San Marcos, TX Development Impact Fees (2026)
Normalized development impact fees, water & sewer connection (tap/SDC) fees, and mitigation fees for San Marcos, Texas — per dwelling unit, by category, with links to every official source.
What a single-family home pays in San Marcos
$7,074 total per unit across 3 fee categories.
- Water connection (tap / SDC)$3,946
- Sewer connection (tap / SDC)$2,684
- Parks & recreation$444
At $7,074, San Marcos is below the Texas tracked median of $16,912 — relatively affordable to build in.
Full fee schedule — single-family
Impact / development fees
| Fee (local term) | Basis | Amount | Source · effective |
|---|---|---|---|
Parks & recreation Parkland Development Fee — From the Development Fee Schedule effective 10/1/2025 (Resolution 2025-185R); confirmed verbatim 'Parkland Development Fee $444/ unit'. NOTE: This is a parkland dedication/development charge under the city's subdivision authority, NOT a Ch. 395 park impact fee (park impact fees are not permitted in Texas). Applies per residential unit. | per dwelling unit | $444 | City of San Marcos, TX Oct 1, 2025High |
Parks & recreation Parkland Fee-in-Lieu — Fee-in-lieu of land dedication, per the 10/1/2025 Development Fee Schedule (Resolution 2025-185R); confirmed verbatim 'Parkland Fee-in-Lieu $317/ unit'. Alternative/additional to the $444 Parkland Development Fee depending on whether land is dedicated; excluded from total to avoid double-counting parkland charges. alternative · not added to total | per dwelling unit | $317 | City of San Marcos, TX Oct 1, 2025High |
Drainage / stormwater Detention (Drainage) Fee-in-Lieu — Fee-in-lieu of building on-site stormwater detention, per the 10/1/2025 Development Fee Schedule (Resolution 2025-185R); confirmed verbatim '$10.00 / square foot or a City approved Engineer's Estimate of cost to construct'. Per square foot of required detention, not per dwelling unit; only applies when a developer opts out of constructing detention. Excluded from per-unit total (project/site-specific). San Marcos has NO drainage impact fee; stormwater is otherwise a monthly utility fee. alternative · not added to total | per sq ft | $10 | City of San Marcos, TX Oct 1, 2025High |
Mitigation Water Quality Fee-in-Lieu — Fee-in-lieu of on-site water quality controls, per the 10/1/2025 Development Fee Schedule (Resolution 2025-185R); confirmed verbatim 'Water Quality Fee-in-Lieu $0.37 / square foot'. Per square foot of impervious cover, site-specific; excluded from per-unit total. alternative · not added to total | per sq ft | $0.37 | City of San Marcos, TX Oct 1, 2025High |
Water & sewer connection fees
| Fee (local term) | Basis | Amount | Source · effective |
|---|---|---|---|
Water connection (tap / SDC) Water Impact Fee — Per Ordinance 2018-09 Schedule 1 (confirmed verbatim in re-fetched PDF: WATER UTILITY '1 to 10 / 1.0 / Impact Fee after 4/30/2018 = 3,801.00'; corroborated by Table 8 and the 2018-update footnote 'Water $3,801/LUE'). 1.0 LUE = one single-family residential connection on a 5/8"-3/4" meter (calculated peak water flow 0-10 gpm). Adopted amount equals the 2018 study maximum (Option A). Still the only impact fee ordinance referenced on the city's official Impact Fees page as of 2026-06-17. Levied under City Code Ch. 86 Art. 5 Div. 4. | per dwelling unit | $3,801 | City of San Marcos, TX Apr 30, 2018Mediumdated 2018 |
Sewer connection (tap / SDC) Wastewater Impact Fee — Per Ordinance 2018-09 Schedule 1 (confirmed verbatim: WASTEWATER UTILITY '1 to 10 / 1.0 / Impact Fee after 4/30/2018 = 2,684.00'; corroborated by Table 8 and the footnote 'Wastewater $2,684/LUE'). 1.0 LUE = single-family residential connection (5/8"-3/4" meter). Combined with water impact fee, a typical SFD home pays $6,485 total. Levied under City Code Ch. 86 Art. 5 Div. 4. | per dwelling unit | $2,684 | City of San Marcos, TX Apr 30, 2018Mediumdated 2018 |
Water connection (tap / SDC) New Residential Water Service Connection Fee — Connection/meter-set fee for new residential service (Utility Rates effective 10/1/2025, City Code 86.198); confirmed verbatim 'New Service - Residential = Meter Cost + $ 145.00' with 'Service fees established by City Code 86.198'. The $145 is the fixed connection component, plus the actual meter hardware cost (varies). This is separate from and in addition to the water/wastewater impact fees above. | per meter | $145 | City of San Marcos, TX Oct 1, 2025High |
Coverage & caveats
