Texas Landscape Architect
Texas Landscape Architecture for Developers, Engineers, and Architects
Evergreen Design Group is a licensed landscape architecture firm serving land developers, civil engineers, architects, and design-build contractors across Texas. Since 2005, we have delivered land planning, planting design, hardscape design, and irrigation design on residential communities, mixed-use developments, commercial projects, and industrial sites throughout the state — from the Houston metro and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to the Austin-San Antonio corridor and the Gulf Coast.
We don’t work with homeowners. Our practice is built around B2B project delivery: coordinating with project teams, meeting submittal deadlines, navigating Texas’s layered regulatory environment, and producing construction-ready documents that move your project forward. Texas requires landscape architects to understand not just design but the regulatory frameworks — from TCEQ irrigation licensing requirements to Edwards Aquifer Protection Zone restrictions to the distinct municipal ordinances of each major Texas metro.
Texas is one of the most geographically and climatically diverse states in the nation. The design and regulatory environment shifts materially from the humid subtropical Gulf Coast to the semi-arid Hill Country to the high plains of West Texas. A landscape architecture firm practicing here needs differentiated expertise across these environments — not a single statewide template.
What Landscape Architects Need to Know About Designing in Texas
TCEQ Irrigation Licensing — Texas's Unique Regulatory Layer
Texas is one of a small number of states that requires irrigation systems to be designed and installed by licensed irrigators — a designation administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Under Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1903, irrigation systems installed on new development projects must be designed by or under the supervision of a TCEQ-licensed irrigator. Landscape architects preparing irrigation construction documents in Texas must either hold a TCEQ irrigation license or coordinate the irrigation design scope with a licensed irrigator. This regulatory structure is unique among the states in which Evergreen Design Group practices and shapes how irrigation design is scoped and documented on every Texas project.
Additionally, TCEQ regulates backflow prevention requirements, pressure testing, and inspection protocols for irrigation systems installed in Texas. Our irrigation design documentation for Texas projects is produced in coordination with TCEQ licensing requirements and includes the required backflow prevention specifications and testing provisions.
Texas's Five Eco-Regions and Their Design Implications
Texas spans an extraordinary range of ecological conditions — from the Piney Woods of East Texas to the Chihuahuan Desert in the west, from the Gulf Prairies along the coast to the Edwards Plateau in the Hill Country. Landscape architects practicing statewide must design to the conditions of the specific project location:
- Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes (Houston, Beaumont, Corpus Christi): Flat topography, high humidity, heavy rainfall with significant tropical storm and hurricane risk, expansive clay soils (Houston Black Clay), and active FEMA floodplain constraints on most development sites. Stormwater management is the defining landscape design challenge.
- Edwards Plateau / Texas Hill Country (Austin, San Antonio, Kerrville): Thin limestone soils over karst bedrock, Edwards Aquifer recharge and contributing zones with strict impervious cover limitations, flash flood risk, cedar-juniper invasion management, and municipal water conservation ordinances. The most regulatory-complex landscape environment in the state.
- Blackland Prairies (Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco): Deep expansive shrink-swell clay soils (Houston, Austin, and Lewisville series) that crack in drought and swell with rainfall — a condition that creates chronic hardscape movement, foundation challenges, and planting establishment difficulties. The dominant geotechnical challenge for landscape architects on the Metroplex.
- Rolling Plains and Llano Estacado (Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland-Odessa): Semi-arid to arid high plains with high wind, caliche soils, extreme temperature swings, and severe drought exposure. Irrigation is essential and water sources are limited.
- Piney Woods and Post Oak Savanna (East Texas, Tyler, Nacogdoches): Sandy acid soils, significant tree canopy, higher annual rainfall than the rest of the state, and an ecological context closer to the Deep South than the Texas most people picture.
Texas Water Conservation and Municipal Irrigation Restrictions
Water conservation is a defining regulatory pressure for landscape architects across Texas. Most Texas municipalities have adopted staged outdoor watering restrictions tied to drought conditions — administered locally but reflecting the broader pressure of aquifer depletion, population growth, and periodic extreme drought. Cities including San Antonio, Austin, and many DFW municipalities have adopted water-efficient landscaping ordinances that restrict turf area, require drought-tolerant planting percentages, and mandate specific irrigation system efficiency standards on new commercial and multifamily development.
