer will keep a permanent file of the structural design information for every non-prescriptive component. A clear-span steel frame is exactly what non-prescriptive means.

City of Corpus Christi Development Services, New Residential Buildings submittal list (corpuschristitx.gov); TDI windstorm forms listing (tdi.texas.gov/forms/form13windstorm.html)

The city says its inspection is not the windstorm inspection
Corpus Christi wrote the point into its own building code. The city amendment at section 110.3.4.1 of the adopted International Building Code reads: framing inspections do not include or take the place of inspections or certifications for compliance required under Texas Department of Insurance windstorm requirements. A second city amendment at 110.3.13 covers hurricane inspections, requiring the building official to give notice to construction sites during a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hurricane warning so that construction supplies, materials and other loose objects in exposed outdoor locations are secured, with orders to be carried out before winds of hurricane velocity are anticipated.

Corpus Christi Code of Ordinances sec. 14-231, local amendments to the 2021 International Building Code, secs. 110.3.4.1 and 110.3.13

Corpus Christi deleted the residential sprinkler requirement
Section 14-291 sets out the city's amendments with additions underlined and deletions struck through. Section R313.2 of the 2021 IRC, the one that requires an automatic residential fire sprinkler system in one- and two-family dwellings, appears there struck through in full, heading, requirement and exception together. What survives is a narrowed townhouse rule at R313.1: sprinklers are required in townhouses only where three or more attached dwelling units are constructed and transient uses of less than thirty days are allowed, designed to Section P2904 or NFPA 13D. The section number is edition-specific - R313.2 is the 2021 IRC's numbering, and the same subject moved to R309 in the 2024 edition.

Corpus Christi Code of Ordinances sec. 14-291, local amendments to the 2021 International Residential Code, secs. R313.1 and R313.2

Every new home here has an engineer on the foundation
The city's new residential submittal list requires a foundation plan sealed and signed by a professional engineer licensed by the State of Texas, on every new home, with no soil test or size threshold attached to it. State law arrives at the same place from a different direction on the coast: Occupations Code section 1001.056(c)(1) removes the private-dwelling exemption from the Engineering Practice Act for anyone providing engineering design or inspection services needed to comply with windstorm certification standards under Subchapter F, Chapter 2210 of the Insurance Code. Everywhere else in Texas an ordinary house needs no engineer at all; the legislature carved the coast out by name in 2009.

City of Corpus Christi Development Services, New Residential Buildings submittal list; Texas Occupations Code sec. 1001.056(c)(1)

Also worth knowing before you build in Corpus Christi

Table R301.2, filled in - and a coastal city does publish one
Code section 14-291 carries a completed Table R301.2 for the city. Ground snow load 0. Wind speed 140/150 mph. Topographic effects no, special wind region no, windborne debris zone yes. Seismic design category A. Weathering negligible, frost line depth 0, termite very high. Ice barrier underlayment not applicable. Flood hazards 1971. Air freezing index under 1500, mean annual temperature 72.2. The Manual J block gives elevation 19 feet, latitude 27 degrees north, outdoor winter design dry-bulb 36 and outdoor summer 94, a heating temperature difference of 34 and a cooling difference of 19, with a daily range of M.

Corpus Christi Code of Ordinances sec. 14-291, Table R301.2, Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria

There is land here, and the zoning that fits is called Farm-Rural
Corpus Christi is not a built-out suburb. The city's published zoning layer carries about 30,400 acres in 102 separate Farm-Rural tracts, roughly 48 square miles, plus about 1,840 acres of Residential Estate. FR sets a five-acre minimum lot and a 150-foot minimum width, permits a single-family detached house and agriculture uses by right, and is the default zoning for newly annexed land. RE sets a one-acre minimum. The largest single FR block, about 13,200 acres, is on Mustang Island, where beachfront construction certificates, dune protection and V-zone construction standards all come into play; the mainland FR tracts sit south-west toward Oso Creek and north-west around Calallen.

