Cities | Mesquite

Mesquite Multiplex Rules 2026: Duplexes, ADUs, Townhouses, Apartments and the 2025 State Laws

Mesquite zones the land inside its city limits, so the first question for any project is the lot's zoning district. The rules sit in the Mesquite Zoning Ordinance, Appendix C of the City Code, with subdivision rules in Appendix B, fees in Appendix D and impact fees in Chapter 7.5. AG and R lots allow one home. Duplexes need D or A zoning, ADUs need a permit from the City Council for each lot, and triplexes, fourplexes and townhouses need a Planned Development district. The City has not rewritten its code for the 2025 state housing laws, so on some land the statutes now set the limits. This page gives the main numbers, with the section for each, and links to seven detailed pages.

Mesquite Guide Pages

Where the Current Code Is

Mesquite publishes its Code of Ordinances on municode, the online code library the City uses, and the City's Zoning Ordinance page links each part of the zoning ordinance there. The version read for this guide is Supplement 71, "Codified through Ordinance No. 5259, enacted July 20, 2026," posted online on October 7, 2026. The supplement history table lists every ordinance through No. 5259 as included.

To find changes adopted after July 20, 2026, VanPlex read the titles of all City Council agenda items introduced since January 1, 2024, through the meeting of October 5, 2026, on the City's Legistar agenda system, and opened the signed ordinances in the City Secretary's archive. After No. 5259, the Council adopted a drone delivery text change on August 3, 2026, rezonings and permits for single sites, including an ADU permit on August 17, 2026 (Ordinance No. 5267), and the yearly fee schedule update on September 21, 2026 (Ordinance No. 5274), in force from October 1, 2026. Planned Development ordinances are not codified; the City Secretary keeps them.

State Law in Mesquite, in Brief

Mesquite had 150,108 people in the 2020 Census, and Dallas County, where most of the city lies, had 2,613,539. So Mesquite passes the size test in the 2025 laws, a city of more than 150,000 in a county of more than 300,000, by VanPlex count from 2020 Census figures, as the more Texas cities page also lists. By VanPlex arithmetic the margin is 108 people. Government Code 311.005 says "Population" means "the population shown by the most recent federal decennial census," so the 2020 count governs until the next census. The City answered none of the laws with a code change by October 5, 2026:

• SB 15 bars, on single-family tracts of five acres or more with no recorded plat, any rule requiring a lot over 3,000 square feet, 30 feet wide or 75 feet deep. Mesquite's smallest standard lot is 7,200 square feet, 60 feet wide and 110 feet deep, so on those tracts the statute controls.
• SB 840 requires the City to allow three or more homes, with no rezoning, on land zoned for office, commercial, retail, warehouse or mixed use, at 36 per acre or more, 45 feet or more, and no more than one parking space per home. Mesquite's text still lists no homes in O, GR, LC or C and caps apartments at 25 per acre.
• HB 24 changed the protest rule and added a sign rule; Mesquite's Sec. 5.313 was adopted on January 21, 2025, before it.

The state protest rule is Local Government Code 211.0061, in force since September 1, 2025. It keeps two protests. Under 211.0061(b)(1), owners of "at least 20 percent of the area of the lots or land covered by the proposed change" can still force a vote of "three-fourths of all members of the governing body," for any change. Under 211.0061(b)(3), for a change that "has the effect of allowing more residential development" and adds no commercial or industrial use beyond a limited first floor, a protest by owners of the adjoining land within 200 feet needs "at least 60 percent" of that land, and the change then needs "a majority of all members of the governing body." Section 211.0061(b)(2) keeps a 20 percent protest by adjoining owners for other changes. The Mesquite Council has six councilmembers and the mayor, who votes as a member, so three-fourths means six votes and a majority four.

How a Lot Reaches Two, Three or More Homes

Source: Mesquite Zoning Ordinance on municode, Supplement 71 (Sec. 2.203, Sec. 2.302, Sec. 2.501, Sec. 2.603, Sec. 4.1500, Sec. 4.1600), the Truman Heights Revitalization Code, and Local Government Code chapters 211 and 218.

Zoning Districts

The residential districts are AG, R-1, R-1A, R-2, R-2A, R-3, D, A-1, A-3 and TNMR, and the nonresidential ones are O, CV, GR, LC, MU, SS, C and I, with Planned Development, overlay and form-based districts on top. Sec. 2.202(C) says "No more than one (1) dwelling unit shall occupy a lot in an AG or R district." A rezoning goes to a Planning and Zoning Commission hearing and a City Council vote, with mailed notice to owners within 200 feet, and costs $1,500 plus $15 per acre over one acre. The zoning districts page has the list, the steps and the protest rules.

ADUs and Duplexes

An ADU is "C," a conditional use, in AG and R, and "Requires minimum property area of 21,780 square feet." Sec. 2.603(N) caps it at 500 square feet and 15 feet, requires four parking spaces and an owner on site, and says it "shall not be rented or sold separately." The Council can change those limits for one lot, and in August 2026 approved an ADU on a 7,800 square foot lot while keeping the parking rule. Duplexes are permitted in D and A on 12,500 square foot lots with four parking spaces. The ADUs and duplexes page covers both.

