FM 1485 Industrial Site — Industrial Development Civil Engineering in New Caney, TX
New Caney · Montgomery County · Texas
Industrial, Warehouse & Metal Building Development
Designing an industrial site to stay under the detention threshold
JRH Engineering provided complete civil engineering design for a new industrial development in Montgomery County, Texas, with a specific goal: avoid triggering detention requirements entirely. JRH designed the project to disturb less than 15,000 square feet of land — keeping it under the Montgomery County detention trigger threshold — and eliminated an entire permitting track with a single design decision.
AT A GLANCE
Site civil design
Full civil design engineered to disturb less than 15,000 square feet of land — staying under the Montgomery County detention requirement threshold
No detention pond designed, no detention permit required, no drainage district review triggered
TxDOT coordination for site access
Site layout optimized within the 15,000 SF disturbance constraint
Permitting and agency coordination
Montgomery County permit secured without a detention requirement — under-threshold disturbance documented
TxDOT access coordination completed concurrently with county permitting
Simplified permit package — no detention design, no drainage district submittal, no detention review
The Challenge — a bright line with expensive consequences
The Montgomery County detention threshold is absolute. Cross it, and you owe detention design, drainage district review, and construction. Stay under it, and none of that applies. The question is whether the development program can be achieved within the threshold.
JRH’s Approach — treat the threshold as a design parameter
JRH designed the project with the 15,000 SF threshold as the governing constraint, optimizing the site layout to achieve the development goal within the disturbance limit. No pond. No drainage district. No detention review. A clean, fast county permit.
The Results
01
Detention requirement eliminated — the project was designed to disturb less than 15,000 SF, staying under the Montgomery County trigger threshold
02
Drainage district review eliminated — no detention means no drainage district submittal
03
Fast, clean county permit — a simplified package with no detention design or review cycle
04
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the main engineering challenge on the FM 1485 industrial site project?
The goal was to avoid triggering Montgomery County's detention requirement entirely, which required designing the development to stay under the county's disturbance threshold.
How did JRH Engineering avoid the detention requirement at FM 1485?
JRH designed the project to disturb less than 15,000 square feet of land, staying under Montgomery County's detention trigger threshold and eliminating an entire permitting track with that single design decision.
What were the results of the FM 1485 industrial site project?
JRH eliminated the detention requirement, removed drainage district review from the permit package entirely, and delivered a fast, clean county permit with a simplified submission.