El Paso | Three or More Homes

El Paso Three or More Homes: Triplexes, Fourplexes, Townhouses and SB 840

El Paso has no separate "triplex" or "fourplex" district. Its code treats any building with three or more homes as an apartment, and treats a row of three or more attached houses on their own lots as townhouses. This page explains where each is allowed, the lot, density and height rules in Appendix B, and the 2025 changes El Paso made for the state law SB 840. The El Paso overview gives the short version.

A Triplex Is an Apartment

Section 20.02.074 defines an "apartment/multifamily residential building" as "a building or part of a building containing three or more attached or detached dwelling units," and says the term "includes the use or development of a condominium." Section 20.02.1120 defines "triplex" only as "See 'Apartment/multifamily residential building,'" and Section 20.02.760 does the same for "quadraplex," the code's spelling of fourplex. Ordinance No. 019815 amended all three on November 18, 2025.

So a triplex, a fourplex and a forty-unit building follow the same use row and the same Appendix B row. A condominium, in the code's words, is "a single dwelling unit in a multi-unit dwelling or structure, which is separately owned." Because the apartment definition includes condominiums, a fourplex whose units are sold one by one follows the same apartment rules.

The Appendix A row for apartments (13.02) is "P" in A-1, A-2, A-3, A-4, A-O, A-3/O and A-M, in C-OP and C-1 to C-5, and in PMD, S-D, U-P, P-R I, P-R II, P-C, SRR and R-MU. It is "Z" in G-MU, where a master zoning plan sets the details, and "X" in R-1 to R-5, RMH, the industrial districts, R-F, P-I and I-MU. The zoning districts page explains the letters.

Apartment Rules by District

Each A district has an Appendix B row named "Apartments and Mixed Use Residential Development." All of them set a "maximum of 145 units per acre" and a 45-foot height limit. Density, as Section 20.02.290 defines it, is "the number of dwelling units that may be constructed per acre." The yards in the table are front, rear and side, in feet. Open space is defined below the table.

Source: El Paso Municipal Code, Title 20, Appendix B, rows L.4, M.4, N.4, O.4, P.4, Q.2, R.2, T and U, as amended by Ord. No. 019815, § 5.

Three details in the rows matter for a small project. The A-2 row's "Other Standards" cell ends with the words "open space" and gives no percentage, so ask the City what open space it requires there. In A-1, "20% of required front yard shall be landscaped." In C-1 and C-2, height may exceed 45 feet "when an additional setback of one foot is provided from all adjacent yardlines for each foot of height in excess of 45." Section 20.12.020 says that when Appendix B and Chapter 20.10 conflict, "the more restrictive standard shall apply."

Open space under Section 20.02.648 is an area for "light and air," such as lawns, walkways, play areas and pools, and its calculation "shall not include driveways, parking lots or other surfaces designed or intended for vehicular travel or storage."

Townhouses, Patio Houses and Atrium Houses

Section 20.02.1092 defines a townhouse as "a single-family dwelling designed to be sold as a unit, but forming one of a group or series of three or more attached single-family dwellings separated from one another by common property lines." The code also names two other attached forms. A patio house, with its enclosed court, "may occupy up to one hundred percent of a subdivided lot," and an atrium house surrounds a private covered space that lights the interior. Appendix A calls all three "single-family attached dwelling (atrium, patio, townhouse)" and permits them in R-4, R-5, every A district and C-1 to C-5.

Source: El Paso Municipal Code, Title 20, Appendix B, rows L.2, M.2, N.2, O.2 and P.2.

R-4 and R-5 allow townhouses in Appendix A, but Appendix B gives those districts no townhouse row. Their "other permitted uses" rows list no minimum lot area, width or depth and point to Chapter 20.10. Ask the planning division which standards it applies to a townhouse group in R-4 or R-5 before you draw lots.

Section 20.12.040 allows "more than one principal building" on a lot for "multifamily dwellings or groups of single-family attached buildings," without letting any building sit outside the buildable area. Section 20.10.050 permits, in attached single-family or multifamily developments, a laundry room, an exercise room or clubhouse for residents, and an office for a development of "ten or more dwelling units."

