Astorga plans and builds custom pools and full backyard rebuilds across Memorial and the Memorial Villages, where every village is its own city with its own permit process, mature trees carry real legal protection, and the work has to meet the standard of the street.
Six cities, six rulebooks
The Memorial Villages are independent municipalities, not Houston neighborhoods, and they permit like it. Bunker Hill Village requires a pre-development meeting before you submit, keeps contractor liability insurance on file, and does not allow Sunday construction. Piney Point Village runs a two to three week plan review covering pool, tree, and drainage sets. Hedwig, Hunters Creek, and Piney Point also need water and sewer capacity signed off by the Memorial Villages Water Authority before any building permit is issued. West of the villages, Memorial permits through the Houston Permitting Center with a required health inspection. Jurisdiction is the first thing we verify on a Memorial project.
The trees here have paperwork, and they earned it
Memorial’s canopy is why the streets look the way they do, and the villages protect it in writing. Piney Point requires a permit to remove any live tree three inches or thicker. Hunters Creek requires a professional tree survey that must show the proposed pool, protects root zones out to the dripline, and prices illegal removal per inch. Bunker Hill requires 48-inch protection fencing at the dripline of every tree being preserved, with nothing stored inside it. For a pool dig, that means access paths, crane position, and root zones shape the design as much as the water does. We treat that as a design input, not an obstacle.
Buffalo Bayou wrote the drainage rules
Memorial’s flood story is real; the Addicks and Barker releases after Harvey ran straight down Buffalo Bayou through these neighborhoods. The practical translation for a backyard project: Houston runs a dedicated floodplain permit path for single-family pools where maps require it, Piney Point wants drainage plans with the pool submittal, and Bunker Hill reviews drainage as its own project type and tests permeable paving before final approval. Deck elevations, area drains, and where the water goes are engineering decisions here, and we make them early.
Rebuilt to the standard of the street
Much of Memorial’s housing stock went up between the 1960s and 1990s on generous wooded lots, and teardown-rebuild activity is strongest in the villages and inner Memorial. That is exactly the scale we like to work at: a pool renovation or full backyard rebuild designed with the outdoor kitchen, covered living, and landscape as one program, not a pool dropped into a yard. On the Houston side, communities like Wilchester run their own architectural review; inside the villages, your submittal certifies the plan against deed restrictions. We prepare all of it.
Common questions
Who issues the pool permit in the Memorial Villages?
Each village does. Bunker Hill, Piney Point, Hunters Creek, and Hedwig are all independent cities with their own building departments and their own pool packets; the shared services are police, fire, and the Memorial Villages Water Authority, which must approve water and sewer capacity before Hedwig, Hunters Creek, or Piney Point will issue a building permit. West of the villages, Memorial addresses permit through the City of Houston. We confirm the jurisdiction from your address before promising anything.
Do I need a tree permit to build a pool in Memorial?
Very likely yes. In Piney Point Village, removing any live tree of three inches or more in diameter requires a permit, and the city forester reviews how equipment will reach your backyard. Hunters Creek protects trees from eighteen inches in circumference and requires a professional tree survey that must show the proposed pool. Bunker Hill sets its threshold at five inches and requires protection fencing at the dripline of every tree being kept. We fold the tree work into the design instead of discovering it at excavation.
What is a Friendly Neighbor Letter?
A Piney Point Village requirement: before the city approves a pool permit, the applicant prepares signed letters to every resident within 200 feet of the property, and the city mails them once the permit is approved. It is a courtesy formalized into process. We prepare the letters with the rest of the submittal so it never becomes a delay.
Does floodplain status affect a Memorial pool?
On mapped lots, yes. Buffalo Bayou runs the southern edge of Memorial, and Houston operates a dedicated floodplain permit for single-family pools that involves a topographic survey, cross sections, and elevation-certificate inspections. The villages run their own drainage reviews on top of building review. None of it is a problem when it is planned from the first site walk.
Nearby
We also build in Katy and across west Houston, and in communities throughout Greater Houston. What a project costs here starts with the Houston pool cost guide. Local facts on this page current as of August 2026.