Note: This page originally posted on Grayson County Planning Department Website & is no longer posted there. It is however a very good description of what rural living is like. This is an archive copy – check with Grayson County Planning for any changes or corrections.
There is no doubt about it. Country living is great! There are some things you need to know, however, before you make the decision to build that dream home in the unincorporated areas of Grayson. The unincorporated area of the county is that area outside of any city or town. By electing to live there, you have avoided many restrictions relating to your living conditions. You may look forward to doing many things on your land because of your freedom to do so. But you need to remember your neighbor has the same freedom and his taste for country living maybe somewhat different than yours. Let’s take a look at some of the differences between living in an unincorporated area and living in town.
ANIMAL CONTROL– Grayson County’s responsibility in animal control is primarily prevention of rabies. The County has one animal control officer. The County has a law relative to dogs running at large. Basically, it provides that dogs should be restrained or under the control of a person. There is also a list of names of “wild animals” that a person may not keep in the unincorporated area of the County. Residents of the unincorporated area can take abandoned animals or animals they simply do not want to the Sherman Animal Care and Control Center at 1800 E. Ida Rd. (Fm 697). There is a charge for this service. The Center should be contacted to determine what those charges are.
CODE ENFORCEMENT– Code enforcement falls in to two basic categories. One deals with building codes. The County does not enforce building codes in the unincorporated area. The County regulates only on-site sewage facilities and flood plain regulations. The County has enforcement authority in code enforcement as it relates to health, safety and welfare of its residents. There is only one officer in the County working in the area referred to as code enforcement and his primary responsibility is illegal dumping of trash and hazardous material spills. That leaves very little time for enforcement in the law regulating the abatement of high weeds, rubbish, trash, abandoned automobiles, etc.
EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES – Grayson County does not have its own emergency medical services (EMS) more commonly known as an ambulance service. It contracts with various emergency medical service providers throughout the county. The contracts are usually done annually and are subject to approval of the Commissioners’ Court and the provider. The level of training of EMS personnel may vary from one provider to the other. The county does not maintain EMS personnel records. You may call the E911 rural addressing and mapping coordinator to learn what areas the various EMS providers cover. If you want to know the level and quality of training of each EMS provider, you should call the agency directly to get that information. It is important to remember Grayson County is not required to provide emergency medical services to any unincorporated area. Those services are provided only after a satisfactory agreement is negotiated between the provider and Grayson County.
FIRE PROTECTION – Grayson County does not have a fire department. Fire protection is provided to the unincorporated area of the county by way of contracts with various fire departments throughout the county. There are contracts with both paid and volunteer departments. The contracts are usually done annually and are subject to approval of the Commissioners’ Court and the entity providing the service. To learn what areas the various fire departments cover, you may contact the E911 rural addressing and mapping coordinator. If you wish to know more about their firefighting capabilities, level of training, specific types of equipment they have, you may contact the various departments directly. A person purchasing real estate outside the cities should recognize most water lines outside the cities will likely be smaller lines and lack fire hydrants. Most fire departments do not have the tanker capacity to carry a significant amount of water to the scene of a fire. Once the water in a tanker is expended, the fire unit must return to a fire hydrant or another source of water to reload the tanker. It is important to remember Grayson County is not required to provide fire protection to any unincorporated area. Fire protection is provided only after a satisfactory agreement is negotiated between the provider and Grayson County.
LAW ENFORCEMENT – The Grayson County Sheriff’s Office enforces the laws of the State of Texas throughout Grayson County. While this area includes all cities as well as the unincorporated area, the Sheriff is primarily the first responder in the unincorporated areas. In addition, the Sheriff is also the first responder in the some of the smaller cities. All E-911 calls from the unincorporated areas and from cell phones are routed through the Sheriff’s Office. Grayson County Deputy Sheriffs patrol the County on a regular basis. Given the number of miles of county roads, it is not reasonable to think that a Deputy Sheriff will be able to patrol the roads with the same frequency as a police officer patrols city streets. If a call for service is made to the Sheriff’s Office, the response time of a Deputy Sheriff will depend on the officer’s proximity to the call when the call is received . The Sheriff’s Deputy will certainly respond as quickly as possible. Response time is not always as prompt as in the cities with police departments. A municipal police department will traditionally have a much smaller area to patrol.