What El Paso Changed for SB 840

SB 840, a 2025 state law, requires large Texas cities to allow apartments and mixed-use residential projects on land zoned for office, commercial, retail, warehouse or mixed use. Local Government Code 218.102 bars a density limit tighter than the greater of 36 units per acre or the highest residential density the city allows, a height limit tighter than the greater of 45 feet or the height an office or commercial building could reach on the site, and a requirement of more than one parking space per unit. On November 18, 2025 El Paso adopted three ordinances in response:

• Ordinance No. 019815 added Section 20.10.363, defined "mixed-use residential" in Section 20.02.573, revised the apartment definitions and Appendices A, B and C, and removed the site plan step for qualifying projects.
• Ordinance No. 019814 amended Section 19.18.010 so the City may waive a traffic impact analysis for an office, retail or warehouse building converted to mixed-use residential or apartment use.
• Ordinance No. 019813 added Section 15.22.200, which bars a water or wastewater impact fee on land where a building has been converted to mixed-use residential or apartment use, unless the land already owed one before the conversion permit was filed.

Section 20.10.363 applies to a new mixed-use residential project "initiated on or after September 1, 2025." Such a project must combine residential and nonresidential uses, with "a minimum of sixty-five percent of the total square footage" in residential use, and its standards "supersede the base zoning districts standards." A conversion of an existing building qualifies when the building is used for office, retail or warehouse uses, is five years old or more, and puts at least sixty-five percent of the total floor area and of each floor into homes. For a conversion the City may not require a traffic impact analysis, a traffic fee, or a utility upgrade beyond the minimum capacity the building needs. Subsection B sets parallel rules for apartment projects and apartment conversions.

The Appendix B apartment rows already allow 145 units per acre and 45 feet, above the state floors of 36 units and 45 feet. The Appendix C apartment row asks for one space per unit, the state ceiling. The section's citation line reads "( Ord. No. 019815 , § 3, 11-18-202)," with the year cut short; the other sections amended by the same ordinance date it 11-18-2025.

Section 20.04.140 now says detailed site development plans "are not required for apartment or mixed-use residential development that meet all minimum requirements set forth in Chapter 20.12 (Density and Dimensional Standards) and Section 20.10.363." Under state law, a city that finds a qualifying project meets its rules "shall administratively approve the permit," meaning staff approve it without a Council vote.

Density Bonuses and Planned Developments

Section 20.12.050 lets the number of homes rise in a planned residential development special permit, or where a site plan is required for homes in RMH, PMD, SD, PR-I, PR-II or A-4. Each of seven features adds five percent:

• twenty-five percent or more of the site in common open space;
• one square foot of recreation area for every five square feet of home floor space (balconies and patios count);
• half or more of the required parking enclosed;
• a panoramic view from the living room of seventy-five percent or more of the units;
• ten percent or more of the energy from solar power;
• soundproofed units with an impact noise rating of five or more;
• landscape planting on more than thirty-five percent of the site.

The total increase "shall be limited to a total of thirty-five percent." For a planned residential development, Section 20.04.280 sets the base number of homes by "dividing the site area by the minimum lot area required in the underlying district per dwelling unit."

Downtown Conversions, Parking and Parkland

Adaptive reuse. Section 20.10.055 sets an adaptive reuse overlay (ARO) for the El Paso Downtown 2015 Plan area. It can only be used to convert an existing building to homes "(single family, duplex, triplex, quadraplex, townhomes, apartments, condominiums)," single room occupancy, live-work units or mixed-use buildings. For property zoned UP, C-5, C-4, C-1, S-D, SRR or M-1, setbacks are zero, height is "five stories or as permitted in the underlying zoning district," lots have no minimum, and units must have at least 450 square feet with an average of at least 650. Properties in the overlay carry the suffix "ARO."

Parking. Appendix C asks for "1/Residential Unit" for apartments and "2/dwelling unit" for a townhouse. Mixed-use residential development needs one space per home plus "1/288 sf GFA commercial." Note 3 adds bicycle parking only "when the minimum required automobile parking exceeds 60 spaces." The parking page covers reductions.

Parkland. Under Section 19.20.030, a residential subdivision deeds parkland at one acre for every one hundred single-family or two-family units, and one acre for every two hundred multifamily units. When the City takes cash instead, Section 19.20.110 sets "six hundred eighty dollars per dwelling unit" for multifamily and $1,370 for single-family and two-family units, and says the fees "shall be indexed to any increase in the National Consumer Price Index (CPI) and adjusted no less frequently than every three years." Ask the City for the indexed amount in force when you plat.

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the El Paso overview, SB 840 on commercial land, and building codes from duplex to fourplex.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)