PlatIndex walks you through Chapter 42 the way a seasoned platting attorney would, inside Houston city limits and across its ETJ. Live GIS lookup, lot-specific rulings, and the realistic cost & timeline.
Address or HCAD account → jurisdiction, overlays, historic and floodplain pulled in seconds from authoritative sources.
The six decisions that drive your case. Specific ordinance citations. No general checklists, no edge-case wikis.
2026 fee schedule, survey requirements, variance triggers — and the honest version of where DIY plats most often fail.
Enter a street address or 13-digit HCAD account number — we'll detect which automatically.
Anything look off? Tap any field to correct.
This comes first because it decides which rules apply to you at all.
What will be built here?
Houston plats land as either a lot or a reserve. Lots are for single-family homes; everything else is a reserve, with its own size and frontage rules. Pick the closest match — you can change it later.
Does the plat include anything else?
Most plats carry more than one thing — a courtyard development has lots, a courtyard and parking; a subdivision often has a detention reserve. Pick any that apply, or skip it.
We pulled these from GIS. Correct anything that looks wrong — every answer downstream is computed from them.
What kind of street does it front?
Drop in every address you're evaluating. We'll triage the whole list at once — which lots are realistic, which need review, and which are structurally blocked — before you spend a dollar on a single survey.
Each address is screened against the same Chapter 42 rules a platting attorney would apply. Work through them, then pull the full report for the addresses that fit your goals — billed per address, checked out together.
Each card is free to open and explore. The answer itself — the part that's actually useful for your lot — lives behind the paywall. Except Q1: that one's free forever.
Not every project requires a plat. We check your legal description, your intent, and the rules — then tell you the cheapest path that's actually legal.
Density and access are linked: front-loader driveways yield a lower cap; shared access unlocks a higher one. Overlays and minimum lot sizes further adjust the ceiling.
The honest seven-stage process, with hour estimates and the top reasons DIY plats get rejected.
Realistic timeline from application to recorded mylar, including the Planning Commission cycle.
Line-item estimate from the 2026 City fee schedule, plus realistic market rates.
Platting companies, surveyors, title examiners ranked from the 2025 Plat Intelligence Report. We only show the pros your lot actually needs.