LIBRARY – Grayson County does not operate a library system. Libraries are typically operated by schools and cities. There are some cities in Grayson County that have contractual relationships with Grayson County. Other cities do not. Like EMS and fire contracts, they are usually done on an annual basis with both parties having to ratify the contract. Like protection and ambulance service, Grayson County is not required to provide library service to those people living in the unincorporated area. A person living in the unincorporated area of the county should contact the library they would like to use to determine any fees that non-city residents might have to pay.
PARKS AND RECREATION – The county owns and operates Loy Lake Park which is located on US Hwy 75 at Exit 67 north of Sherman and southwest of Denison. Grayson County does not operate any regularly scheduled recreation program.
PLANNING AND ZONING – Planning activities in Grayson County are basically limited to subdivision regulations, on site sewage facilities, emergency management and flood plain regulations. There is a Land Use Ordinance for an area around Lake Ray Roberts near Tioga. The ordinance is much the same as a zoning ordinance you might see in a town or city. In addition to those activities, the county does E911 addressing and emergency preparedness. Grayson County’s lack of zoning is significant to people who own property in the county and wish to live there. A lack of zoning means that a person can use their property as they choose. The uses would only have to be legal activity and not have an adverse effect on the health, safety and welfare of nearby property owners.
SEWAGE COLLECTION AND TREATMENT – Practically all sewage collection and treatment in the unincorporated area is done by on site sewage facilities. There may be some public owned sewage collection and treatment systems outside the cities, but they will be very limited. If you want to be on a publicly owned collection and treatment system, you could contact the city nearest your building site to see if they might serve the area.
SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL AND RECYCLING – Residents of the unincorporated area of the county are required to have an authorized solid waste collection company pick up and properly dispose of their solid waste. You cannot burn or bury garbage on your land. It is the responsibility of each resident or business to select the company to collect the solid waste from the residence or business. It is also the resident’s responsibility to pay the collector directly. Grayson County does not have any role in settling disputes between the customer and the solid waste hauler. Solid waste typically includes household garbage, trash, and other petrusible materials. The Grayson County Commissioners periodically conduct recycling and solid waste collection events. You may contact your commissioner for the dates, locations of those activities and the type of solid waste that will be accepted.
ROAD MAINTENANCE – Some rural roads in Grayson County pre-date the automobile. The roads were typically used to move people and goods from a rural setting to an urban area. The roads were built to disturb as little rural farmland as possible. That means the roads generally split two pieces of property with each adjacent property owner actually owning one-half of the road. As a result, county roads may have many curves, be narrow and have no markings. Overall, that makes traveling a county road not as convenient and more dangerous than traveling the typical city street.
Typically, the ratio of street or road maintenance employees to the number of miles of street or roads maintained will be much higher in the cities than it is in the county. In Grayson County for example, there is approximately 1 employee for every 22 miles of roadway to be maintained. In addition to fewer employees, maintenance of county roads is more labor intensive because of the types of roads and drainage structures in the unincorporated area. If you purchase a house on an unpaved road, you should assume the road will remain unpaved. While County Commissioners do pave roads as time and money allow, their primary responsibility is maintaining the existing roads.
WATER UTILITIES – Grayson County does not own a water production, treatment or distribution system. If water is purchased in the unincorporated area, it will likely be purchased from one of the several rural water supply corporations or perhaps in some instances from a city. The water distribution systems owned by rural water supply corporations would usually have smaller lines than those systems owned by the cities. (Information on how water utilities effects fire fighting, see Fire Protection above.)
This information certainly is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of issues you might consider before buying real estate for investment or for your dream home. This list can, however, start you on a process where you evaluate or compare the advantages of one life style over the other.