Landscape architects designing in Texas must be current on the water conservation requirements of the applicable municipality and design planting and irrigation plans to meet those requirements — not as a compliance afterthought, but as a core design parameter.
Texas Floodplain Regulation: FEMA, City Floodplain Administrators, and Harris County Flood Control
Texas's flat topography, impervious urban surfaces, and extreme rainfall events create extensive FEMA-mapped Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHAs) in virtually every major development market. Landscape architects are directly involved in floodplain development: designing drainage features, vegetated conveyance channels, detention basin side slopes and revegetation, and the landscape elements of floodplain compensation areas. In the Houston metro, Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) operates one of the most complex floodplain regulatory frameworks in the country, with requirements that interact with FEMA mapping, City of Houston drainage ordinances, and individual municipality floodplain management programs. Our landscape architects understand how floodplain constraints affect site design and produce documentation coordinated with the civil engineer's floodplain analysis.
Texas Tree Ordinances: Municipal Variation and Heritage Tree Protections
Texas has no statewide tree protection ordinance — tree regulation is entirely municipal. The variation between municipalities is significant: Austin maintains one of the most detailed heritage tree ordinances in the country, with critical root zone protections and a heritage tree designation that creates major constraints on development sites. San Antonio administers its own urban tree ordinance. Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston each have distinct tree preservation and replacement requirements. In unincorporated areas of major Texas counties, tree regulations vary further. Landscape architects practicing across multiple Texas markets must maintain current knowledge of each municipality's specific tree ordinance requirements.
Texas Development Markets by Region
Texas's most active development markets for landscape architecture services span five major metro areas:
- Houston Metro (Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria, Galveston counties): The largest development market in Texas and one of the largest in the nation. Characterized by no zoning (within the City of Houston proper), significant floodplain constraints, expansive clay soils, and high-volume residential, commercial, and industrial development.
- Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex (Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton, Rockwall counties): The most active residential land development market in the country, with master-planned communities, high-volume subdivision development, and significant commercial and mixed-use growth across multiple fast-growing counties.
- Austin Metro (Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop counties): One of the fastest-growing metros in the nation, with complex environmental regulations tied to the Edwards Aquifer and Hill Country topography, plus some of the most detailed tree and water conservation ordinances in Texas.
- San Antonio Metro (Bexar County and surrounding): Active residential and commercial development market with strong Edwards Aquifer Protection Zone constraints, SAWS water conservation requirements, and significant military-adjacent and institutional development.
- Greater Houston Suburban Markets (Conroe/Montgomery County, The Woodlands, Sugar Land/Fort Bend, Pearland/Brazoria): High-growth suburban and exurban markets surrounding Houston proper with distinct county and municipal regulatory frameworks.
Landscape Architecture Services We Deliver in Texas
Every service is performed in-house by our licensed professionals with no subcontracting of scope.
Our land planning service supports developers and civil engineers at the pre-application and schematic design stage — establishing open space frameworks, impervious cover budgets (critical on Edwards Aquifer Protection Zone sites), floodplain buffer configurations, tree preservation areas, amenity placement, and land use transitions before the civil plan is locked. In Texas’s fast-growth markets, land planning decisions made early in the entitlement process have significant consequences on regulatory compliance, construction cost, and schedule.
Planting design in Texas requires a working knowledge of the applicable eco-region’s climate, soil chemistry, drought tolerance requirements, and municipal water-wise or native plant ordinance requirements. In the Hill Country and Edwards Plateau, plant selection must perform on thin limestone soils with minimal supplemental irrigation; in Houston’s clay-dominated Gulf Coast context, species tolerant of prolonged wet periods and periodic flooding are required; in the DFW Blackland Prairie, establishing plants through the seasonal shrink-swell cycle of expansive clay soils is the primary challenge. We select species appropriate to the specific project location and document planting plans to the level required for Texas municipal plan review and competitive contractor bidding.
Tree preservation and replacement requirements in Texas are entirely municipal — and the variation is significant. Austin’s heritage tree ordinance, San Antonio’s urban tree standards, and the distinct requirements of Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and their suburban municipalities each require tree disposition plans calibrated to the specific local ordinance. We produce tree surveys, protection plans, critical root zone documentation, and replacement calculations to the requirements of the applicable reviewing jurisdiction — not a generic Texas template.
