El Paso | Lot Size and Small Lots

El Paso Lot Size and Small Lots: District Minimums, SB 15 Small Lots and Splitting a Lot

Two titles of the El Paso Municipal Code control lot size. Title 20 (zoning) sets the smallest lot each district allows in its Appendix B, and since November 2025 its Section 20.10.625 sets smaller lots for new subdivisions under the state small lot law. Title 19 (subdivision) sets how lots are drawn, split and recorded. This page gives the numbers with the section for each. The El Paso overview gives the short version.

Lot Sizes by District

Appendix B, the Table of Density and Dimensional Standards, gives each district one row per use. The table below copies the row for a "single-family dwelling" in each residential district that has one. Section 20.12.020 adopts the table "in its entirety" and says no lot area or lot dimension shall be "reduced below the requirements of this ordinance" except as the code allows.

Source: El Paso Municipal Code, Title 20, Appendix B, single-family dwelling rows, Supplement 95 Update 4. A-3/O has no single-family row.

Two rows are worth a second look. R-4 asks for 6,000 square feet for a house, more than the 5,000 that R-3A asks for, and sets a 10-foot front yard where R-3A sets 15. In the five lowest districts, any use other than a house needs 20,000 square feet, in the row Appendix B labels "other permitted uses." For a duplex the minimums are 7,000 square feet in R-4, 6,000 in R-5, A-1, A-O and A-M, 5,000 in A-2 and 4,000 in A-3 and A-4. The ADU and duplex page has those rows in full.

How El Paso Measures a Lot

The code defines each measure. Section 20.02.544 says "Average lot width" means "the lot area divided by the lot depth." Section 20.02.532 measures lot depth "between the front and rear lot lines," from their midpoints when the lines are straight. A 6,000 square foot lot that is 100 feet deep therefore has an average width of 60 feet. Because the width is an average, an odd-shaped lot can meet the rule even where one side is narrow.

Title 19 adds the rules for drawing lots in a subdivision. Under Section 19.23.020, lot area is "computed inclusive of all required public and utility easements," but the easements on a lot "shall in no case exceed one-half of the lot size." An easement is a recorded right for a utility or the public to use part of the land. Section 19.23.040 requires every lot to have "at least one boundary abutting either a private or public street," bars residential lot frontage on arterial streets (the large through streets) except as Section 19.15.060 allows, and asks the subdivider to make side lot lines meet the street at ninety degrees "or radial to street right-of-way lines." An irregular lot must still leave room for "a reasonable building pad" and a driveway without entering the required yards.

Double frontage lots, which touch a street at both the front and the back, are restricted for houses and duplexes. Section 19.23.040 prohibits them except where needed to separate homes from an arterial street or to overcome topography. Where one is allowed, one side must abut an arterial or freeway, with a strip at least ten feet wide that has no right of access to that street.

Small Lot Development: El Paso's SB 15 Section

SB 15, a 2025 state law, limits the lot rules a large Texas city may apply to new single-family tracts. El Paso answered with Section 20.10.625, added by Ordinance No. 019815 on November 18, 2025. Section 20.02.1003 defines a "small lot" as "a residential lot that is four thousand square feet or less" that meets the criteria of Section 20.10.625. The same ordinance date appears on Title 19: Ordinance No. 019814 amended Section 19.23.040 to say a small lot development "shall meet the criteria found in 20.10.625."

The section opens with a priority rule: "The standards in this section supersede the base zoning districts standards." To qualify, the parcel to be platted must meet three tests: it is five acres or more, it has no previously recorded plat, and its lots do not exceed four thousand square feet. A plat is the recorded map that divides land into lots. When all three tests are met, these rules apply:

• minimum lot area of 2,250 square feet, minimum average lot width of 30 feet and minimum lot depth of 75 feet;
• setbacks of 15 feet in front, 10 feet in the rear and 5 feet on each side, with no cumulative (added together) setback;
• a parking minimum of one space per home;
• at least thirty percent permeable area for subdivisions "located in on-site ponding areas."

Permeable area is ground that water can soak into. On-site ponding, as Section 20.14.030 defines it, means privately maintained ponding areas or storm drainage "retained on-site as inherent in low lying areas such as but not limited to valley areas of the city." A small lot development may not sit within 3,000 feet of an airport or military base, or within 15,000 feet of a military base boundary where the area is a designated military airport overlay zone with a clear zone and accident potential zone.

