Astorga plans and builds custom gunite pools across Katy, where one name spans four permitting jurisdictions, HOA review is a documented process with real timelines, and drainage design answers to an engineered watershed.
Four jurisdictions, one honest map
City of Katy parcels permit through the city’s building department under its adopted swimming-pool code. Unincorporated Fort Bend County, which is most of the master-planned Katy everyone pictures, runs on county floodplain and drainage processes, with the county’s own pool regulations explicitly exempting private single-family pools. Elyson and the Harris County north file with the county engineer; the Waller County fringe files west. Sorting this out is step zero of a Katy project, and we do it from your parcel records.
Cinco Ranch-grade review, prepared properly
Katy’s flagship communities, from Cinco Ranch’s 15,000 homes to Grand Lakes, Seven Meadows, Firethorne, Cross Creek Ranch, Jordan Ranch, Cane Island, and Elyson, run documented design review. Cinco Ranch’s committees publish review windows up to thirty business days and a refundable pool deposit in gated sections, and one of its associations requires the homeowner to file personally. None of this is a problem; unmanaged, it’s a monthlong surprise. Managed, it’s a line in the schedule.
An engineered watershed deserves engineered drainage
The Willow Fork Drainage District and the Barker Reservoir system define west Katy’s water story, and Harvey wrote its hardest chapter. Backyard translation: deck elevations, drains, and swales designed to the district’s reality, and honest paperwork where floodplain maps apply. Where the water goes is a design decision, here more than anywhere.
Open-sky lots, designed for August
Katy’s newer sections trade mature canopy for open sun, which makes shade structures, covered kitchens, and surface materials the difference between a pool that photographs well and a backyard your family actually uses at 4 p.m. in August. That’s the design conversation we start at the planning consultation.
Common questions
Which jurisdiction permits my Katy pool?
Katy is genuinely four answers wearing one name. Inside the City of Katy, the city’s building department permits pools under its adopted pool code. Most of the Katy area is unincorporated: Fort Bend County parcels follow county floodplain and drainage processes, north-Katy communities like Elyson permit through Harris County’s engineer, and the western fringe files with Waller County. Your parcel decides, not your mailing address, and we verify it first.
Does Fort Bend County regulate my backyard pool?
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Less than people expect: the county’s 2023 pool regulations explicitly exempt private single-family residential pools. What still applies is real, though. Floodplain development permitting where maps require it, and drainage review in districts like the Willow Fork Drainage District. The county isn’t inspecting your tile; it does care where the water goes.
What does pool approval involve in Cinco Ranch?
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A documented design-review process: submissions to the residential design review committee with review windows that can run up to thirty business days, a refundable pool construction deposit (currently $1,000 in gated sections of Cinco Ranch II), and, in Cinco Ranch I, the requirement that the homeowner, not the contractor, files the application. We prepare everything so your filing is a signature, not a project.
How does living near Barker Reservoir affect pool planning?
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West Katy’s geography includes the Barker Reservoir system and the Willow Fork Drainage District, an engineered landscape with well-documented history. For a backyard project it means elevation-aware design and drainage that respects the district’s job. It’s planned honestly at the site walk, not discovered during excavation.
Nearby
We also build in Cypress and across the northwest corridor. Local facts on this page current as of August 2026.