Overview
| res_sf | use-type-index |
|---|---|
| res_mf | use-type-index |
| com | intensity-tier |
| office | letter-code |
| special | letter-code |
West Lake Hills runs a small, traditional Euclidean zoning system organized around Chapter 38 of the Code of Ordinances. Residential districts use a use-type index (R-1 = one-family, R-2 = two-family preexisting-only, R-3 = transitional clustered residential capped at 2 du/ac). Non-residential districts use a tiered scheme: O (Office), GUI (Government / Utility / Institutional), and B-1 / B-2 / B-3 (Business 1 / 2 / 3 intensity tiers). A Planned Development district (PD) overlay/floating district is available via §38.04 (planned development district application — referenced in fee schedule App. A). Classification = euclidean rather than hybrid-pd because PD is application-based (case-by-case) and is not the dominant development pathway for this fully-built-out 3,300-person residential city. R-1 is the dominant district — the Zoning & Planning Commission (ZAPCO) explicitly excludes R-1 from routine building-permit and septic review, indicating R-1 is treated as the city's baseline residential fabric not subject to discretionary review.
- Tiny municipality (~3,300 pop) fully surrounded by Austin — a 'city within a city' enclave on the steep north-facing hillside above Lake Austin. ZIP 78746, address: 4010 Bee Cave Road. State preemption gating (SB 840 city-population threshold 150,000) fails by ~98% so WLH retains nearly full local authority on density and commercial-parcel zoning.
- Residential district structure is exclusionary by design — R-1 is the dominant district (the Zoning & Planning Commission explicitly EXCLUDES R-1 from routine building-permit and septic review per westlakehills.org/287, indicating R-1 is the city's baseline residential fabric not subject to discretionary review). R-2 (two-family) is limited to PREEXISTING properties/annexed areas; vacant land cannot be designated R-2 (§38.03.033(a)). R-3 (transitional) caps clustered/detached SF at avg 2 du/ac AND requires 15% of perimeter to abut a nonresidential district AND requires centralized municipal wastewater (§38.03.034(c)(1)). R-3 apartments are 10–30 units per structure but ALSO preexisting-only (§38.03.034(c)(2)).
- Commercial development is limited to the Bee Cave Road (RM 2244) corridor and tiered as B-1/B-2/B-3 plus an Office (O) district and GUI (Government / Utility / Institutional). Cocktail lounge is permitted ONLY in B-3 (highest tier). No hotel/motel allowed citywide except as properly-permitted short-term rentals (§38.03.061(12)).
+ 7 more in Quirks & notes
Districts
| Code | Name | Category | Min lot | Height | Coverage | FAR | Du/ac | Parking | Setbacks F/S/R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-1 | One-Family Residential District | res_sf | — | — | — | — | — | — | — / — / — |
| R-2 | Two-Family Residential District | res_sf | — | — | — | — | — | — | — / — / — |
| R-3 | Transitional Residential District | res_sf | — | — | — | — | 2[1] | — | — / — / — |
| O | Office District | off | — | — | — | — | — | — | — / — / — |
| GUI | Government / Utility / Institutional District | spec | — | — | — | — | — | — | — / — / — |
| B-1 | Business District 1 | com | — | — | — | — | — | — | — / — / — |
| B-2 | Business District 2 | com | — | — | — | — | — | — | — / — / — |
| B-3 | Business District 3 | com | — | — | — | — | — | — | — / — / — |
Confidence: confirmed partial under review not found
Overlays
No fixed geography — floating district activated via PD ordinance + project-specific code. Application fee $2,500 + $150 per code-deviation request (App. A item (h)).
| application_fee_usd | 2,500[2] |
|---|---|
| code_deviation_fee_usd | 150[3] |
FEMA SFHA along Eanes Creek and Lake Austin shoreline; regulatory floodplain boundaries per current FEMA FIRM.
| chapter_codified | 1[4] |
|---|
Citywide; specific parameters tied to slope categories and water features (Eanes Creek, Lake Austin shoreline).
| chapter_codified | 1[5] |
|---|
No dedicated Historic Preservation or Heritage overlay found in the eCode360 TOC chapter listing.
West Lake Hills has no fixed-rail transit and no Capital Metro park-and-ride or transit-center station within municipal boundaries; not a TOD candidate.
No municipal airport or military airfield within or adjacent to West Lake Hills. Nearest is Austin-Bergstrom International (KAUS), ~15 mi southeast — outside FAA Part 77 imaginary-surface reach for WLH parcels at typical hilltop elevations.
No affordable-housing density-bonus overlay found in the eCode360 TOC. WLH is essentially built-out, residentially-zoned, with R-3 capped at 2 du/ac average and R-2 limited to preexisting parcels — no policy framework for density bonusing identified.