Texas’s master-planned community market — concentrated in the DFW Metroplex, the Houston suburban ring, and the Austin and San Antonio growth corridors — is among the most competitive and amenity-intensive residential development environments in the country. Developers in these markets know that pools, clubhouses, fitness areas, dog parks, multi-use lawns, trail systems, and pocket parks directly affect absorption rates and lot premiums. We design amenity packages that are market-responsive, code-compliant, and built around the operational realities of HOA management in the Texas climate.
Texas hardscape design is defined by the thermal expansion demands of extreme summer heat, the movement of expansive clay soils in Blackland Prairie markets, the cracking of thin limestone soils in the Hill Country, and the high-traffic demands of commercial and community development. We produce fully documented hardscape construction drawings: paving materials and finish specifications appropriate to the applicable Texas climate and soil conditions, joint design for movement and drainage, grading and drainage coordination, retaining wall and edge restraint details, and structural pavement section specifications. On sites with significant clay soil movement, we specify pavement systems and joint configurations designed to accommodate seasonal soil volume change rather than ignoring it.
Irrigation design in Texas is shaped by TCEQ licensing requirements, municipal water conservation ordinances, the availability and cost of water sources that vary by municipality and region, and the acute drought sensitivity of a state that experiences both prolonged drought and periodic extreme heat. We produce hydraulically engineered irrigation system documentation — coordinated with TCEQ licensed irrigator requirements, designed to applicable municipal water conservation efficiency standards, specified to the water pressure and source parameters of the applicable utility, and documented for competitive contractor bidding and long-term property management.
Texas Projects We Support
Residential Land Development
Master-planned communities, single-family subdivisions, townhome communities, and mixed-density neighborhoods across Texas’s major growth markets. Texas’s master-planned community pipeline — concentrated in the DFW Metroplex, Houston suburbs, and the Austin-San Antonio corridor — produces some of the highest-volume residential land development work in our national portfolio. We provide land planning, amenity design, planting plans, tree disposition plans, and irrigation design coordinated with the civil engineer through the full entitlement and construction document process.
Commercial and Mixed-Use Development
Retail centers, office and corporate campuses, mixed-use developments, hospitality, and medical facilities across Texas’s commercial markets. We produce landscape plans that satisfy applicable municipal landscape ordinance requirements, meet stormwater and impervious cover constraints, comply with water conservation standards, and create environments that support the commercial performance of the project.
Industrial and Logistics Development
Texas’s industrial and logistics development is concentrated in DFW’s Alliance and Inland Port corridors, the Houston Ship Channel industrial district, and the I-35 corridor between Austin and San Antonio. We design landscape plans appropriate to large-footprint industrial sites — perimeter buffer planting, stormwater management, low-maintenance vegetation, and impervious cover compliance — documented to the standard required for site plan approval.
Civic and Institutional Development
Texas’s significant public sector, university systems, healthcare networks, and military installations generate steady demand for landscape architects experienced in institutional project types. We deliver civic and institutional landscape work with the documentation standards and coordination practices that public project delivery requires.
Why Texas Project Teams Work with Evergreen Design Group
Licensed in Texas. Fluent in Texas's Regulatory Environment
Evergreen Design Group holds an active Texas landscape architect registration. We understand TCEQ irrigation licensing requirements, Edwards Aquifer Protection Zone impervious cover constraints, the Texas tree ordinance landscape, and the distinct regulatory frameworks of Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Fort Worth. That regulatory fluency is a direct service to your project team.
Multi-Market Expertise Across Texas's Distinct Eco-Regions
The Gulf Coast, Blackland Prairie, Hill Country, and high plains are not variations on a theme — they are fundamentally different design environments requiring different plant palettes, irrigation approaches, grading strategies, and hardscape specifications. We practice across all of Texas's major development markets and design to the conditions of the specific project location.
Single-Source Landscape Scope Management
Land planning, planting, hardscape, tree disposition, irrigation, and community amenity design — managed by one firm, coordinated internally, and delivered as a unified set of construction documents. Less coordination burden on your civil engineer and project manager. One set of documents going into plan review.
Construction-Ready Documentation
Our deliverables are produced to a standard that contractors can price and build from without excessive clarification — fewer RFIs, fewer change orders, fewer surprises during construction. That matters in Texas's fast-moving development markets where schedule pressure is the norm.