San Marcos (Hays County, TX) charges development impact fees ONLY for water and wastewater, consistent with Texas Local Government Code Ch. 395 (which permits only water, wastewater, roadway, and drainage impact fees). FOUND: (1) Water impact fee $3,801.00 per LUE and (2) Wastewater impact fee $2,684.00 per LUE, both adopted by Ordinance 2018-09 (Schedule 1, "Applicable Water and Wastewater Impact Fee Amounts," effective after 4/30/2018) under City Code Ch. 86, Art. 5, Div. 4. One LUE (Living Unit Equivalent) = one single-family residential connection on a 5/8"-3/4" meter (calculated peak flow 0-10 gpm). So a typical single-family detached home pays $3,801 + $2,684 = $6,485 total impact fee. The city's official Impact Fees page (sanmarcostx.gov/1032) still references only Ord. 2018-09 as of the 2026-06-17 retrieval, so these remain the current adopted amounts; confidence is medium because the ordinance is dated 2018 (Texas requires reviews every ~5 years and a newer adopted schedule could exist but was not located on official sources). NO ROADWAY/TRANSPORTATION IMPACT FEE: San Marcos does NOT levy a roadway impact fee; traffic mitigation is handled via a Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA review fee $1,260) and developer-built roadway improvements, not a per-unit fee. NO DRAINAGE IMPACT FEE: stormwater is funded by a monthly Stormwater Utility Fee (not a one-time development impact fee); on-site detention can be satisfied by a Detention Fee-in-Lieu of $10.00/sq ft. NOT ALLOWED IN TEXAS (do not exist here): school, park, police, fire, library, open-space, and affordable-housing IMPACT fees. PARKLAND: the city does collect a Parkland Development Fee of $444/unit and a Parkland Fee-in-Lieu of $317/unit (2025 Development Fee Schedule, eff. 10/1/2025) — these are park-dedication-in-lieu charges levied under subdivision authority, not Ch. 395 impact fees; included here for the builder's budgeting picture. UTILITY CONNECTION: a new residential water service connection costs "Meter Cost + $145.00" (meter set/connection fee per the FY2025-26 Utility Rates schedule, City Code 86.198) — the large capacity charge is the impact fee above, not a separate "tap" fee. Multifamily note: for MF projects the impact fee is assessed on the development's meter size (LUE per meter from the LUE Fee Conversion Table), not strictly per dwelling unit; the per-unit MF figure is not published in the ordinance, so MF is represented via the 1.0-LUE base rate with a note. SCHOOL DISTRICT: Texas ISDs cannot levy impact fees; San Marcos CISD does not impose a development impact fee. Sources are official City of San Marcos documents. VERIFY: confirmed 9 of 9 rows; dropped 0. Independently re-fetched all PDFs. Source 0 ("Ordinance 2018-09" PDF) is the genuine ORDINANCE NO. 2018-09 (passed/adopted 2nd reading 4/17/2018) and contains BOTH the attached 2018 HDR Impact Fee Report (source 2) AND Schedule 1 — note source index 0 and source index 2 point to overlapping content (the study is the report attached to the ordinance). Schedule 1 "APPLICABLE WATER AND WASTEWATER IMPACT FEE AMOUNTS" confirms verbatim: WATER UTILITY "1 to 10 / 1.0 / Impact Fee after 4/30/2018 = 3,801.00" and WASTEWATER UTILITY "1 to 10 / 1.0 / Impact Fee after 4/30/2018 = 2,684.00"; Table 8 + footnote ("Maximum fees for 2018 update: Water $3,801/LUE, Wastewater $2,684/LUE") and the Appendix E LUE Fee Conversion Table (0-10 gpm = 1.0 LUE) corroborate, total $6,485/LUE. Source 1 (Impact Fees webpage) confirms Ord. 2018-09 effective 4/17/2018 is the only/current impact fee authority (no newer ordinance found) — supports medium confidence. Source 3 ("Development Fees Effective October 1, 2025") confirms verbatim: Parkland Development Fee $444/unit, Parkland Fee-in-Lieu $317/unit, Detention Fee-in-Lieu $10.00/square foot, Water Quality Fee-in-Lieu $0.37/square foot (note: the doc header reads "Development Fees Effective October 1, 2025"; the Resolution 2025-185R number is from source metadata, not printed in-doc, but all four amounts match). Source 4 ("Utility Rates and Fees effective October 1, 2025") confirms verbatim "New Service - Residential = Meter Cost + $145.00" with "Service fees established by City Code 86.198". excludeFromTotal corrections: none needed — all flags correct. Representative SFD per_dwelling_unit total = Water $3,801 + Wastewater $2,684 + Parkland Development $444 + Connection $145 = $7,074; multifamily per-LUE rows, parkland fee-in-lieu (mutually exclusive with dedication), detention fee-in-lieu and water-quality fee-in-lieu (site-specific per-sqft) all correctly excludeFromTotal=true; no double-counting.