WLH has no traditional downtown — the city is a fully-built-out hillside residential community surrounding the Bee Cave Road corridor; commercial development is limited to small B-1/B-2/B-3 sites along Bee Cave Road. No downtown-overlay framework identified.
Bee Cave Road (RM 2244) is the primary commercial corridor through WLH, hosting all B-1/B-2/B-3 sites. No dedicated corridor-overlay chapter identified in eCode360 TOC.
State preemptions
Non-applicable laws (1)
Adopted building codes
Home rule; major cities on 2024 IBC
Click a code label to open its state-by-state adoption atlas.
Amendment history
| Date | Kind | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-18 | retrieved at | |
| 2025-09-02 | supplement effective | eCode360 last-updated stamp for customer WE6509 |
| 2025-08-13 | amendment effective | Ord. No. 2025-012 (most recent codified amendment per eCode360 display-date) |
| 2016-10-26 | amendment effective | Amendment 334 (Short-Term Rental Use Regulation; amended Ch.1 Art.1.01 + Ch.38 Arts.38.03, 38.04) |
| 2012-06-13 | amendment effective | Ordinance 246 (codifying §38.03.033 R-2 two-family residential district as captured in Amendment 334 PDF) |
Quirks & notes
- Tiny municipality (~3,300 pop) fully surrounded by Austin — a 'city within a city' enclave on the steep north-facing hillside above Lake Austin. ZIP 78746, address: 4010 Bee Cave Road. State preemption gating (SB 840 city-population threshold 150,000) fails by ~98% so WLH retains nearly full local authority on density and commercial-parcel zoning.
- Residential district structure is exclusionary by design — R-1 is the dominant district (the Zoning & Planning Commission explicitly EXCLUDES R-1 from routine building-permit and septic review per westlakehills.org/287, indicating R-1 is the city's baseline residential fabric not subject to discretionary review). R-2 (two-family) is limited to PREEXISTING properties/annexed areas; vacant land cannot be designated R-2 (§38.03.033(a)). R-3 (transitional) caps clustered/detached SF at avg 2 du/ac AND requires 15% of perimeter to abut a nonresidential district AND requires centralized municipal wastewater (§38.03.034(c)(1)). R-3 apartments are 10–30 units per structure but ALSO preexisting-only (§38.03.034(c)(2)).
- Commercial development is limited to the Bee Cave Road (RM 2244) corridor and tiered as B-1/B-2/B-3 plus an Office (O) district and GUI (Government / Utility / Institutional). Cocktail lounge is permitted ONLY in B-3 (highest tier). No hotel/motel allowed citywide except as properly-permitted short-term rentals (§38.03.061(12)).
- Short-term rentals require a Special Use Permit under §38.04.034(0); Amendment 334 (eff. 2016-10-26) created the framework, layering STR review process on top of base R-1/R-2/R-3 zoning. STR renewal fee $250 (App. A).
- Code platform: eCode360 (customer ID WE6509, build 2.7.1). Live URLs are Cloudflare-gated and return HTTP 403 to scripted access. Wayback Machine partially captures (TOC + 2 supplement PDFs only — individual section pages not archived). Dimensional standards (§§38.03.001–38.03.031) were NOT retrievable in this research pass; all 9 districts recorded as `partial` status with explicit retrieval_failure_reason. Re-research after eCode360 Cloudflare bypass is solved.
- Zoning map: official map is a CivicPlus DocumentCenter PDF (918 KB, v1.6) at westlakehills.org/DocumentCenter/View/36. CivicPlus quirk: server returns HTTP 404 status header but serves the PDF body intact. No public GIS feed; ArcGIS REST discovery probe returned no service endpoints. Map text is graphic-only (no text extraction yields district codes).
- Topography drives environmental constraints — WLH sits in the Edwards Aquifer Contributing Zone on steep (15–30%) hillside grades. Chapter 24 Environmental Protection and a separately-referenced Drainage Design Manual (code supplement per westlakehills.org/107) likely impose impervious-cover caps, tree-preservation thresholds, and creek-buffer setbacks that bind ahead of base-district dimensional standards. Specific parameters not retrieved.
- PD (Planned Development) is application-based with a documented fee structure (App. A item (h): $2,500 application + $150 per code deviation), but is not the dominant development pathway in this built-out residential city — hence the euclidean (not hybrid-pd) classification.
- No municipal airport, no fixed-rail transit, no historic preservation chapter, no downtown overlay, no affordable-housing bonus, no formal corridor overlay — confirmed from full eCode360 TOC chapter listing. The single corridor (Bee Cave Road) is governed via base B-1/B-2/B-3 districts, not a corridor overlay.
- Most-recent codified amendment per eCode360 metadata: Ord. No. 2025-012 adopted August 13, 2025; code last republished 2025-09-02. Population per eCode360 customer metadata: 3,322.
