Exposed Aggregate Concrete in Point Venture, Texas

Flatwork permits and the pre-pour inspection

Permits for drives, patios and flatwork

The Village of Point Venture lists the work that needs a permit: patios and swimming pools, and alterations such as driveway replacement or additions, flatwork and retaining walls. Its permit-free "minor landscaping" category leaves flatwork out. Under the Village's building rules no deck or patio may be built without a permit, and the application has to state the material to be used and where it goes on the lot, so the stone finish belongs on the paperwork. Driveways and driveway extensions, along with pools deeper than 24 inches, are on the Village's quick-permit list, and the Village builds to the 2012 International Residential Code.

What the inspector checks

Before any driveway or flatwork pour, the Village wants an inspection called once the forms and reinforcement are set. The code's list: wire mesh of at least 6" x 6" x 10", expansion joints fifteen feet on center, a treated expansion joint or a cold joint wherever flatwork or a drive meets the foundation, dowels into that slab, and drives and flatwork built to plan.

NRMCA adds two points. Mesh holds cracks and joints tighter but doesn't stop cracks from forming. And contraction joints call for a maximum spacing of 24 to 36 times the slab depth, roughly 10 feet apart in a 4-inch slab and never past 15 feet.

Impervious cover and setbacks

A single-family lot in the SF-1 or SF-2 district may be no more than 50% impervious, a limit revised on June 18, 2025. The same amendment rewrote the definition: impervious coverage takes in rooftops, patios, driveways, sidewalks and decks, but leaves out approved drainage structures, permeable pavers, pervious concrete and the water surface of a pool, spa or pond. A washed-stone finish isn't named among the exclusions, so plan on a standard slab with that finish counting toward the 50%. In SF-1 the minimum lot is 0.2 acre, 60 feet wide and 100 feet deep, or as originally platted.

Driveways near a property line

The zoning definition of a building setback lets sidewalks, driveways and retaining walls sit inside the setback area. The building rules, though, say no permanent part of a dwelling, the driveway included, may be placed over easements or within setbacks unless the building official approves it because the terrain leaves no other way. The two texts appear to differ, so ask the Village which applies before a drive is widened toward a lot line.

A resort peninsula turned year-round village

The land sold in 1969 for $420,000. The developers built roads, recreation facilities, a clubhouse, town homes and a yacht club, and ran the only lake ferry in Texas from April 1971 until costs and unpredictable water and weather retired it by 1973. In 1970 Point Venture had 40 townhouses and three houses, and through the 1970s it was resort property, a vacation spot for most owners. The full-time population was 424 in 1999, and on August 12, 2000, according to the property owners association's history, voters approved incorporating the Village of Point Venture, 150 to 43.

The 2020 Census counted 1,260 residents and 817 housing units, 262 of them vacant, and the Census Bureau puts the July 1, 2025 population at 1,233. Its survey for 2020–2024, imprecise for a place this size, gives a median year built of 2003 and about 80% single-family detached houses, with about 88% of occupied homes owner-occupied at a median value of $502,700; 161 homes are held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use.

Other concrete work in Point Venture

Besides exposed aggregate, we pour broom-finished and stamped driveways, patios and walks, pool decks and steps, build retaining walls (the Village wants an engineer's design and completion letter for any wall 4 feet or taller) and patch aging slabs. On the south shore, Heritage Concrete Austin puts in Lakeway concrete pool decks and stamped concrete in The Hills.

Point Venture exposed aggregate questions