Commercial metal buildings in Boerne, Kerrville, Fredericksburg and New Braunfels

The shell is the same steel or post-frame building that goes up on a ranch. State accessibility rules make a commercial facility subject to the Act and the Texas Accessibility Standards when it is intended for non-residential use by a private entity and its operations will affect commerce (16 TAC Rule 68.20(d)). Retail stores, offices, salons and medical facilities are public accommodations under the same chapter. Every rule, fee and date below was read September 16, 2026.

The accessibility registration. Texas Government Code Sec. 469.101 sends the plans to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for review once the estimated construction cost reaches $50,000. TDLR's fee schedule lists a $175 project filing fee, or $300 late. Below that registration is optional, though the building still has to meet the Texas Accessibility Standards, and no permit official may accept an application at or above the threshold without verifying registration. What registration involves.

The permit desk. Inside a city the building goes through that city's building department, ending in a certificate of occupancy. Outside it there is usually no county building code, but often a county fire code permit doing the same job. Who permits what.

Building for your own use instead? See workshops and garages or metal building homes.

Boerne's Permitting and Code Compliance department issues commercial permits inside the city limits. New commercial construction runs $0.53 per square foot for the first 5,000 square feet and $0.15 above that, on the fee schedule effective October 1, 2025. Council adopted a replacement that takes effect October 1, 2026. The city's fire code amendment requires sprinklers in a new building other than a one- or two-family dwelling whose fire flow requirement reaches 1,501 gpm. Type V-B buildings under 4,801 square feet are excepted, where the adopted code does not require sprinklers elsewhere.

One mile out, the Unified Development Code extends only five chapters into the ETJ, and building codes and building permits are not among them; the permitting page never mentions it. City rules that still reach an ETJ lot include platting, a grading permit at 0.10 acre of disturbance, and a 70 percent impervious cover cap on commercial development.

Unincorporated Kendall County has no zoning, and the County Engineer's letter says the county has not adopted building codes for single family homes. That office issues a commercial development permit at $1,000, and the county's 2021 fire code wants a Fire Marshal permit before construction, which the code counts from breaking ground or, with no ground broken, from the first materials delivered, the first foundation pilings, or a building set on a foundation. The application asks for the project cost, the occupancy classification and a TDLR registration number.

On the aquifer: TCEQ's rule, 30 TAC Chapter 213, names eight counties and Kendall is not one. The regulated zones are whatever TCEQ's official maps show, so check a lot near the Comal County line on TCEQ's map viewer first. The aquifer guide. More: Boerne and Kendall County permitting.

The Building Inspection Division of Development Services runs commercial permits inside Kerrville, and any building over 200 square feet needs one. The city takes no application until the contractor is registered with a $5,000 surety bond on file. The city's fee schedule puts the permit fee at $50 up to $1,000 of value, then $5 per $1,000 above that, and commercial plan review adds 50 percent of the permit fee.

The Fire Marshal reviews in order: site plan, then civil plans, then building plans. Commercial civil plans must carry the seal of a Texas registered professional engineer or a Texas licensed architect, and hydrants and fire lanes have to be in before vertical construction starts. Sidewalks are required along the full frontage of a commercial lot, with exemptions for some tracts along State Highway 27 and State Highway 173 and a city engineer waiver where the right-of-way is too narrow, and no certificate of occupancy issues until they are approved.

Kerrville's platting reaches its one-mile ETJ, but the building permit page, the code information page and the building code adoption section never mention the ETJ, so it is not answered in writing. Kerr County requires no building permit or certificate of occupancy and has no zoning, and no county page read names a county fire marshal or fire code. More: Kerrville and Kerr County permitting.

Fredericksburg's Building Department issues commercial permits, reviews plans and inspects. The process opens with a zoning check, then a Development Review Committee meeting held Thursdays by appointment, covering site plan, storm water detention, parking and signs.

A new commercial permit costs $0.55 per square foot for the first 5,000 square feet and $0.30 above that, on the fee schedule effective March 25, 2026; a December 2024 city newsletter still shows the older $0.50 figure. The fire department wants a minimum fire flow of 1,500 GPM on a commercial development. On a lot adjacent to US Hwy 290, State Hwy 16, RR 965 or Hwy 87, the Entry Corridor Design Standards apply. Before any slab is poured, city code requires a form survey by a licensed surveyor.