Townhouses, Triplexes and Apartments

"Other attached dwellings (3-plex, 4-plex)" and townhouses require a PD district. The townhouse guideline is 3,000 square foot lots at 8 per acre. Apartments are permitted in A-1 at 12 per acre and A-3 at 25 per acre, with a PD above 25 homes, a unit mix with at least half one-bedroom homes, amenities, and 1 to 2 parking spaces per home with half covered. The townhomes, triplexes and apartments page sets those rules against SB 840.

Lots, Yards, Height and Parking

Minimum lots run from 43,560 square feet in AG to 7,200 in R-2A and R-3, and 12,500 for a duplex in D. R-1A, R-2, R-2A, R-3 and D ask for 25-foot front and rear yards and 5-foot side yards, and every residential district allows 35 feet or 2.5 stories, whichever is less. Each house needs two parking spaces behind the front building line and, on lots platted since October 1, 1984, a two-car garage. The lot size page and the parking, setbacks and height page have the numbers.

Downtown, Special Districts and Two Counties

The Downtown Mesquite district, adopted August 18, 2025, covers "the approximate 268 acres" of downtown, allows townhomes by right in DM-MU, and asks for one parking space per home in the DM-C core. The Truman Heights district allows duplexes and accessory units by right. The FP floodplain overlay allows no buildings, and the Mesquite Metro Airport has height zones. Mesquite lies mostly in Dallas County with a part in Kaufman County; the City adopts a separate FEMA flood study for each, and the K20 district covers land annexed in Kaufman County in 2006. The downtown and special districts page explains each.

What the Numbers Show

Mesquite had 150,693 people on July 1, 2025, by the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimate, up from 150,108 in the 2020 Census. The Vintage 2025 file splits that into 150,483 in Dallas County and 210 in Kaufman County. On September 8, 2026, the City Council passed an ordinance "determining the population of the City of Mesquite, Texas, to be 158,412 as of October 1, 2026," the City's own figure. The Census Bureau's 2025 Building Permits Survey file shows Mesquite reported all 12 months, with these counts:

Source: Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, South Region places, 2025 annual. Mesquite's Texas row (place code 47892) shows 12 months reported, so the estimate and reported columns are the same.

The Census counts a building by the number of homes it holds, so a fourplex is one building of three to four units. Every home Mesquite permitted in 2025 was in a one-unit building, by this file. The file gives counts only, with no reasons behind them.

Plats, Permits and Fees

The Director or the Planning and Zoning Commission decides plats within 30 days of filing, matching Local Government Code 212.009. Since October 1, 2026, a plat costs $600 up to one acre plus $25 per acre, and a building permit for a house, duplex or townhouse $1,100 per unit. New homes owe park land at one acre per 55 homes or a fee based on area land values, and impact fees of $3,879.50 for water and $2,904.50 for wastewater per service unit and $3,108 in roadway fees per house. The plats, permits and fees page has the full lists.

Where the City's Documents Disagree

VanPlex found these while reading the code and the 2024 to 2026 records:

• The protest rule in Sec. 5.313 counts 20 percent of adjoining owners for every change, while Local Government Code 211.0061(b)(3) needs 60 percent for a change that only allows more homes.
• Sec. 5.305(F) calls the zoning sign a courtesy the Director "may" post, while Local Government Code 211.0073 requires a 24 by 48 inch sign 10 days before the Commission hearing.
• The lot table (7,200 sq ft, 60 ft wide, 110 ft deep at the smallest) and the Subdivision Ordinance's 100-foot depth rule exceed the SB 15 limits on tracts the law covers.
• The apartment rules in Sec. 2.501 (25 per acre, 1 to 2 parking spaces, 2 to 5 stories, PD above 25 homes) exceed the SB 840 limits on commercial land.
• Sec. 2.303 asks for 90 percent masonry walls, while Sec. 5-4 of the same code and Government Code 3000.002 bar stricter material rules than national model codes. For plats before July 1, 2004, Sec. 2.303 says the ratio "shall fall within range" and gives no number.
• The replat rule asks for three-fourths of "all members" of the Commission after a protest, while Local Government Code 212.015 says three-fourths "of the members present."
• The lot of record definition names only plats "on file in the records of Dallas County," though part of the city lies in Kaufman County.
• Sec. 2.301(F) sets duplex landscaping that differs from Sec. 1A.203(A), amended in July 2026, and points to Sec. 3.304, which is reserved.
• The Downtown use table points to items A.13, A.16, A.22 and A.24 of Sec. 4.1606, which are numbered 11, 14, 20 and 22 in the text.
• The nonresidential table in Sec. 3.301 still has a CB column, after Ordinance No. 5189 took CB out of the district list in Sec. 3.101.
• Chapter 7.5 names the roadway service areas 1, 2 and 3 in Schedule 1 and A, B and C in Table 2.
• The City's posted PDF of the residential use schedule, created April 2, 2025, ends at item 16 and dates Ordinance No. 5121 "7-22-2024," while municode adds item 17 (electric vehicle charging) and dates that ordinance 8-5-24.
• The Council item for the Emerson Drive ADU asked for 18 feet of height; signed Ordinance No. 5219 allows 17.5 feet.

Where a City text conflicts with state law, the statute controls. Where two City texts conflict, ask the Planning and Zoning Division in writing which one it applies to your lot. A signed ordinance controls over an agenda title.

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: financing 2 to 4 units, Texas property tax and the Texas multiplex guide overview.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)