Corpus Christi Unified Development Code Table 4.3.3 and sec. 4.3.1 (online.encodeplus.com/regs/corpuschristi-tx); City of Corpus Christi open GIS zoning layer, ArcGIS OpenData FeatureServer layer 48, queried 1 September 2026

Two rules cap how big the shop can be
The UDC limits accessory buildings twice over. Section 5.3.1 requires detached accessory buildings to sit behind the front face of the house and caps the total square footage of all of them at 50 percent of the main principal structure - 75 percent in the FR district. Section 5.3.2.D caps garages for single-family residences at 49 percent of the main building, and where the garage is attached it is counted as part of the main building in working that percentage out. A detached accessory dwelling unit is separately allowed in any residential district, one per lot, capped at 1,000 square feet of habitable space in FR, RE and RS-22, with the owner required to occupy either it or the principal dwelling.

Corpus Christi Unified Development Code secs. 5.3.1, 5.3.2.A and 5.3.2.D

A Corpus Christi address is not the same thing as the Corpus Christi jurisdiction
The sixteen ZIP code tabulation areas that carry a Corpus Christi address cover about 296 square miles of land. The city itself is 167.8 square miles of land. So roughly two square miles in five with a Corpus Christi postal address sit outside the city limits, and outside the city's building code. Two ZIPs account for most of the gap: 78415 at 109 square miles, running south-west into unincorporated Nueces County, and 78418 at 73 square miles down Padre and Mustang islands. If you are buying land and the listing says Corpus Christi, the first question is whether the parcel is inside the limits - the city runs an address search site for exactly that.

U.S. Census Bureau TIGERweb, 2020 Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas and Incorporated Places layers (tigerweb.geo.census.gov), GEOID 4817000 AREALAND 434,520,061 sq m, queried 1 September 2026; City of Corpus Christi Address Search and Verification Site

Step outside the city limits and the building code stops - the windstorm rule does not
UDC section 1.4.2 applies only the subdivision and sign provisions of the code to the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction, on the authority of Chapters 242 and 216 of the Local Government Code. There is no city zoning and no city building permit out there, and the technical construction codes at Chapter 14 are written to the corporate limits. What does not stop at the city line is the windstorm regime: Nueces County is inside the designated catastrophe area in its entirety, so the TDI rule and the certificate chain follow the parcel into the ETJ and into unincorporated Nueces, San Patricio and Aransas counties alike.

Corpus Christi Unified Development Code sec. 1.4.2; Corpus Christi Code of Ordinances sec. 14-202 (definition of City); Texas Insurance Code sec. 2210.003; TDI, Adopted Building Codes

Flood: a foot above base flood, and the IRC's own chapter was deleted
Section R322 of the IRC, Flood-Resistant Construction, is deleted in its entirety by section 14-291 and replaced by the city's Flood Hazard Prevention Code at Chapter 14, Article V. That code requires new residential construction to have the lowest floor, including basement, and machinery or equipment elevated to one foot above the base flood elevation, certified by a registered professional engineer, architect or land surveyor. In coastal high-hazard areas the bottom of the lowest horizontal structural member, excluding pilings and columns, must be a foot above base flood, on pilings anchored against flotation, collapse and lateral movement from wind and water loads acting at the same time. Section 14-532 adopts the FEMA Flood Insurance Study and Flood Insurance Rate Maps for Nueces County dated 13 October 2022. The state law reference the city's own instrument names is Water Code sections 16.3145 and 16.315.

Corpus Christi Code of Ordinances secs. 14-291, 14-532, 14-552 and 14-556, Article V, Flood Hazard Prevention Code; Texas Water Code secs. 16.3145 and 16.315

The ground is a smectitic clay, and it does not hide it
The dominant soil in Nueces County is Victoria clay on 0 to 1 percent slopes, mapped over 306,451 acres of a 700,339-acre survey area - about 44 percent of the county in one map unit, and rated very limited for dwellings without basements. The Victoria series is classified fine, smectitic, hyperthermic Sodic Haplusterts, a vertisol. Clay content is 51.3 percent in the top 15 centimetres and rises to 60.7 percent deeper in the profile, with linear extensibility from 14.5 to 18.7 percent and saturated hydraulic conductivity of 0.6 micrometres per second. Unlike the Post Oak claypans further east, this surface does not lie about what is underneath it.

