Concrete Pads in McLendon-Chisholm, Texas

Parking rules, barns and big lots

Parking any self-propelled vehicle, boat, or utility or cargo trailer on an unapproved surface is a code violation here, so an RV or trailer kept at home needs a concrete or paver surface to sit on. The 2021 Comprehensive Plan also expects barns and other accessory buildings in its rural land-use areas, and says they should be compatible, high-quality architecture.

Lot sizes vary widely, from about 7,500 square feet in Sonoma Verde to five acres or more, alongside farms, ranches and agricultural land, and the plan reports that most residents want new homes on lots of at least one acre. The Census Bureau's 2020-2024 estimates put the median year built at 2013, about 84% of the housing built in 2000 or later, and about 98% of occupied homes lived in by their owners.

Floodways, septic systems and blackland soil

According to the 2021 Comprehensive Plan, at least four major floodways cross the city from northeast to southwest, draining toward Lake Ray Hubbard, and floodways and floodplains cover about 22 percent of its land. Only Sonoma Verde and the retail area have city sewer; the rest of the city uses on-site septic systems, and Rockwall and Kaufman Counties require a lot of at least one acre for a septic permit.

Septic lots add a step for shop buildings: the City has a separate septic-system (OSSF) accessory building application for buildings or permanent structures on a lot with a septic system.

The City's history describes the McLendon area's rich blackland soil, which once produced an abundance of cotton. The Soil Science Society of America notes that Blackland clays such as Houston Black swell during wetting and shrink during drying. On expansive soil like that, 2 to 8 inches of crushed rock usually goes under the concrete, depending on how expansive it is. We'll look at the ground and the drainage at the estimate.

McLendon's gin and the Chisholm brothers

The city began as two settlements, each named for a landowning family of the early 1850s. McLendon's took its name from P. A. McLendon, who about 1870 built a combined store, cotton gin and blacksmith shop that ran until 1975. Chisholm came from Enoch Parson Chisholm, who settled on 200 acres in 1856, and his brother B. Frank Chisholm. In 1898 Berry Creek Academy had four rooms, four teachers and 301 students, the second-largest school in the county.

Residents seeking zoning protection for their rural communities voted to incorporate as McLendon-Chisholm on October 18, 1969, and the early families' names can still be read at the historic Chisholm Chapel Cemetery. The city lies on State Highway 205 six miles southeast of Rockwall, with Heath to the west and south and Rockwall and Fate to the north and west. The Census Bureau counted 3,562 residents in 2020 and estimates 5,629 on July 1, 2025.