On this page
- Start with who owns the water
- Lake Lewisville — closed to new docks
- Lake Grapevine — closed to new docks
- Lake Ray Hubbard. The sublease system
- TRWD lakes — Eagle Mountain, Cedar Creek, Bridgeport, Richland Chambers
- Possum Kingdom — Brazos River Authority
- Lake Texoma — check before you plan
- Every lake, side by side
- If you're buying a lake house
- What to do next
If you own waterfront property in North Texas and you're picturing a dock, there is one question that comes before design, before budget, and before you call anybody: does the authority that controls your lake still issue permits for new docks?
On two of the biggest lakes in the metroplex, the answer right now is no. Not “it's difficult” or “it takes a while” — no.
This guide covers every major lake we work on, who governs it, and what's actually possible on each one. Every rule below comes from the governing authority's own published material, and we've linked the sources so you can check them yourself.
Start with who owns the water
Here's the part that surprises people. You can own your land right down to the water's edge and still have no right to build anything on it, over it, or into it.
The lakebed and a strip of shoreline above it usually belong to somebody else: a federal agency, a water district, a river authority, or a city. That owner decides what gets built. Your deed does not.
In North Texas, that owner is one of five bodies:
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District — Lewisville, Grapevine
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District — Texoma
- Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) — Eagle Mountain, Cedar Creek, Bridgeport, Richland Chambers
- City of Dallas, leased to shoreline cities — Ray Hubbard
- Brazos River Authority — Possum Kingdom
Find yours, and everything else follows from it.
Lake Lewisville — closed to new docks
Lewisville Lake is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, and the Corps could not be much clearer about this. From their own FAQ:
“The only way to obtain a boathouse on Lewisville Lake is to buy one that is already in existence and has a current, active permit. We are not allowing the construction of new boat houses or docks at Lewisville Lake.”
That is the whole answer. There is no application to submit, no variance to request and no waiting list. If you want a dock on Lewisville, you buy a property that already has one under an active permit, and you make sure that permit transfers correctly to you as part of the purchase.
The Corps also restricts what happens on the fee land around the lake: you may not construct facilities on public land, and mooring boats or floating devices to the shoreline is not permitted. Guidance issued to adjacent landowners states plainly that no portable ramps or docks are authorised.
What is possible on Lewisville: repairing and maintaining an existing permitted structure, and transferring a permit when a property changes hands. Both need Lake Office involvement.
Source: USACE Lewisville Lake FAQ
Lake Grapevine — closed to new docks
Same district, same answer. The Corps states that new boathouse permits will not be issued for Grapevine Lake.
Existing permitted boathouses can be rebuilt, but with real constraints:
- Rebuilds need Lake Office approval before work starts
- They must be built to the original footprint or smaller — no expansion
- Boathouses are for boat storage only. Living quarters will not be approved
- Roof decks will not be approved
- Transfer on sale requires a notarised bill of sale and an inspection
- The shoreline use permit runs five years for $35
- Electricity to the structure needs a separate Real Estate license
If you're buying a Grapevine property with a boathouse, the inspection at transfer is the thing to pay attention to. Deferred maintenance that the seller has lived with becomes your repair bill, and you cannot simply rebuild bigger.
Source: USACE Grapevine Lake FAQ
Lake Ray Hubbard. The sublease system
Ray Hubbard works completely differently, and new construction is possible.
The land between your rear lot line and the water, the “take line area”, is owned by the City of Dallas, leased to the shoreline cities, and subleased to individual homeowners. Rowlett publishes its process, and it runs like this:
- You need a sublease in place before you can even apply for a permit
- The sublease application needs a survey, your deed and Texas ID
- Sublease cost: $600 initially, $350 per year to renew
- A permit for anything touching or over the water costs $300
- Other improvements within the take area are $50
The order matters here. People regularly design a dock, get a quote, and then discover the sublease is not in their name — often because it never transferred when they bought the house. Sort the sublease first.
Source: City of Rowlett — Lake Ray Hubbard Take Area
TRWD lakes — Eagle Mountain, Cedar Creek, Bridgeport, Richland Chambers
Tarrant Regional Water District governs four lakes and issues Residential Improvement Permits for docks, piers, seawalls, dredging and fill at or below conservation elevation. New construction is permitted, and the rules are detailed and public.
