TRWD Improvement Permit Guide for Cedar Creek Lake

What the TRWD improvement permit is now

TRWD's board adopted a new General Ordinance on December 16, 2025, repealing the 2002 ordinance and its 2011 revision. The permit a Cedar Creek homeowner needs is now the Residential Improvement Permit, and its rules sit in Attachment I: Residential Improvement Permit Guidelines, effective February 5, 2026. Older copies of the Cedar Creek "Application for Improvement Permit" and its guidelines, last revised in 2001, list a $100 fee. TRWD's permits page links the 2026 fee schedule, its drawing checklists and the online application portal.

You need the permit before you build a new improvement or modify an existing one on TRWD land or water. The guidelines name these projects:

• Over the water. Docks and boat houses.
• On the bank. Patios, fire pits, outdoor kitchens, cabanas, swimming pools and other recreational facilities, storage structures and fences.
• At the shoreline. Retaining walls, waterfront irrigation systems and dredging.

Where TRWD's permit line sits on Cedar Creek

TRWD's ordinance puts Cedar Creek's spillway elevation at 322 feet above sea level and its Flood Flowage Boundary at 325 feet, or 330 feet where the District holds flowage easements up to that line. The ordinance counts those flowage easements as District Land. If you build, dredge, fill or clear anything on that land or out over the water, the permit rules apply to you.

Judge the line by survey elevation. Bank that dries out in a low year is still District Land, and work on it still needs the permit.

Changes to an existing, permitted dock count too. The guidelines require a permit for any Modification, which the ordinance defines as a change to a structure's construction, flotation, anchorage, plumbing or electrical service. The ordinance gives no general exemption for repairs. TRWD can waive the permit for changes it deems insignificant, so call TRWD's Cedar Creek office at 903-432-2814 before any work on the dock.

Unpermitted older structures follow a separate rule. The ordinance labels any improvement already standing when it took effect, but not permitted under it, a Noncomplying Facility. You can maintain and repair a Noncomplying Facility without a permit. Enlarging or altering one takes a permit, and so does a substantial replacement; a TRWD officer decides whether your job counts as repair or replacement. If you move one, you have to bring it up to the ordinance.

How to apply through the MGO Connect portal

TRWD takes applications through its MGO Connect customer portal. You set up an account, pick Texas and Tarrant Regional Water District, and choose the Residential Improvement Permit application. The portal instructions say staff reject an application filed under the wrong permit type and tell you which one to use.

The application carries signatures from the landowner, each contractor and, when the job includes electrical work, the licensed electrical contractor. Staff mark each filing Accepted, Returned or Rejected. A Returned application is missing information; you add it in the portal and resubmit. Once staff accept it, you get an invoice to pay online. After payment arrives, the application becomes a Project in the portal and moves on through the permit process. The portal adds a convenience fee to credit card payments but not to debit cards, and TRWD also takes checks and money orders by mail or at its offices.

The permit you receive stays with that site. The ordinance makes it non-transferable and requires you to display it at the construction site.

What goes in a dock or boathouse package

TRWD publishes a required drawing information sheet for boathouses, docks and piers. The top view has to show the lot as it is and state the distance between the flood storage elevation and normal pool, your shoreline length at normal pool, the distance to the nearest side property lines at the shoreline and at the end of the structure, how far the structure reaches into the lake, its overall dimensions with each boat and personal watercraft slip marked, and the dimensions of any sink, cabinet or stairway.

The sheet also asks for profile views from the shore, the lake and both sides. Those drawings state the deck height, the height from deck to top plate, the roof type and pitch, any handrail height, and the spacing of the pilings and how deep they will be driven.

The electrical schematic lists the service and circuit conductors, any irrigation pump and hoist motor sizes, total light wattage, and conduit types and sizes. The blank electrical schematic sets minimums: #12 wire listed for wet locations, switches and receptacles rated for 20 amps or more with watertight covers, mounted at least 4 feet above normal pool and 30 inches above first-floor decks, and SJ cord for plug-in motor devices. An electrical contractor licensed by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation does the work.

What goes in a seawall or retaining wall package

The retaining wall drawing sheet asks for the wall's total length, its depth into the lake bottom, its height above the bottom and its elevation, plus the size, type and spacing of the anchors and the size, type and length of the tie-backs. If the wall won't attach to a neighbor's wall, it needs returns, and you state their length.

The drawing also places the new wall against the existing shoreline and notes that shoreline's condition, shows any sidewalk with its elevation, and lists every material. You calculate the backfill volume and state where it comes from. If you plan to reclaim land, you also calculate how much reservoir storage the fill displaces. Without special circumstances or a variance, TRWD requires the backfill to come from the reservoir.

For dock and wall jobs alike, the pre-permit inspection needs every lot corner and the proposed structure's location marked on site.

Fees and the review clock

The permit fee schedule, effective February 5, 2026, sets the Residential Improvement Permit at $300, a permit extension at $150 and a re-inspection at $50. The guidelines say TRWD won't consider an application until you pay the $300, and they let it bill inspector time at up to $50 a visit. The $100 figure on older forms matches TRWD's 2011 fee schedule.

The written timeline has two phases. Staff review a new application within 10 business days and accept it for consideration or reject it; a rejected application means filing a new one. Once staff accept it, you pay the invoice, and the application moves into technical review only after that payment. If staff ask for more information during technical review, you have one month to send it unless TRWD grants more time in writing. Miss that deadline and the guidelines treat the file as "deemed technically incomplete and rejected," though you can apply again. Once you've supplied everything, staff finish the technical review within 30 business days.

Add those written limits together: 10 business days to accept, then up to 30 business days of technical review. That comes to about eight weeks from a complete file to the end of technical review, plus the time you take to pay the invoice and answer staff questions.

You can make small changes that leave the size, footprint and location alone at any point before the permit issues. Larger changes can go in until the technical review ends, and after that they need a new application. To extend a deadline during either review phase, you send a written request explaining why you need the time and pay a nonrefundable $150 fee, and the request is "subject to written approval by the District." The same $150 applies when construction runs past the permit's time limit. If TRWD grants a construction extension and you miss that extended construction deadline, it cancels the permit, which sends you back to a new application.

TRWD can approve the permit, approve it in part or deny it. A denial opens two separate routes with separate clocks. Under the guidelines, you have 30 calendar days to send staff written comments, and staff then have 10 business days to issue the permit or reaffirm the denial. Under the General Ordinance, you can appeal the decision in writing to TRWD's General Manager within 14 calendar days; the District addresses the appeal within 30 calendar days, and that decision is final. Our guide to a denied dock or seawall permit covers how to build a response.