Montgomery is a small incorporated city sitting in the middle of a very large rural postal area, and the two are governed nothing alike.
The city covers about five square miles and counted 1,948 residents in the 2020 census, with estimates since running higher. Everything ringing it — west toward Grimes County, north up FM 149, south toward Dobbin — is unincorporated acreage carrying the same mailing address and none of the same rules. Which side of that line your parcel falls on changes who reviews the work, and downtown it changes who reviews it first.
What makes land around Montgomery different
Very few people, very many acres. This is the thinnest population we work behind, and the jobs match it: homesites carved off pasture, ranch drives, pond work, fields that went to brush while nobody was minding them. Single-lot cleanups are the exception here.
The west shore of Lake Conroe is its own market. From SH 105 east of town out to the water, the ground steepens and the parcels narrow. What limits those jobs is rarely how thick the woods are — it is whether a lowboy can turn around once it is on the property.
Head north and the country goes federal. The Little Lake Creek Wilderness unit of Sam Houston National Forest sits roughly five miles north of the city. Ground near it brings boundary lines nobody has walked in years, easements worth confirming before a machine follows one, and a fire posture that makes a burn ban serious rather than a nuisance.
Lake Creek country, and the bottoms that go with it. The Lake Creek drainage crosses this half of the county before joining the West Fork near Conroe. Along it: hardwood bottom — water oak, elm, sweetgum — over soft footing, plus Chinese tallow, which comes back harder from a cut stump than anything else in the region.
Above the bottoms it is loblolly over yaupon. Pine past roughly eight inches at the trunk stops being mulcher work and becomes excavator work. The yaupon underneath is what eats days, and cutting it only buys a season.
Clay again, and the same calendar. Ground worked saturated ruts deep and costs the property most of a growing season to recover. We would rather push a start date a week than hand back a torn-up site on time.
Two Montgomery addresses, two permitting situations
Inside the limit, Montgomery has zoning — unusual in this county. Six districts: single-family residential, multi-family residential, commercial, industrial, institutional and planned development. Unincorporated Montgomery County has no zoning whatsoever, so this is a genuine dividing line and not a formality.
The historic core carries an extra layer. The city adopted Historic Landmark and Historic Preservation District overlays across its 19th-century downtown — Montgomery was the county’s first seat, established in 1837. Inside the district, exterior modifications go to the Planning and Zoning Commission, and the city will not review a building permit application for exterior work until that approval is in hand. Where that applies, the review calendar is the schedule, not the equipment.
The city runs its own floodplain step. Where a property is in floodplain, a city development permit comes before the building permit, and finished floor is set at a minimum of one foot above the calculated 100-year high water elevation. That is the city’s standard, separate from the county’s.
Trees inside the limit deserve a phone call rather than an assumption. The city’s published permit information does not list a standalone tree removal permit, and its 2020 comprehensive plan recommended developing a tree master plan rather than pointing at a preservation ordinance already on the books. Treat that as a reason to confirm with City Hall for your address — city rules here are the city’s own and they are not Conroe’s.
Outside the limit, the county list is short. No zoning, no tree ordinance, nobody measuring canopy. What applies: an OSSF permit for septic, a floodplain development permit wherever dirt moves inside the mapped 100-year flood zone, a development permit for structures and manufactured homes, a 911 address, and a precinct culvert inspection for a new drive off a county road. It is all set out on the Montgomery County page.
Burning, either side of the line. Commissioners Court puts the ban on and the Fire Marshal writes the ticket. Even with no ban running, on unincorporated ground state rules make burning household refuse an offense on any parcel under five acres, and separately an offense on any lot in a platted subdivision or touching one within 300 feet — one condition is sufficient, and it is a Class C misdemeanor.
What we do in Montgomery
Land clearing — homesites, ranch tracts, pasture reclamation.
Forestry mulching — understory, trails, and thinning between the pines you want to keep.
Site prep and grading — house, barn and barndominium pads shaped to move water off.
Excavation — trenching on long rural utility runs, drainage, cut and fill.
Ponds — stock and amenity ponds, dug after the soil is looked at rather than before.
Driveways and culverts — ranch drives and the pipe where they meet the road.
Dirt work — hauling, spreading, shaping, finish grade.
Stump grinding — flush for pasture, out completely where something is being poured over it.
Demolition — barns, loafing sheds, outbuildings and slabs on acreage changing hands.
The same job, two Montgomery addresses
| The job | Inside the city limit | Unincorporated, Montgomery mailing address |
|---|---|---|
| Taking trees off a wooded lot | Confirm with the city — rules are its own, and land use is zoned | No zoning, no tree ordinance; private deed covenants may still bind |
| A pad and a structure | City building permit, plus the applicable zoning district | County development permit; no county building-code review |
| Exterior work downtown | Planning and Zoning approval before the permit is even reviewed | Does not apply |
| Digging or filling in a flood zone | City development permit; floor a foot above calculated high water | County floodplain development permit |
| Septic | Typically city sewer where it reaches | OSSF permit, and a soil evaluation that can move your pad |
| A new driveway | City driveway permit | Precinct culvert inspection, or TxDOT if you front a state highway |
Common questions
My mail says Montgomery. Am I in the city? Probably not. Five square miles of incorporated city sits inside a postal area many times that size, so the odds favor unincorporated county. Give us the address and we pull the parcel before scoping, because the answer changes the permit path and sometimes the start date.
I own a lot downtown and want to clear behind the building. Does that need review? Ask the city before you schedule. The overlay is written around exterior work, and the Planning and Zoning Commission clears it ahead of the building permit — so the order is approval first, machines second. Reversing it costs weeks.
I’m on the lake. Who controls the shoreline? The San Jacinto River Authority manages Lake Conroe and the land around it, and its guidance limits what a waterfront owner may take out near the shoreline: trimming around a dock area by the most limited means, with broad mowing off the table absent authorization. Where your title ends and SJRA’s land begins is a question for them, not for a contractor with a mulcher.
My address says Montgomery but I think I’m in Grimes County. That happens on the west side — FM 149 runs on past Richards to Anderson, and the line is out there between them. Another county means another permit office, another appraisal district, and a burn ban that can be on while this one is off. We check the parcel rather than the ZIP.
Can I burn what comes off my acreage? Not during a ban, and not on small or subdivision-adjacent ground even without one. On larger tracts with nothing running you may burn plant growth that originated on the property, which is narrower than most people assume. Mulching avoids the question entirely.
Nearby areas we serve
Montgomery · Dobbin · Richards · Bentwater · Walden · April Sound · Cape Conroe · Anderson · Navasota · Plantersville · Willis · Magnolia · Conroe · Montgomery County
Out here the number moves on two things no machine touches: which side of the city limit your parcel sits on, and how far equipment travels across the tract before it reaches the part you want cleared. How this work gets priced covers both.
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