Austin, TX Development Impact Fees (2026)

RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT FEES, CITY OF AUSTIN (Austin Water service area), Travis County, TX. Verified 2026-06-16.

Captured

Water and Wastewater Capital Recovery Fees (the Texas term for impact fees, Local Gov't Code Ch. 395). Current schedule for lots platted AFTER Oct 1, 2023: Water $4,800 + Wastewater $2,900 = $7,700 combined. These are the primary one-time fees a single-family builder pays. Basis: assessed per Service Unit, where a 5/8-inch positive-displacement meter = 1.0 Service Unit (per the City's adopted fee-schedule methodology). The Austin Water rates page presents $4,800/$2,900/$7,700 as residential per-unit figures. A 3/4-inch meter = 1.5 Service Units, so a home metered at 3/4-inch would pay 1.5x these rates (caveat). Combined $7,700 is the primary single-family-detached total. Older platted lots pay LOWER grandfathered amounts (Oct 2018-Sep 2023: $4,700/$2,500 = $7,200; Jan 2014-Sep 2018: $5,400/$2,200; pre-2014 vary by zone $700-$2,500 water); prior tiers included as excludeFromTotal rows for reference, new development pays the post-Oct-2023 rate.

Does not exist

NO school, park, police, fire, library, open-space, or affordable-housing impact fees. Texas Local Government Code Ch. 395 limits impact fees to water, wastewater, roadway, and drainage ONLY; none of the prohibited categories exist in Austin. STREET (ROADWAY) IMPACT FEE: Austin HAS a Street Impact Fee program (adopted Dec 2020, collection began June 2022, 17 service areas), but it does NOT apply to single-family detached homes. Triggered only by developments generating 10+ PM-peak-hour trips (effectively mid-rise multifamily of ~23+ units and commercial). A stand-alone single-family home pays $0; captured as a $0/exclude row.

Drainage

Austin charges a recurring MONTHLY drainage (Watershed Protection) charge of $0.00593/sq ft impervious cover x adjustment factor, an ongoing utility charge NOT a one-time development/impact fee, so not included as a development-fee row.

Caveats

Current impact-fee amounts are from the live Austin Water Rates and Fees webpage (high confidence on amounts; per-unit/service-unit basis corroborated from the City's adopted fee-schedule methodology that defines Service Units by meter size). Texas re-studies impact fees every 5 years; current schedule stems from the 2023 update ordinance effective Oct 2023, in effect mid-2026. Minor meter/tap/inspection charges apply but are cost-based/site-specific, not flat published amounts. Within the City of Austin proper, Austin Water is the retail provider, so no separate water/sewer district fee is attributed; MUD/separate-district properties could owe additional district fees.

Verify

confirmed 6 of 6 rows; dropped 0. Independent re-fetch results: (1) Austin Water Rates and Fees page (source 0) confirmed VERBATIM the table values "Lots Platted After October 1, 2023 - Water $4,800 / Wastewater $2,900 / combined $7,700" and "Lots Platted October 1, 2018 - September 30, 2023 - Water $4,700 / Wastewater $2,500 / combined $7,200" for All Zones -> rows water_connection $4,800, sewer_connection $2,900, water_connection $4,700, sewer_connection $2,500 all CONFIRMED. (2) RECA-hosted FY2022-23 fee schedule PDF (source 1) confirmed the Service Unit methodology table (5/8" Positive Displacement = 1 Service Unit, 3/4" = 1.5 Service Units) AND the exact line "Streer Impact Fee Contestment $790.00" (with source's misspelling "Streer"), confirming the $790 street-impact-fee-contestment row. (3) Austin Monitor article (source 3) confirmed both fragments of the SF=$0 quote: "only medium to large developments, which are defined as any project that generates 10 new peak-hour trips or more" and "The goal was to steer clear of single-family projects" -> $0 street impact fee for single-family CONFIRMED. excludeFromTotal corrections: NONE NEEDED - all flags correct. Representative single-family-detached total = water $4,800 + wastewater $2,900 = $7,700 (in-total rows); grandfathered tiers ($4,700/$2,500), the $0 SF street fee, and the $790 administrative contestment fee all correctly excludeFromTotal=true; no double-counting. Note: the $790 "contestment" row is an administrative appeal/contest fee (not an impact/connection fee); retained only as an excluded reference row because its amount and quote were confirmed verbatim, kept at medium confidence. Population source (KXAN, source 6) returned HTTP 403 on re-fetch but is a non-fee news citation; population figure unaffected and not used for any fee row.