USDA NRCS Soil Data Access, SSURGO survey area TX355 Nueces County (SDMDataAccess.sc.egov.usda.gov), survey version 24, published 5 September 2025; tables mapunit, muaggatt, component and chorizon, queried 1 September 2026

One exemption in the building code, and it does not survive a dwelling
A city amendment at section 105.1.4 of the adopted International Building Code creates a building permit exemption for a State or Federal Facility, an Industrial Facility, or an Agricultural Facility, conditioned on every connection to the city water system having a backflow prevention device or air gap. An Agricultural Facility is defined as any structure on a tract of land larger than 10 acres used exclusively in connection with ranching or agricultural use - and the definition expressly excludes structures used for residential, commercial or industrial purposes. A pure barn on acreage can claim it. The moment there is a dwelling in the building, it cannot.

Corpus Christi Code of Ordinances sec. 14-231, local amendment adding sec. 105.1.4 to the 2021 International Building Code

What the certificate is worth, and it binds the association
Insurance Code section 2210.258(b) says the association may not insure a structure in the catastrophe area until a certificate of compliance has been issued for it, and section 2210.251(g) makes the certificate evidence of insurability. TWIA's own wording is that without one, TWIA lacks evidence that the structure conforms to applicable building codes and it may be considered uninsurable and ineligible for coverage with TWIA. Section 2210.258(d) allows a policy of no more than 30 days on an inspection verification while the certificate is processed. TDI says expressly that windstorm insurance is not required by law in Texas - but that a coastal lender will likely require it. TDI runs a windstorm field office in Corpus Christi.

Texas Insurance Code secs. 2210.258(b), 2210.258(d) and 2210.251(g); TWIA, Windstorm Certification (twia.org); TDI, What is windstorm insurance (tdi.texas.gov)

The certificate chain, and the deadline at each end
A WPI-1 application, TDI form PC350, goes in first, and Insurance Code section 2210.2515(b) requires that notice before the person begins to construct. The inspector then files a WPI-2 inspection verification - form WPI-2-BC-8, TDI form PC439, for work begun on or after 1 April 2026 - and TDI issues the WPI-8 certificate. Section 2210.2515(e) bars TDI from issuing the certificate if the completed forms and all inspection fees have not reached it within six months of the final inspection. The completed-construction route, WPI-2E on form PC434 leading to a WPI-8-E, is open only to a Texas licensed professional engineer, and TDI says it may cost more because a finished structure is harder to inspect. The old WPI-8-C route closed on 31 May 2020.

TDI, Windstorm forms listing (tdi.texas.gov/forms/form13windstorm.html); Texas Insurance Code sec. 2210.2515(b), (c) and (e); TWIA, Windstorm Certification

What else the city amended, including what it took out
Beyond the sprinkler and flood deletions, section 14-291 removes IRC section R112 and section R113 entirely and sends appeals and penalties to Code sections 14-206 and 14-207; deletes IRC Chapter 11 and points energy compliance at the city's adopted 2015 International Energy Conservation Code; and deletes IRC Part VIII in favour of the 2020 National Electrical Code. Additions include a homeowner's permit for work on an owner-occupied homestead, barred for natural gas systems unless the owner is a Texas licensed master plumber; underground gas piping burial raised from 12 to 18 inches; a requirement that outdoor equipment be anchored to resist the wind loads in section R301.2.1.1; building sewers at least 18 inches below grade at a septic tank connection; and a new Section P2504 requiring a toilet facility for workers at each construction site, shared only between projects within 500 feet.

Corpus Christi Code of Ordinances sec. 14-291, local amendments to the 2021 International Residential Code; sec. 14-251, Energy conservation code

An excavator grading a compacted building pad on a cleared lot, with survey stakes and a drainage swale visible.
Below the slab

The expensive surprises are in the ground, not the building

What moves a Texas budget is usually below grade, and it is soil rather than rock: shrink-swell clay. The Blackland Prairie and the Gulf Coast clays move enough between a wet season and a dry one to drive the foundation design across the state's largest markets, which is why several DFW cities require an engineer's seal on the foundation of every new house. Those are the same conditions that decide whether a septic field passes its soil and site evaluation, so the grading plan, the foundation and the drainfield get resolved together rather than one at a time. We price the dirt before we price the building.

What we build in Corpus Christi

All nine of our services — kits, custom plans, post-frame and steel construction, site preparation, permitting and engineering, through to turnkey builds — are available across Nueces County. What a project costs depends far more on the parcel than on square footage, so we work from your land rather than from a rate card.