Formulas
Definitions
- height
- Grade to highest point of structure per Ch.38 Art.38.03 district tables (not retrieved in this pass — §§38.03.001–38.03.031 Cloudflare-gated).
- setback_front
- Front property line to nearest building face.
- setback_side
- Side property line to nearest building face.
- setback_rear
- Rear property line to nearest building face.
- du_ac
- Dwelling units per gross acre. Explicit R-3 cap: average of 2 single-family dwelling units per acre (§38.03.034(c)(1)(A)).
Massing explorer
Interactive 3D comparison across every district. Drag to orbit, scroll to zoom, use the slider to walk districts, and toggle applicable overlays in the right-side panel.
| District | Category | Height | FAR | Coverage | Setbacks | Parking | Density | Min lot | Overlays |
|---|
Sources & references
eCode360 (Cloudflare-fronted) returns HTTP 403 to scripted access on live URLs. District roster + use tables verified from Wayback-cached supplement PDF (Amendment 334, Short-Term Rental Use Regulation, codifying changes to Chapter 38, Articles 38.03 and 38.04 — Wayback snapshot 2025-05-19). TOC structure (Chapter 38 = guid 40401594, Title II Building and Development Regulations) verified from Wayback-cached TOC page (2026-01-05). eCode360 embeds customer metadata in the TOC HTML: customer ID WE6509, county=Travis, population=3322, ZIP=78746, code updated 2025-09-02, code-date 2025-08-13. The official zoning map at westlakehills.org/DocumentCenter/View/36 is a CivicPlus DocumentCenter PDF (918 KB, v1.6) — server returns HTTP 404 in headers but serves the file body intact (CivicPlus quirk; this is the documented behavior for that platform). PDF zoning map is a raster/vector map only, no dimensional text. No public GIS feed; ArcGIS REST discovery probe at westlakehills.org returned no service endpoints. CivicPlus DocumentCenter retrieval bypass confirmed for the zoning map PDF; eCode360 Cloudflare bypass remains unsolved (Wayback fallback is partial — only the TOC and 2 amendment PDFs are cached; individual section pages return SPA shells). Dimensional standards (lot area, setback, height) for each district are codified under §§ 38.03.001–38.03.031 and were NOT retrievable in this pass; recorded as `partial` with explicit `retrieval_failure_reason`.
- https://www.westlakehills.org/107
- https://www.westlakehills.org/287/Zoning-Planning-Commission
- https://www.westlakehills.org/DocumentCenter/View/36/West-Lake-Hills-Zoning-Map-PDF?bidId=
- https://web.archive.org/web/20260105224958/https://ecode360.com/WE6509
- https://web.archive.org/web/20250519024358/https://ecode360.com/WE6509/laws/LF1675149.pdf
- https://web.archive.org/web/20240807135749/https://ecode360.com/WE6509/laws/LF1855804.pdf
- [1] §38.03.034(c)(1)(A)
- [2] App. A(h)(1)
- [3] App. A(h)(1)(A)
- [4] eCode360 TOC chapter listing
- [5] eCode360 TOC chapter listing
Research status
Publication gates
| primary url present | passed | source.primary_url = https://ecode360.com/WE6509 (eCode360 city-hosted, not an aggregator) |
|---|---|---|
| no aggregator cited | passed | scan clean — no zoneomics/steadily/siteplanguide/etc. cited; only eCode360 (city's official code platform), CivicPlus DocumentCenter (city's official document host), Wayback Machine (archival) |
| confidence tags full form | passed | All 9 districts marked `partial` (dimensional standards not retrievable — Cloudflare-gating) with paired what_is_confirmed/what_is_missing; confirmed sub-fields (R-3 max_density_du_ac, R-2 parking_requirement) carry §-citations to §38.03.033/§38.03.034. No `confirmed` field lacks a §-citation. |
| overlays have parameters trigger confidence | failed | Floodplain (§26) and Environmental Protection (§24) overlays recorded as `under_review` with paired qualifying_condition_checked + retrieval_failure_reason, but parameters{} is near-empty (only chapter_codified:true). Per Gate 4 the under_review status is acceptable but parameter coverage is below shipping threshold; record enters pending_repair to flag dimensional sweep is required. |
| preempt section city specific | passed | 2 TX preemption laws evaluated against city-specific data — SB 840 (applies:false, numeric population gates documented: 3,322 vs 150,000 city threshold) and SB 15 (applies:true statewide, with explicit acknowledgement that lot-area triggers can't be confirmed until R-1/R-2/R-3 dimensional standards are retrieved). Template-bleed check (separate from the 5 standard gates): no district carries fabricated values — 9 districts all `partial` with explicit retrieval_failure_reason. |
Known issues
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