Six questions, no cost to ask
Price a storage project on your land
Where the land is tells a contractor which zoning code and which permit office the project answers to. The product and the timing tell them what to price first.
What a storage project clears before the slab is poured
The building is the predictable part of a storage facility. What decides the schedule, and sometimes whether there is a project at all, is the order of approvals in front of it. In a Texas city that zones, the first of those is the zoning code, and the city codes read for this site do not treat self storage the same way.
Step 1 of 10: Land and zoning
- 01 Land and zoning
- 02 Special use permit
- 03 Plat
- 04 Site plan
- 05 TDLR review
- 06 Aquifer plan
- 07 Stormwater
- 08 Driveway access
- 09 Building permit
- 10 Occupancy
San Marcos allows self storage by right in no current district and lists it as a conditional use only in Commercial (CM), plus the legacy MU and GC districts. Round Rock, in the same region, allows it by right with supplementary use standards in three districts: C-1, LI and I. The first rung decides whether there is a project.
SourcesCity of San Marcos Development Code (as amended by Ord. No. 2026-08, effective June 16, 2026), Table 5.1 Land Use Matrix (page 5:9), Table 2.3, Table 4.8, Section 9.3.1.1 and Table 9.1 (pages 9:13 to 9:16), read 2026-09-23; City of Round Rock Code of Ordinances, Part III Zoning and Development Code, Sections 1-50, 2-35, 2-48, 2-75 and 2-87, read 2026-09-23.
- 01
Feasibility: the market around the site and whether the site can hold the facility. What a study covers.
- 02
Zoning: whether the city allows storage in the district by right, only with a use permit, or not at all. Thirteen city codes, side by side.
- 03
The special, specific or conditional use permit, decided after a public hearing where the code requires one.
- 04
The plat, where the land is divided to create the lot. Inside a city, the city must act within 30 days after a complete filing, with extensions if the applicant asks in writing and the city agrees, or if a takings impact assessment is required.
- 05
The site plan: buildings, drive aisles, the gate and the drainage for a site that is nearly all roof and pavement.
- 06
TDLR registration for accessibility review, required at an estimated construction cost of $50,000 or more. The TDLR guide.
- 07
An Edwards Aquifer plan, where the site is on the recharge zone, or in the contributing zone disturbs five acres or more or is part of a larger common plan that could.
- 08
Construction stormwater coverage for a site that disturbs an acre or more, or is part of a larger common plan that will, and discharges to surface water. Aquifer and stormwater rules.
- 09
The driveway: a TxDOT permit on a state highway, before any work in the right of way. Access and layout.
- 10
The building permit, inspections, and, where the city or county issues one, the certificate that lets the doors open. The whole path in order.
SourcesTexas Legislature, Local Government Code Chapter 211, Sec. 211.003 and 211.005, read 2026-09-23; Texas Legislature, Local Government Code Chapter 212, Sec. 212.009, read 2026-09-23; Texas Legislature, Government Code Chapter 469, read 2026-09-23; Chapter 231 was read; it grants counties no general zoning power. Texas Legislature, Local Government Code Chapter 231 (all subchapters A through M read), read 2026-09-23; Texas Legislature, Local Government Code Chapter 233, Subchapter C, Sec. 233.061 and 233.062, read 2026-09-23; Texas Administrative Code, 30 TAC 213, Sec. 213.4(a)(1) and Sec. 213.5(a)(1), (b)(3), (b)(4)(C)(vi), read 2026-09-23; Texas Administrative Code, 30 TAC 213, Sec. 213.21(b) and Sec. 213.23(a), read 2026-09-23; Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Stormwater General Permit for Construction Activities, read 2026-09-23; Texas Department of Transportation, Access Management Manual, Chapter 2, Section 4: Driveway Permits, Design, and Materials, Permits, read 2026-09-23; Kendall County Engineer, "Permits Required, Building Codes, Certificates of Occupancy, and Zoning Regulations Verification Letter for Interested Parties", dated March 4, 2026, read 2026-09-23; Williamson County, Texas, Frequently Asked Questions, Infrastructure - Developers category, read 2026-09-23.
Five kinds of storage project, five different buildings
Every request on this site is one of five storage building types. They share a site plan and a set of approvals, and they are different buildings with different costs per square foot.
- Self storage facility construction Read A new facility on raw land: drive-up rows, perhaps a climate-controlled building, the fence, the gate and the office.
- Boat and RV storage buildings Read Canopy rows or enclosed bays with doors tall enough for a motorhome, and aisles wide enough to back a trailer in.
- Expansions of an existing facility Read New buildings on a facility that stays open while they go up.
- Climate-controlled storage buildings Read Units indoors off conditioned corridors, one story or several, on less land per rentable foot.
- Storage condos and garage condos Read Large bays built to sell rather than rent, with the ownership documents that go with them.
What the building costs per square foot, as one builder publishes it
This site prints only figures a builder or an agency has published under its own name. Terrapin Construction Group publishes hard-cost benchmarks per gross square foot by product, updated May 2026, plus a Texas Triangle figure: $80 to $110 for single-story climate-controlled storage in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio.