See what we build

What a build looks like

Three stages every Corpus Christi project passes through, from a raw parcel to a finished home. Site work first, because that is where the budget is decided.

Aerial view of an undeveloped rural lot with cleared grass, a live oak and cedar elm treeline, and a pale gravel access track.
Stage one

The parcel

Zoning, setbacks, flood zone and utility access get checked before anything is drawn.

An excavator grading a compacted building pad on a cleared lot, with survey stakes and a drainage swale visible.
Stage two

Pad and permit

Clearing, grading and a compacted pad, while the submittal works through Nueces County.

A finished barndominium at dusk with warm interior lighting glowing through its large windows.
Stage three

Frame to finish

Shell erected and dried in, then systems, insulation and interior finish through to CO.

Those are the rules for Nueces County. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it to them.

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Where we build around Corpus Christi

Nueces County and the rural land around it. The buildable acreage for a project this size usually sits outside the city limits, which is frequently what changes who issues your permit.

Our Corpus Christi service area, covering Nueces County and the surrounding rural acreage. This map marks the territory we serve, not a branch location.

Keep reading

The questions that usually come next once you know what Corpus Christi allows.

Barndominium Cost Guide

Sourced per-square-foot ranges by tier and by size, with a calculator built on the same figures.

Read it

Is It Legal in Texas?

Classification, zoning, the HOA gate, and why "nonresidential farm building" does not cover a home.

Read it

How Long Does It Take?

Census build-duration data, and what actually sets the permit clock where you are building.

Read it

Nearby areas we build in

Others we cover in this part of Texas. The permitting authority, the adopted design criteria and the zoning can all differ from one to the next.

Nueces County

Nueces County
San Patricio County

San Patricio County
Aransas County

Aransas County

Building in Corpus Christi: common questions

9 questions we get asked most often about building in Corpus Christi. If yours is not on the list, ask it directly.

