Travis County is split down the middle by the Balcones Escarpment. West of it, the Edwards Plateau breaks into limestone canyons above Lake Travis and the Pedernales River, where soil runs inches deep over rock and Ashe juniper crowds every live oak. That’s the country around Spicewood, Briarcliff, Lago Vista and the Hamilton Pool Road corridor, where the county protects 232 acres at Hamilton Pool Preserve and another 2,427 at Milton Reimers Ranch Park.
East of the escarpment, the Blackland Prairie flattens into deep clay, old farm and grazing ground stretching past Webberville and Garfield toward the Bastrop County line. That eastern side is where the metro’s growth is landing hardest, on ground that was open acreage a decade ago.
One of our owners lives just outside Austin, and we’ve opened build sites on 10- and 13-acre tracts here. If your land is inside Austin city limits, our Austin page covers the city tree ordinance.
Communities we work in Travis County
- Lakeway
- Bee Cave
- Spicewood
- Briarcliff
- Lago Vista
- Jonestown
- Volente
- Point Venture
- Manor
- Webberville
- Garfield
- Del Valle
- Creedmoor
- Mustang Ridge
Canyons in the west, prairie in the east
West of the escarpment, limestone sits inches to a couple of feet down, canyon slopes shed water fast into Bull Creek, Barton Creek and Lake Travis, and cedar regrows faster than almost anything in the state. East of it, deep expansive clay swells after rain and cracks in drought.
In the hills it’s homesite and driveway prep through rock, cedar removal that frees mature live oaks, and view work on rim lots. On the prairie side it’s pasture reclamation, mesquite grubbing and site prep near Walter E. Long Metropolitan Park, Whisper Valley off FM 973 and the SH-130 stretch by Gigafactory Texas.
County permits that catch people off guard
Outside city limits, clearing with machinery requires a Travis County Clearing Permit; hand tools with no grading don’t, but a mulcher or dozer does. Most land-disturbing work also falls under a Basic Development Permit, triggered by disturbing an acre or more, a common plan of development that adds up to an acre, or work along a county right-of-way.
In western Travis County, golden-cheeked warbler habitat needs a permit to disturb at any time and can’t be touched March 1 through August 31, and TCEQ aquifer rules apply across much of the county. We follow oak wilt guidance too: no wounding oaks February through June, and every wound painted right away.