The part most people haven't heard: the size of dock you're allowed is calculated from how much shoreline you own.
| Shoreline frontage | Allowance | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 150 linear ft | 8 sq ft of dock per linear foot | 1,200 sq ft max |
| 151–250 ft | Additional 4 sq ft per linear foot | — |
| 251–450 ft | Additional 2 sq ft per linear foot | — |
| Over 450 ft | Additional 1 sq ft per linear foot | — |
Alongside that, TRWD sets:
- Permit fee $100, non-refundable. Extensions $50, up to 90 days
- First floor a minimum of 18 inches above normal pool
- Roof pitch capped at 6:12, and 4:12 at Richland Chambers
- Setbacks of 5 feet from side property lines, 20 feet if the structure exceeds 1,200 sq ft
- Structures may not occupy more than one third of the channel width, and must stay at least 10 feet from the channel centerline
- Around 10 working days processing. Permits valid 30–90 days
There are also requirements on your contractor, and they're not trivial: $500,000 per-occurrence general liability, TRWD named as an additional insured with a waiver of subrogation, a certificate of insurance with every submission, and a licensed master electrician for any electrical work. A builder who can't produce those cannot submit your permit.
Source: TRWD Permits · Residential Improvement Permit Guidelines (PDF)
Possum Kingdom — Brazos River Authority
The Brazos River Authority issues four relevant permit types at Possum Kingdom:
- On-Water Facility Permit — docks and private facilities over the reservoir bed. New facilities require a sketch with the application
- Improvement Permit — shoreline retaining walls, dredging under a dock, stump removal, private boat ramp maintenance
- Residential Water Permit — pumping for irrigation up to 5,000 gallons a month
- On-Site Sewage Facility License
One rule worth repeating: construction may not begin until the approved permit has been returned to you. Starting early is how a project ends up removed at the owner's cost.
Source: BRA — Possum Kingdom Lake Permits
Lake Texoma — check before you plan
Texoma is managed by the Corps' Tulsa District rather than Fort Worth. In March 2020 the district issued a temporary moratorium on new shoreline management use permits, including boat dock and vegetation modification applications, initially expected to run about a year. Existing permits continued to be renewed, and repairs and modifications to already-permitted docks continued to be evaluated. A Shoreline Management Plan was subsequently published.
We have not been able to confirm the current status of new dock permitting at Texoma from a primary source, and we're not going to guess in print. If you're on Texoma, call the Lake Office before you plan anything, and we'll do the same before we quote.
Sources: Moratorium notice · USACE Tulsa Shoreline Management Plans
Every lake, side by side
| Lake | Authority | New docks? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lewisville | USACE Fort Worth | No | Buy an existing permitted structure |
| Grapevine | USACE Fort Worth | No | Rebuild to original footprint only |
| Ray Hubbard | City of Dallas / shoreline cities | Yes | Sublease required first |
| Eagle Mountain | TRWD | Yes | Size tied to shoreline frontage |
| Cedar Creek | TRWD | Yes | Size tied to shoreline frontage |
| Bridgeport | TRWD | Yes | Size tied to shoreline frontage |
| Richland Chambers | TRWD | Yes | Roof pitch capped at 4:12 |
| Possum Kingdom | Brazos River Authority | Yes | On-Water Facility Permit |
| Texoma | USACE Tulsa | Verify | Call the Lake Office |
If you're buying a lake house
Three things to check before you close, in this order:
- Does the dock have a current, active permit, and does it transfer? On Corps lakes this is the difference between owning a dock and owning a structure you may be told to remove.
- Is the sublease in the seller's name and can it be assigned? On Ray Hubbard particularly, subleases sometimes lapse quietly between owners.
- Has the structure been modified beyond what was permitted? An enclosed boathouse with living space added, or a roof deck, may not be approvable at transfer inspection.
Tell us about a real dock you have worked on. Which lake, what the job was, and one thing that surprised the owner. Names can be omitted — the lake and the detail are what matter.
Replace this box with the answer. This is the passage that makes the article impossible to copy. It is first-hand and nobody else has it.
Have you ever been called out to a dock where the permit had never transferred to the new owner? What happened?
Replace this box with the answer. This is the passage that makes the article impossible to copy. It is first-hand and nobody else has it.
What is the most common thing you find wrong when you assess an older dock on these lakes?
Replace this box with the answer. This is the passage that makes the article impossible to copy. It is first-hand and nobody else has it.
What this means if you already own a dock
On Lewisville and Grapevine, the dock you have is the dock you get. It cannot be replaced with a new one, and on Grapevine a rebuild has to stay within the original footprint or smaller. That changes the math on maintenance completely. A structure you cannot replace is worth looking after properly.
That is the work we do. We don't build new docks; we repair, restore and rebuild the ones that are already there, and we handle the permit-transfer process when a lake property changes hands.
If you're shopping for a lake house, check the permit before you close. If you already own one, the first thing worth knowing is whether the permit is actually in your name.