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Which building code applies in Corpus Christi?
Two of them, for two different purposes. The permit is measured against the city's adopted edition: the 2021 International Residential Code, adopted with local amendments at Code section 14-291 and listed at section 14-201 alongside the 2021 IBC, Fuel Gas, Mechanical and Plumbing codes, the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code and the 2020 National Electrical Code. Insurance eligibility is measured against a different one: because Nueces County lies wholly inside the designated catastrophe area, 28 TAC section 5.4013 requires structures constructed on or after 1 April 2026 to comply with the 2024 IRC or 2024 IBC to be eligible for catastrophe property insurance. The state rule does not repeal or displace the city's code; both apply, to different questions. The city's own Informational Bulletin 021 of 26 January 2026 tells its customers exactly that.
What is the design wind speed in Corpus Christi?
The city publishes one, which is not true of every Texas city. Table R301.2 in Code section 14-291 gives the Speed (mph) cell as 140/150, with the windborne debris zone marked yes. The city's Informational Bulletin 021 sets out the figures that arrive with the 2024 codes: under the 2024 IBC, 140 mph for Risk Category I, 150 for II, 160 for III and 170 for IV, and under the 2024 IRC a basic wind speed of 150 mph for applicable windstorm areas. TDI itself no longer publishes a zone design speed; its current position is that the required wind speed must be determined for each structure based on the location of that structure, using tools such as the ASCE 7 hazard tool, and that most of the designated catastrophe areas now sit inside the windborne debris region, which is why opening protection is a design question here rather than an upgrade.
Does a barndominium in Corpus Christi need fire sprinklers?
Not as a one- or two-family dwelling. Section 14-291 strikes section R313.2 of the 2021 IRC through in full - the section that would otherwise require an automatic residential fire sprinkler system in one- and two-family dwellings - along with its exception. What remains is a narrowed townhouse rule at R313.1: an automatic residential fire sprinkler system is required in townhouses only where three or more attached dwelling units are constructed and transient uses of less than thirty days are allowed, designed and installed to Section P2904 or NFPA 13D. Worth naming the edition when you ask anyone about this: R313.2 is the 2021 IRC's numbering, and the 2024 IRC moved the same subject to R309.
Does the building need an engineer?
Yes, on two separate grounds, and neither is optional. The city's list of what a complete new residential submission contains requires a foundation plan sealed and signed by a professional engineer licensed by the State of Texas, and windstorm drawings sealed by a Texas licensed engineer covering hold-downs, uplift connections, shear transfer, anchor bolts, a wind load summary and details for any non-prescriptive design. Separately, Occupations Code section 1001.056(c)(1) removes the private-dwelling exemption from the Engineering Practice Act for engineering design or inspection services needed to meet windstorm certification standards under Subchapter F, Chapter 2210 of the Insurance Code. A clear-span steel frame with wide door openings is not something the IRC's prescriptive tables cover, which is why a barndominium here is an engineered building from the first sketch. Any engineer on the job is a Texas-licensed professional engineer engaged for that purpose.
How big can the shop be next to the house?
Smaller than most people expect, and it is worth designing around from the start. UDC section 5.3.1 caps the total square footage of all detached accessory buildings at 50 percent of the main principal structure, or 75 percent in the Farm-Rural district, and requires them to sit behind the front face of the house. UDC section 5.3.2.D caps garages for single-family residences at 49 percent of the main building, and where the garage is attached it is counted as part of the main building when that percentage is worked out. The permit fee measures things differently again: section 14-1303 defines building area as all rooms and spaces within the main structure except attached covered patios and open front and rear porches, so an attached shop bay is inside the square footage the fee is calculated on.
Is there anywhere in Corpus Christi to put one on acreage?
Yes, and this is a city where the answer is genuinely yes rather than a polite one. The Farm-Rural district sets a five-acre minimum lot and a 150-foot minimum width, permits a single-family detached house and agriculture uses by right, and is the default zoning for newly annexed land. The city's published zoning layer carries roughly 30,400 acres of it across 102 tracts. Residential Estate sits at a one-acre minimum and is described in the code as retaining a rural character. Two cautions. The single largest Farm-Rural block, about 13,200 acres, is on Mustang Island, where the Beachfront Management and Construction chapter, dune protection permits and coastal high-hazard construction standards all apply; the mainland tracts run south-west toward Oso Creek and north-west around Calallen. And the city's population fell slightly between 2020 and 2025, so much of the market for acreage is beyond the limits - in unincorporated Nueces County, or across the bay in San Patricio and Aransas counties.
What changes if I build just outside the city limits?
The building code goes away and the windstorm regime does not. UDC section 1.4.2 applies only the subdivision and sign provisions of the code to the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction, under Chapters 242 and 216 of the Local Government Code, and the city's technical construction codes at Chapter 14 are written to the corporate limits. So there is no city zoning, no city plan review and no city inspector out there. But Nueces County is inside the designated catastrophe area in its entirety, and so are San Patricio and Aransas counties, so 28 TAC section 5.4013 and the WPI-1 to WPI-8 certificate chain follow the parcel wherever it sits. Whether the county itself requires anything is a separate question worth putting to the county directly.
Can I insure it without the certificate?
Not through TWIA. Insurance Code section 2210.258(b) prohibits the association from insuring a structure in the catastrophe area until a certificate of compliance has been issued for it, and section 2210.251(g) makes the certificate evidence of insurability. Section 2210.258(d) allows a bridge policy of no more than 30 days on an inspection verification form while the certificate is processed. TWIA's own wording is that without a certificate a structure may be considered uninsurable and ineligible for coverage with TWIA. TDI is clear that windstorm insurance is not required by law in Texas, but a lender on the coast will likely require it. The notice has to go in before work starts: Insurance Code section 2210.2515(b) requires written notice to the department of the intent to construct, on the form TDI prescribes, before the person begins to construct.
What does the city charge, and how is it measured?
The published schedule at Code section 14-1313 charges new residential construction, additions and remodels at $0.461 per square foot for the building permit with a $146.41 minimum, excluding mechanical, electrical and plumbing, which are $0.075 per square foot each with the same minimum. Technical construction code plan review is $0.146 per square foot. Floodplain review or inspection is $100, and a DSD administration surcharge of 4.5 percent applies on everything in that section. Since fiscal year 2024-25 the whole schedule has been indexed to the August Construction Index published in Engineering News-Record and rises automatically on 1 October each year. Section 14-1303 sets what gets measured: all rooms and spaces within the main structure, except attached covered patios and open front and rear porches.

Building in Corpus Christi?

Start with the plan. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it, then confirm what Nueces County will actually let you put on the parcel and what wind load it has to meet. That conversation costs nothing.

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