These are hard costs only. Terrapin excludes land, soft costs, and furniture, fixtures and equipment, and says soft costs and FF&E typically add 25 to 40 percent to hard cost on ground-up projects. A firm price for your site needs the survey, the soil report and a site plan. The cost per square foot guide has the full breakdown and a worked example.
Exhibit APublished hard cost per gross square foot: national benchmarks and one Texas figure (Terrapin, May 2026)
| Product | Hard cost per gross sq ft |
|---|---|
| Single-story drive-up | $55 to $85 |
| Single-story climate-controlled | $80 to $120 |
| Single-story climate-controlled, Texas Triangle | $80 to $110 |
| Multistory climate-controlled | $105 to $170 |
| Covered boat and RV | $25 to $55 |
| Enclosed boat and RV | $65 to $95 |
SourceTerrapin Construction Group, self storage construction cost article, updated May 2026, read 2026-09-23.
Three regions, and a different zoning answer in each
Pages on this site cover 14 counties across three regions. Each region page reads the zoning codes of cities inside it; one finding from each is below, and the Texas storage development directory has all 13 codes in one table.
- San Antonio, TX Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Medina, Atascosa Counties
In Seguin, self storage without outside storage is allowed by right in three districts, but adding outside storage makes it a specific use permit in two of them, C and LI.
SourceCity of Seguin, Code of Ordinances, Appendix A Unified Development Code, Sec. 3.4 Use, 3.4.3 Land Use Matrix, read 2026-09-23.
- Austin, TX Travis, Williamson, Hays Counties
Austin allows convenience storage by right in six districts and bans it under ETOD zoning and under the initial TOD district regulations, even where the base district would allow it.
SourcesCity of Austin Land Development Code, Title 25, Chapter 25-2, Sections 25-2-4 (Commercial Uses Described) and 25-2-491 (Permitted, Conditional, and Prohibited Uses), read 2026-09-23; City of Austin Land Development Code, Sections 25-2-653 (ETOD Combining District Regulations), 25-2-766.11 and 25-2-766.12 (TOD Initial District Regulations), read 2026-09-23.
- Hill Country, TX Kendall, Kerr, Gillespie, Bandera, Blanco, Burnet Counties
Boerne bars outdoor storage of any kind at a mini-warehouse, while Kerrville allows boats and RVs at a mini-storage site if the area is paved and screened and not within 50 feet of residential zoning.
SourcesBoerne's use tables were read; no boat or RV storage use by that name is listed. City of Boerne, Unified Development Code, Sec. 3-7 Permitted use tables; Sec. 3-6.D.15, read 2026-09-23; City of Kerrville, Code of Ordinances, Sec. 60-60(2); Sec. 60-17 Terms defined, read 2026-09-23.
What every page on this site is built from
The zoning codes of 13 cities in the three regions, each read at the code's own sections, with the section numbers and the date.
The use permit fee in each city where one was read, from the city's own fee schedule: from $250 in Burnet to a $7,450 subtotal for an Austin conditional use site plan, plus other department fees case by case and the $1,153.23 hearing preparation fee Austin says always applies to a commission case.
The statutes themselves, read at the Texas Legislature's site: Local Government Code chapters 211, 212, 214, 231, 232, 233 and 42, and Government Code chapter 469.
TCEQ's Edwards Aquifer rule and its fee table, read at the Secretary of State's rules portal, and the 2023 construction stormwater permit.
The Texas Accessibility Standards table for self-service storage, checked against the federal 2010 ADA Standards.
Each county's own permit pages for land outside city limits, where they were read, and a plain note where they were not.
One builder's published cost benchmarks, dated, and no cost figure from any content site.
Every record names its source and the date it was read, and each was checked a second time against that source before it shipped.
No occupancy, rent, yield or return figure for any market, anywhere on the site.
Questions about self storage contractors in Texas
Which self storage building contractor gets my request?
One independent building contractor, and every decision about taking the project is theirs and yours. Who that is, and what we hold from them, is on the about page.
Do Texas cities treat self storage the same way?
No. Of the 13 city codes read for this site, most allow it by right in some commercial or industrial districts and several require a use permit in others, while San Marcos allows it by right in no current district. The zoning and special use permit guide sets all 13 side by side.
What does the state require before a storage building permit?
Where the estimated construction cost is $50,000 or more, the plans go to TDLR for accessibility review, and a city may not accept the building permit application until the project is registered. The TDLR and accessibility guide covers who files and when.
Does land outside city limits skip the approvals?
It skips the use table, because Texas counties have no general zoning power, but other approvals can still apply: a county fire code permit where one is adopted, floodplain and septic permits where the site needs them, TCEQ stormwater coverage at an acre or more disturbed (or as part of a larger common plan), and TDLR registration at $50,000 or more. The development path puts them in order.
Which areas do the pages on this site cover?
Pages on this site cover 14 counties in the San Antonio, Austin and Hill Country regions, listed with their city codes in the Texas storage development directory. A request for land anywhere in Texas can be sent, and the contractor decides which projects to take.
Last reviewed 2026-09-23.