Do I need a permit to clear land in Montgomery County?

Since October 2025, yes by default: the county requires a development permit for clearing on unincorporated land unless an exemption applies. Most single-family jobs are exempt when the clearing sits outside the floodplain, disturbs no more than half the property up to 2.5 acres, and changes no drainage. Floodplain work always needs a permit.

What clearing is exempt from the county permit?

The county publishes the list. The big three: residential clearing outside the floodplain up to 50 percent of the property capped at 2.5 acres, commercial clearing outside the floodplain under 15,000 square feet, and agricultural clearing, including fence-line maintenance. None of them may alter how water flows, and the Floodplain Administrator can ask for proof you qualify.

Can you do land clearing without a permit?

On plenty of properties, yes, legally, because the job fits a published exemption. A typical homeowner clearing brush on part of an acreage lot outside the floodplain usually qualifies. The permit conversation starts when the land sits in a floodplain, the job reshapes drainage, the disturbed area gets big, or the property is inside a city.

Do I need a permit to remove trees in Conroe?

Usually. Conroe protects trees from about six inches in trunk diameter and requires a clearing or tree-removal permit through the city before a lot is cleared, with the process running through the city Engineering Department. If your property is inside Conroe city limits, plan the permit before the machines, not after.

Who regulates burning the cleared debris?

TCEQ sets the state rules, the county judge stacks burn bans on top during droughts, and Montgomery County sits in the Houston ozone nonattainment area, where land-clearing debris generally cannot be open-burned when a practical alternative exists. Mulching or hauling is the realistic plan, which is how we handle debris anyway.

Does a small backyard clearing job need any of this?

Rarely. A backyard clear on dry ground, well inside the residential exemption, with no drainage changes, is a call-and-schedule job. We still confirm jurisdiction and the flood map first, because a surprising number of wooded lots in this county carry a floodplain finger through the back of the property.

Do you need a permit to clear land in Montgomery County, TX?

Since October 1, 2025, the default answer in unincorporated Montgomery County is yes: the county requires a development permit for any man-made change to land, and its definition names clearing outright. The reason most homeowners still never pull one is the exemption list. Clear less than half a residential property, cap it at 2.5 acres, stay out of the floodplain, change no drainage, and the county publishes that job as exempt. This guide walks the rules as they actually read in 2026.

What changed in October 2025

Montgomery County adopted new floodplain management regulations that took effect October 1, 2025, and they widened the county’s permitting reach. The county’s own FAQ now states that a development permit is required for all proposed development in unincorporated areas, and it defines development broadly: constructing buildings, grading, dredging, filling, and clearing.

That surprises people, because Texas counties famously have no zoning power. That part is still true. The county’s authority here is floodplain and drainage management, not land use. There is no county tree ordinance, no protected-species list, and nobody in Conroe reviewing which oaks you keep on county land. What the county regulates is dirt and water: where the floodplain sits, how runoff leaves your property, and how much ground a project disturbs.

The practical vehicle is the non-structure development permit, filed with the county permit department in Conroe. It covers clearing, grading, and fill, and anything you want covered has to be written into the application’s description of work.

The exemptions that cover most residential jobs

The county publishes an exemption list alongside the new regulations, and it does the heavy lifting for ordinary property owners. Three exemptions matter most for clearing:

Exemption	The published limits
Residential clearing	Outside the floodplain, single-family use, disturbed area up to 50% of the property, capped at 2.5 acres cumulative
Commercial clearing	Outside the floodplain, under 15,000 sq ft of disturbed area
Agricultural	Clearing for ag operations, including trees and fence-line maintenance

Every exemption carries the same two strings. First, the work cannot alter natural water flow: no regrading that sends runoff at a neighbor, no touching streams, swales, or ditches. Second, the exemption is yours to prove. The county’s paperwork says plainly that it is the owner’s responsibility to determine eligibility, and the Floodplain Administrator can ask for documentation.

So a homeowner mulching the back two acres of a five-acre tract on dry ground fits the exemption cleanly. Storm cleanup after a hurricane or tornado is exempt too. A developer stripping a commercial pad is not, and neither is anyone working wet ground.

When a permit is clearly required

Some triggers take the question out of exemption territory entirely:

Any work in the 100-year floodplain, full stop. The county also reviews anything within 100 feet of a floodplain or floodway, and structures there must sit at least two feet above the base flood elevation.
Disturbing more than 15,000 square feet in a way that needs county drainage signoff, or moving more than 500 cubic yards of fill or excavation.
Drainage changes of any kind: reshaping swales, filling low ground, altering a ditch.
A new driveway culvert on a county road, which runs through your commissioner precinct rather than the permit office.
Septic: a new system needs its own permit through county Environmental Health, and the county will not permit a septic system in a regulatory floodway.

One more state layer for bigger projects: once construction activity, clearing included, disturbs an acre or more, TCEQ’s construction stormwater general permit applies. And if clearing pushes into genuine wetlands, federal Section 404 rules can require a Corps of Engineers permit before fill or mechanized clearing touches them. Those are developer-scale concerns, but they exist.

City limits change everything

The county rules above stop at every city boundary, and this county is full of them. Before any clearing job, the first check is jurisdiction, which takes two minutes on the appraisal district’s taxing-unit lookup.

Conroe is the big one. The city protects trees from roughly six inches in trunk diameter and requires a clearing permit and pre-clearing inspection through its Engineering Department before a lot is cleared. Our Conroe land clearing page covers the local process in more detail. The Woodlands is not a city at all but a township governed by covenants, where tree removal generally needs Covenant Administration approval before it happens. The full rule, including the six-inch threshold and the replant table, is in our Woodlands tree removal rules guide. Shenandoah, by contrast, lets a homeowner remove a tree on single-family property without a permit unless it was planted under a city-approved plan. Three neighboring jurisdictions, three completely different answers.

What about burning what you clear?

Debris disposal has its own rulebook, and around here it points one direction. TCEQ prohibits outdoor burning by default with narrow exceptions, and Montgomery County sits in the Houston-area severe ozone nonattainment zone, where land-clearing debris generally cannot be open-burned if any practical alternative exists. County burn bans stack on top during every dry stretch. Hauling counts as a practical alternative. So does grinding the debris where it stands, which is what our forestry mulching service does and why most of our jobs never produce a burn pile in the first place.

How we handle the rules on a real job

We clear land across this county every week, so the rule check is built into how our land clearing service scopes a job: confirm the jurisdiction, pull the flood map, measure the disturbed area against the exemption limits, and flag anything that needs county paper before a machine rolls. Most residential jobs clear inside the exemptions and start quickly. The ones that need a permit go in with the right application instead of a stop-work order. Estimates are free, and the permit answer comes with the quote. Call (281) 432-7360 and we will look at your property.