Landscaping Services in Bellaire, TX

Less than most homeowners assume, because coverage counts everything placed on the lot — house and garage footprint, driveway, sidewalks and patio. Most Bellaire residential districts cap that at 55% of lot area. On a rebuilt house the structure alone consumes a large share of the allowance, which is why the useful moves here are planting, level change and structure rather than more paving. We run the numbers before design, not at permit.

Yes — a floodplain development permit, and you will need a property survey with it. Bellaire’s own guidance is that even painting and small cosmetic projects generally require a floodplain development permit. It surprises people, and it is the most common reason a Bellaire project started by an out-of-city contractor stalls. Contractors also need a minimum of $300,000 general liability insurance to work anywhere in the city.

Any tree twelve inches in diameter or more, anywhere in the city. Below that, a tree six inches or more is protected if it stands in a front yard, a street side yard on a corner lot, or a right-of-way — and once a development permit is in effect on a site, every tree six inches or more on that site is protected. Removal needs a tree permit and a disposition plan, replacements are set by lot width, and any replacement tree that dies within two years has to be replaced again.

Not by much. Bellaire limits imported fill to no more than a 1% slope from the back of the curb, or eight inches of dirt. That rules out the approach a lot of Houston contractors default to. Bellaire sits on Lake Charles and Bacliff clay with very slow permeability and high runoff, and parts of the city hold a winter perched water table — so drainage here is solved with designed fall, area drains, and an outfall that actually takes the water, not with more soil.

Bellaire has a horticultural history most cities do not. Evelyn’s Park on Bellaire Boulevard sits on the old Teas Nursery site — Edward Teas moved his nursery here in 1910 to carry out the landscaping plan for the new town, and it was Bellaire’s first business. The park today holds several hundred native trees under existing live oak canopy. It is a useful reference point on what performs on this ground over decades, and we draw on the same palette.

It affects how we think about grade and about what we are willing to put where. Bellaire flooded badly, the city sits on essentially impermeable clay, and the floodplain permit requirement reflects that. On a lot with a history, we design planting and hardscape that tolerate standing water, keep the fixed and expensive elements out of the lowest ground, and make sure the drainage has a real outfall rather than moving the problem twenty feet.