A commercial site in North Texas is ready for construction when a short list of documents exists and a short list of conditions has been met on the ground. Everything else is opinion. This checklist is that list, arranged as six gates in the order a project passes through them, with the rule or the standard behind each item cited at the foot of the page. It is written for the owner, the developer and the general contractor who have to sign off on a site before the next trade mobilizes, and it is the same list our estimators work from when a set of plans arrives.
Two things make the list specific to this region. The first is the ground: most of the metroplex sits on expansive clay, so several items below exist to control moisture rather than to move dirt. The second is the permit structure: Texas administers its own construction stormwater program, more than 60 local governments have adopted a shared regional drainage standard, and the state's utility damage prevention law sets its own clock12. A checklist written for another state gets the sequence right and the details wrong.
Gate 1. Know the ground before you own the problem
The first gate is paper, and all of it should exist before a machine is priced. Each document answers one question that no later phase can answer as cheaply.
| Document | Produced by | What it decides |
|---|---|---|
| Phase I Environmental Site Assessment | An environmental professional, to ASTM E1527 | Whether recognized environmental conditions exist on the property. The practice has four parts, a review of government records, a site reconnaissance, interviews with owners, operators and occupants, and a written report, and it is the standard for the "all appropriate inquiries" a purchaser makes to qualify for landowner liability protections under CERCLA3. It is presumed viable when conducted within 180 days before acquisition, with its interviews, record reviews, inspection and declaration updated within that window3. |
| Flood map determination | Pulled from the FEMA Flood Map Service Center by address4 | Whether any part of the site lies in an area of special flood hazard, which the federal regulations define as land in the flood plain subject to a 1 percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year5. If it does, the site needs a floodplain development permit before grading, because the same regulations define development to include filling, grading, paving, excavation and the storage of equipment or materials5. |
| Waters of the United States review | A wetland scientist or the civil engineer, against 33 CFR 328.3 | Whether a creek, an impoundment or a wetland on the site is federally jurisdictional. Wetlands are defined as areas inundated or saturated at a frequency and duration sufficient to support vegetation adapted to saturated soil, and wetlands separated from other waters by man-made dikes or natural berms still count as adjacent6. A yes here means a Corps of Engineers permit before any fill goes in. |
| County soil survey | USDA NRCS, through the Web Soil Survey7 | Which soil series sit under the footprint. The survey is free, covers the county, and tells you before a boring is drilled whether the site is fat clay, shallow chalk or river bottom. |
| Geotechnical report | A geotechnical engineer, from borings on the site | What can be reused as fill, what must be wasted, what moisture and density each material is placed at, whether the subgrade is treated, and what the pad is built to. The building code requires that where shallow foundations bear on compacted fill, the fill comply with an approved geotechnical report8. |
| Topographic survey and civil plans | The surveyor and the civil engineer | The existing ground, the design surface, and the cut and fill between them. Without both, there is no takeoff and no balance. |
The item most often missing when a set of plans reaches us is the geotechnical report. A grading plan without one is a drawing of where the dirt goes, not a specification of what the dirt has to be.
Gate 2. Notices and permits, each on its own clock
Four notices govern the start of work on almost every commercial site here, and each one has a different trigger and a different lead time. The table is the checklist; the paragraphs after it are the reasons.
| Notice | Triggered by | Timing | Filed with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction stormwater coverage, TPDES General Permit TXR150000 | Disturbing one or more acres, or less than an acre as part of a larger common plan of development1 | Before construction begins: the SWP3 must be developed and implemented first1 | TCEQ. Large sites of 5 acres or more file a Notice of Intent through the STEERS e-permitting system; small sites of at least 1 but less than 5 acres post a site notice on TCEQ's forms1 |
| Floodplain development permit | Any filling, grading or excavation inside an area of special flood hazard5 | Before that work starts | The city's or county's floodplain administrator |
| Grading permit and drainage review | The city's development code; most metroplex cities review drainage against the iSWM criteria they have adopted2 | Before mobilization; review cycles vary by city | The city engineering or development services department |
| Excavation notice to the one-call center | Any excavation, under the Texas Utilities Code | Not earlier than the 14th day and not later than the 48th hour before excavation begins, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays9 | Texas811, the notification center the statute establishes |
| Asbestos inspection and notification | Any demolition or a renovation above the regulated threshold | Before the demolition: a thorough inspection of the area where the work will occur, and notification to the delegated agency before any demolition10 | In Texas, the Department of State Health Services Asbestos Program11 |
The stormwater permit is the one that catches out-of-state teams. Its current term runs from March 5, 2023 to March 5, 2028, its acreage thresholds are counted against the larger common plan rather than the parcel, and it requires the operator to develop and implement a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan, which TCEQ abbreviates SWP3, prior to commencing construction1. An erosion control plan filed after the clearing crew has started is a violation with a start date.
The excavation notice has a window, not a deadline. The statute says notice is given not earlier than the 14th day before the excavation is to begin and not later than the 48th hour before it begins, with Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays excluded from the count, and a notice given on a Saturday allows excavation to start the following Tuesday at 11:59 a.m., or Wednesday if Monday is a holiday9. A crew that mobilizes Monday morning on a ticket called Friday afternoon is standing on a site it cannot dig.
Gate 3. Clearing and demolition, with the calendar in hand
- Nesting birds. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act prohibits the take of protected migratory bird species, including killing, capturing and transport, without prior authorization12. Clearing a tree line in spring without a nest survey is the way a site work schedule acquires a federal problem. The protected list is maintained under 50 CFR 10.13 and was updated in 202312.