Frequently Asked Questions — Landscape Architects Texas
Yes. Texas is one of a small number of states with mandatory irrigation licensing administered by TCEQ. Under Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1903, irrigation systems on new development must be designed and installed by or under the supervision of a TCEQ-licensed irrigator. Landscape architects preparing irrigation construction documents in Texas either hold a TCEQ irrigation license or coordinate irrigation design with a licensed irrigator. This is a Texas-specific regulatory requirement that does not exist in most other states, and it affects how irrigation design scope is structured and documented on every Texas development project. Our Texas irrigation documentation is produced in coordination with TCEQ licensing requirements.
The Edwards Aquifer is a karst limestone aquifer that provides drinking water to approximately 2 million people in the San Antonio area and supplies irrigation and industrial water throughout Central Texas. The Edwards Aquifer Authority administers a Protection Zone — divided into a Recharge Zone and a Contributing Zone — within which development is subject to strict impervious cover limitations to protect groundwater quality. Landscape architects designing in the Recharge Zone and Contributing Zone must design site plans that stay within the applicable impervious cover cap (which varies by zone and project type), maximize open space and permeable surfaces, and in some cases design water quality features that treat stormwater before it reaches the karst formation. The City of Austin has its own Watershed Protection Ordinance that extends similar impervious cover restrictions beyond the aquifer boundaries, affecting development across the Austin metro.
Significantly. Austin’s Heritage Tree Ordinance is among the most detailed in the country, protecting trees 19 inches DBH or greater with critical root zone restrictions, removal permits, and mitigation requirements for protected trees that must be removed. San Antonio administers its own heritage tree and urban forestry standards. Dallas and Fort Worth each have tree mitigation ordinances requiring replacement for trees removed above minimum size thresholds. Houston has a tree preservation ordinance applicable within city limits, though the city’s lack of traditional zoning creates a distinct development context. Unincorporated areas of major Texas counties operate under county regulations that vary from minimal to moderate tree protection. We produce tree disposition plans calibrated to the specific ordinance requirements of the applicable jurisdiction.
Stormwater design requirements for Texas development projects are administered at the local level — there is no state stormwater design manual equivalent to Washington’s Western Washington manual. Each municipality administers its own stormwater program, typically requiring detention or retention facilities for post-construction peak flow control, with some municipalities also requiring water quality treatment. In the Houston metro, Harris County Flood Control District adds a layer of floodplain regulatory requirements on top of municipal programs. Landscape architects are responsible for the design of drainage features, vegetated conveyance channels, detention basin revegetation, and in some cases bioretention or water quality filter systems that are part of the stormwater management design. We coordinate with the civil engineer on stormwater facility design and produce landscaping documentation consistent with the applicable drainage report.
Texas spans USDA hardiness zones 6 through 10 and multiple distinct eco-regions — from the humid subtropical Gulf Coast to the Edwards Plateau’s limestone karst to the semi-arid high plains of West Texas. Plant species that perform in Houston’s humid, flooding-prone Gulf Coast context fail in the thin, alkaline limestone soils of the Hill Country, which in turn differ entirely from the deep expansive clay soils of the DFW Blackland Prairie or the caliche-dominated soils of West Texas. Irrigation system design follows the same differentiation: supplemental irrigation systems in Houston’s high-rainfall environment look entirely different from the full-coverage irrigation systems required in the DFW or West Texas markets. We design to the specific conditions of each project location — not to a statewide average.
Yes. In addition to the major metro markets — Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio — we serve projects in the high-growth suburban and exurban counties surrounding each metro: Montgomery County north of Houston, Williamson and Hays counties in the Austin metro, Bexar County and surrounding counties in the San Antonio market, and Collin, Denton, Rockwall, and Johnson counties in the DFW Metroplex. We also serve smaller Texas markets including Conroe, Tyler, Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland, and other active development communities. Our clients are developers, civil engineering firms, architects of record, and design-build contractors — and we are structured to work wherever their projects take them in Texas.
Contact us through our website or call our office directly. We will schedule a brief discovery call to understand your project type, location, regulatory context, and schedule, and follow up with a proposal. We are structured to engage directly within your project delivery process and at the pace that Texas’s active development markets require.
Start Your Texas Project with Evergreen Design Group
Whether your project is a master-planned community in the DFW Metroplex, a mixed-use development in Austin, a commercial campus in San Antonio, or a residential subdivision in one of Houston’s suburban growth counties — Evergreen Design Group brings the regulatory knowledge, eco-region expertise, and documentation standards that Texas development demands.
Licensed in Texas. Experienced across every major Texas market. National resources.
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