The ETJ runs one mile, where the city enforces its subdivision ordinance and sign regulations; its own FAQ says courts have held that a city may not extend building codes into the ETJ or require building permits there. Unincorporated Gillespie County lists no county building permit or building code, but the Engineering Department wants a Development Permit Determination Form before any development, and a right-of-way permit for a non-residential improvement is $500. The county has a fire marshal, but no county fire code appears on its orders page. More: Fredericksburg and Gillespie County permitting.

City Code Sec. 14-5 requires a permit from the building official before any building, structure or land in the city is built on or changed. The application fee is $100 and commercial plan review is 25 percent of the permit cost, up to $15,000. New construction valued at $100,000 or more has to involve a licensed design professional. The commercial checklist asks for an engineered foundation letter on the city's form for new construction over 500 square feet, a TDLR registration confirmation page over $50,000, and a TCEQ approval letter for development over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone.

The ETJ runs 3-1/2 miles, and Sec. 118-3(d) says the city does not regulate there the use of a building for business or industry, or its size on a tract. The planning page still describes platting agreements with both Comal and Guadalupe counties, while a November 2022 notice ceded the Guadalupe portion of the ETJ effective November 15, 2022.

In unincorporated Comal County the permits page lists six permit types and no general county building permit. The Fire Marshal issues the building permit for a new commercial or public building, and may refuse it until the project is registered with TDLR; the business cannot open until the certificate of compliance issues. Comal is one of the eight counties the TCEQ Edwards Aquifer rule names, so an aquifer plan is a live question before ground moves. On the Guadalupe side the county Fire Marshal issues that permit under a fire code adopted January 27, 2026. More: New Braunfels and Comal County permitting.

TDLR accessibility registration. Where no architect or engineer holds overall responsibility for the design, the owner files the $50,000-and-over registration with a registered accessibility specialist before applying for a building permit, or before starting construction in an unincorporated county that issues no permits. The TDLR guide.

The Edwards Aquifer plan, where it applies. On the recharge zone, constructing a building or clearing and excavating for one needs an approved water pollution abatement plan. On the contributing zone the rules start at five acres of disturbance. No construction may start until the executive director approves, and TCEQ has 30 days to call an application complete and 90 days to finish technical review. The aquifer guide.

Construction stormwater at one acre. TCEQ's construction general permit TXR150000, effective March 5, 2023, covers a site that disturbs an acre or more and sends stormwater into surface water in the state, or that is part of a larger common plan that will. Whoever runs the construction site has to have a stormwater pollution prevention plan written and in force when work starts. A site under an acre that is not part of a larger common plan falls outside that permit.

Septic, if the building has a bathroom. Gillespie County requires approved wastewater disposal in all areas of the county regardless of acreage. In New Braunfels the septic permit runs through the city's Environmental Health Division as TCEQ's designated agent. The septic and OSSF guide.

Engineer and architect thresholds. Texas exempts from engineer licensing a building held to one story, 5,000 square feet and a narrow-side clear span of 24 feet or less, provided no engineering services are represented to the public; past 24 feet of span, the roof supporting members still have to be engineered. A private building used only for farm, ranch or agricultural purposes sits outside the chapter with no size limit stated.

• The lot's jurisdiction. City limits, ETJ or unincorporated county, and which county.
• The intended use, in the permit desk's words. Occupancy classification and construction type are the first questions on a county fire code application.
• Size and clear height. Square footage and the widest clear span decide whether an engineer has to be on the drawings.
• A site plan, and a soil report where the ground calls for one. Boerne's 2023 development-process training lists a geotechnical study and a foundation plan among the commercial building permit submittals. What the slab work involves.
• The timeline you are working to. Plan review alone runs 10 business days in Kerrville, about 20 in New Braunfels, 30 for the first commercial review in Boerne and 45 to 60 in Fredericksburg, and an aquifer plan adds its own 30 plus 90.

No price sits on this page: this site carries no published price for a commercial shell in these four towns. The limestone site-work and engineered-plans bands on the cost calculator are its only published cost figures, and they cover ground work and drawings, not the building. Only the builder who walks your site can price it.