Sources: El Paso Municipal Code, Sec. 20.10.625, Ord. No. 019815, § 3, November 18, 2025; Local Government Code 211.052, 211.054 and 211.055, added by SB 15 (2025).

Section 20.10.625 sets no height. Appendix B points the single-family rows of the residential districts to Section 20.10.625 for small lots and keeps a 35-foot height limit in the same row. State law, in Local Government Code 211.055, says a city may not require a small lot to have "fewer than three full stories not exceeding 10 feet in height measured from the interior floor to ceiling." Ask the El Paso planning division how it applies the 35-foot limit to a three-story small lot home before you design one.

Appendix A row 13.315, "Single-family detached dwelling small lot development," is a "P" use in R-1 to R-5, in every A district, in R-F, S-D, P-R I, P-R II and SRR, a "D" use in PMD, and a "Z" use in R-MU. It is an "X" in RMH and in the commercial districts.

Splitting a Lot

Dividing a recorded lot usually means a new plat. Section 19.01.020 requires a replat "any time a platted, recorded lot is further divided or expanded," and allows a minor or amending plat where state law permits. Section 19.01.030 lists divisions that need no plat once the City approves an exemption determination. Three matter for homeowners:

• Joining lots. Two or more recorded lots joined by a structure built over the shared line need no replat into one lot.
• Splitting a middle lot. A recorded lot may be split into two parts that are each added to the lots on either side, if each new lot meets the zoning ordinance.
• Splitting a duplex. A recorded lot with a duplex, in a district where duplexes are permitted, may be divided by metes and bounds into two lots. One unit must stay on each lot, a licensed Texas surveyor prepares the survey, no panhandle lot or lot without access may be created, and the survey is recorded with the El Paso County Clerk. Any later homes must meet the zoning code.

Metes and bounds is a description of land by its measured boundary lines instead of by a lot number on a plat. The first two exemptions apply only when no new right-of-way or public easement must be dedicated and no public utility or road must be built. The plats, permits and fees page covers minor plats and replats.

Flag Lots

El Paso calls a flag lot a panhandle lot: "a lot with frontage and access provided by way of a narrow projection of the lot to the street" (Section 20.02.538). Section 19.23.040 says panhandle lots "shall be discouraged in residential areas except when, due to unique parcel configuration it is the only way to develop the property." The City Plan Commission must authorize an exception under Chapter 19.48 at preliminary plat approval. The design limits for homes are:

• a panhandle no longer than 100 feet;
• a panhandle at least 12 feet wide to serve one dwelling unit;
• no more than two dwelling units sharing one panhandle, at a total width of at least 24 feet, with deed restrictions for upkeep of the shared driveway noted on the plat;
• buildings and their addresses visible from the street the lot takes access from.

If a property cannot be developed without a panhandle longer than 100 feet, the fire marshal requires the buildings it serves to be sprinklered and to have a hard wired alarm system, and the plat must say which lots carry that rule.

Older Lots, Planned Developments and the ETJ

Nonconforming lots. A lot that is smaller than its district now requires can still hold one house. Section 20.22.020 allows a single-family dwelling on a recorded lot "of less width, depth, or area than required" if the lot was separately owned when the rule first took effect, the owner owns no adjacent lot or tract, and the zoning administrator registers and verifies it as a nonconforming lot.

Planned residential developments. On a site of at least one acre, Section 20.04.270 lets City Council approve a special permit with lots up to twenty-five percent smaller than the district minimum. The district's maximum density still applies, and buildings must be at least ten feet apart.

Infill developments. Section 20.10.280 says there "shall be no minimum area requirement for lots within an infill development" unless the ordinance that designates it says otherwise. The infill, historic and mountain page explains where that applies.

The ETJ. The extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) is the unincorporated land outside the city limits where El Paso applies its plat rules. Zoning does not reach it, so Section 19.11.030 sets lot sizes by how water and sewage are handled: 6,000 square feet with 50 feet of width and 90 of depth on public water and sewer without on-site ponding, 10,000 square feet with on-site ponding, half an acre on public water with on-site sewage disposal, and one acre with both a private well and on-site sewage disposal. "No more than one single-family detached dwelling shall be located on each subdivision lot in the ETJ," and the plat and every deed must say so.

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the El Paso overview, SB 15 small lots, and how Texas zoning works.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)