Single-family detached = 1.0 LUE (5/8"-3/4" meter, 0-10 gpm peak flow) per Ord. 2018-09 Schedule 1 and the Appendix E LUE Fee Conversion Table. Water + wastewater impact fees total $6,485 per typical SFD home. Impact fee amounts are not tiered by home square footage — they are tiered by meter size / calculated peak flow, with the smallest residential meter (1.0 LUE) being the standard single-family assessment. Parkland fees and fee-in-lieu items are from the Development Fee Schedule effective 10/1/2025 (Resolution 2025-185R). Connection fee "Meter Cost + $145" varies by actual meter hardware cost; the $145 is the fixed labor/connection component. All nine rows independently confirmed verbatim against re-fetched official City of San Marcos PDFs on 2026-06-17.
Sources
6 official sources · 5 high-confidence figures.
- 1Ordinance No. 2018-09 — Updating and Amending the Water and Wastewater Impact Fees (Schedule 1: Applicable Water and Wastewater Impact Fee Amounts; Appendix E LUE Fee Conversion Table)City of San Marcos, TX · ordinance · effective Apr 30, 2018 · retrieved Jun 17, 2026
- 2Impact Fees — City of San Marcos, TX (references Ord. 2018-09 as current water/wastewater impact fee authority)City of San Marcos, TX · municipal webpage · retrieved Jun 17, 2026
- 32018 Update of the Water and Wastewater Impact Fees of the City of San Marcos (HDR Engineering impact fee study)City of San Marcos, TX / HDR Engineering, Inc. · fee study · effective Apr 17, 2018 · retrieved Jun 17, 2026
- 4Development Fee Schedule — Effective October 1, 2025 (Resolution 2025-185R; Miscellaneous, Fee-in-lieu, Building, Engineering, Planning fees; Parkland Development Fee; Parkland/Detention/Water Quality fee-in-lieu items)City of San Marcos, TX · fee schedule · effective Oct 1, 2025 · retrieved Jun 17, 2026
- 5San Marcos Utility Rates and Fees (effective October 1, 2025) — water/wastewater rates and connection/meter fees (City Code 86.198)City of San Marcos, TX · fee schedule · effective Oct 1, 2025 · retrieved Jun 17, 2026
- 6Water Rates and Fees — City of San Marcos, TXCity of San Marcos, TX · municipal webpage · retrieved Jun 17, 2026
San Marcos impact fees — FAQ
- How much are development impact fees in San Marcos, TX for a single-family home?
- As of 2026-06-17, total development fees for a single-family detached home in San Marcos are about $7,074 per unit — roughly $444 in impact/development fees plus $6,630 in water/sewer connection fees. Figures are normalized from official sources; verify with the jurisdiction before relying on them.
- Are impact fees in San Marcos the same as building permit fees?
- No. Impact fees (and water/sewer connection fees) fund off-site capital — roads, parks, schools, utilities — and are charged per new dwelling unit. Building permit and plan-review fees are separate and are not included here.
- How often do San Marcos's impact fees change?
- Most jurisdictions adopt fees by ordinance and escalate them annually (often by a construction cost index), with occasional mid-year updates. Always confirm the current adopted schedule with the jurisdiction. ImpactFeeAtlas last verified San Marcos on 2026-06-17.