- Tree preservation. Most cities in the metroplex regulate the removal of protected trees on commercial land through their development codes, and the mitigation owed is set at the permit, not after. Confirm the city's ordinance and get the tree survey stamped before the first cut.
- Underground installations. Federal safety rules require the estimated location of sewer, telephone, fuel, electric, water and other underground installations to be determined before an excavation is opened, the utility owners contacted and asked to establish their locations, and the exact location determined by safe and acceptable means as the excavation approaches them13. The one-call ticket satisfies the state law; the potholing satisfies this one.
- Asbestos and demolition. A thorough inspection for asbestos where the demolition will occur comes before the demolition, and the federal rule's removal thresholds are 260 linear feet, 160 square feet or 35 cubic feet of regulated material10. The state program's demolition decision tree is the document to walk through with the abatement contractor11.
Gate 4. Erosion control in the ground before the ground is opened
The order matters more than the products. The SWP3 the permit requires is implemented before construction begins, not after the first rain1, and on a Blackland site the first rain is the one that moves the most soil, because the clay sheds water fast once its surface has been disturbed. The perimeter controls, the stabilized construction exit and the inlet protection are installed on the plan's schedule, and the plan is kept on site and revised as the phases change. The regional drainage criteria more than 60 local governments have adopted exist, in NCTCOG's own words, to help communities meet their construction and post-construction obligations under state stormwater permits2, so a plan drawn to them is a plan the city's reviewer already recognizes.
Gate 5. Grading and drainage that hold
The grade is finished when three things are true at once, and the checklist has an item for each.
- The balance is known. Cut and fill from the takeoff, with the geotechnical report's shrink and swell factors applied, so the site's surplus or shortfall is a number before it is a truck count.
- Water leaves the building. The building code requires the ground immediately adjacent to a foundation to be sloped away at not less than 1 unit vertical in 20 units horizontal, a 5 percent slope, for a minimum distance of 10 feet, with an exception to 2 percent where climatic or soil conditions warrant8. On expansive clay, the reason is moisture: water standing against a slab edge is water entering the clay under it.
- The open excavation is inspected. Federal rules prohibit employees from working in an excavation where water is accumulating without adequate precautions13, require support systems such as shoring, bracing or underpinning where the stability of adjoining buildings or walls is endangered by the excavation13, and require daily inspections of excavations and protective systems by a competent person, before the start of work and after every rainstorm13. A site that cannot name its competent person has not passed this gate.
Gate 6. Pads and subgrade proven, not assumed
The last gate is the one the foundation contractor and the paving contractor inherit, and it closes on test results rather than on a walk. The building code's rule is short: fill under shallow foundations complies with the approved geotechnical report, and only fill of 12 inches or less may skip the report, and then only if it is compacted to at least 90 percent of maximum dry density8. Everything below follows from that sentence.
- The laboratory curve exists for every fill material. The standard Proctor test, ASTM D698, compacts the soil in three layers with a 5.5-pound rammer dropped 12 inches, at a total effort of 12,400 foot-pounds per cubic foot, and its product is the relationship between water content and dry unit weight: the maximum dry unit weight and the optimum water content the field is tested against14. Its three methods differ by the size of the mold and the fraction of the soil, from material passing the No. 4 sieve in a 4-inch mold to material passing the 3/4-inch sieve in a 6-inch mold14. Ask which method the report specifies; it changes the number.
- Every lift is tested in place. The nuclear gauge method, ASTM D6938, reads in-place density by the attenuation of gamma radiation and water content by the slowing of fast neutrons, at a source depth of up to 12 inches, and it is used for quality control and acceptance testing of compacted soil in construction15. It is not applicable to clean gravel or clean crushed rock, where surface voids distort the reading15, so a base course is checked another way.
- Moisture is in range, not just density. A clay lift can hit density dry and swell later. The report's moisture window is a pass criterion, and a lift that is dense and dry is a failed lift on this ground.
- The handover carries the paper. Density and moisture reports by lift, the surveyor's as-built of the pad and the subgrade, and the SWP3 inspection log, delivered together, are what "pad-ready" means in writing.
The checklist on one page
| Gate | Closed when | Rule or standard |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Due diligence | Phase I ESA, flood determination, waters review, soil survey, geotechnical report, topo and civils in hand | ASTM E15273; 44 CFR 59.15; 33 CFR 328.36; IBC 1804.68 |
| 2. Notices | CGP coverage and SWP3 in place; floodplain and grading permits issued; one-call ticket inside its window; asbestos inspection and notice filed | TXR1500001; 44 CFR 59.15; Utilities Code 251.1519; 40 CFR 61 Subpart M10 |
| 3. Clearing and demolition | Nest survey done, tree permit stamped, utilities located and potholed, abatement complete | MBTA12; 29 CFR 1926.651(b)13 |
| 4. Erosion control | Perimeter controls, construction exit and inlet protection installed to the SWP3 before disturbance | TXR1500001; iSWM2 |
| 5. Grading and drainage | Balance known, 5 percent away from foundations for 10 feet, competent person inspecting daily | IBC 1804.48; 29 CFR 1926.651(h), (i), (k)13 |
| 6. Pads and subgrade | Every fill material has a Proctor curve, every lift a passing density and moisture test, and the handover carries the reports | IBC 1804.68; ASTM D69814; ASTM D693815 |
Run the list against your site and the gaps will be obvious. If you would rather have us run it, send the civil plans, the geotechnical report and the address, and we will tell you which gates are open and what closes them.
