Heath covers a little over 12 square miles on the eastern shore of Lake Ray Hubbard, and for decades it has chosen to stay spacious. The city’s 2025 Comprehensive Plan caps density at one home per acre of developable land and says it would rather see one per three. Floodplain, lake, and right-of-way don’t count toward that acre. The result: 11,671 people by the Census Bureau’s July 2025 estimate, mostly in custom homes on big lots, with very little retail, on purpose.
So here’s the honest picture of general contracting in Heath. Most of the work is remodeling and adding on to large houses, some on septic, some with a lake out back. A smaller share is commercial finish-out in the few places the city allows it.
We’re MASACO Construction, based on Legacy Drive in Plano, about 50 minutes away by the Bush Turnpike and I-30. We haven’t built in Heath yet. Our nearest finished work is about 21 miles northwest in Allen, where Fade & Style Barber Shop went from a bare 1,500-square-foot shell to open doors in six weeks.
One home per acre, and the houses it produced
Heath is older than it looks. The Handbook of Texas traces it to John O. Heath, who settled here in 1846, and notes the community’s 1849 post office was the first in what is now Rockwall County. The town incorporated in 1959. Then Lake Ray Hubbard filled in just west of it in 1969 and 1970, and the houses came.
The comprehensive plan’s census table shows the curve: 1,459 residents in 1980, 2,108 in 1990, 4,149 in 2000, 6,921 in 2010, and 9,769 in 2020. That math puts most of Heath’s homes after 1980, with a large share after 2000.
Zoning explains the lot sizes. The plan maps three tiers of single-family land: SFE 3.0 with a three-acre minimum, SF-43 at one acre, and SF-15 and SF-22 at about a third of an acre. It describes Heath’s housing as fully custom homes on large or medium lots. A 2014 application for Ridge Lakes, south of Rabbit Ridge Road, proposed 95 lots on 109.60 acres. The Renaissance was platted with 40-foot front setbacks.
For a remodel, that means one-off houses whose plans rarely repeat down the street, so every job starts with a tape measure.
The rulebook is moving, too. The city is rewriting its Zoning and Subdivision Ordinances, with a listening session for developers, builders, and design professionals on October 26, 2026. If an addition is on your 2027 list, we’ll check which setbacks apply the day we submit.
Remodeling custom homes on Heath’s big lots
Kitchen remodeling in a large custom house is rarely about squeezing in storage. It’s about how the kitchen meets the family room, the patio, and the view, and whether a load-bearing wall stands between them. Primary baths usually want a larger walk-in shower, a better vanity layout, and real lighting; our bathroom remodeling page covers that scope. When kitchen, baths, floors, and lighting all need work, a whole-home remodel keeps it on one permit and one schedule.
Heath’s permit list is broader than most owners expect. Building and Inspections requires a permit for interior remodels and additions, outdoor kitchens and fireplaces, cabanas, guest houses and other auxiliary buildings, retaining walls over 24 inches, window replacements, and foundation repair. Work started without one can draw a fine of up to $500.
The remodel and addition application asks you to name the electrical, plumbing, mechanical, and foundation contractors and the foundation engineer. Its approval block has six sign-off lines: building, public works, fire, city engineer, planning, and septic.
Setbacks trip up additions here. Recent variance cases show how: a Providence owner asked to let a detached garage sit 3 feet into a 15-foot side yard, and a lake lot in Heath Golf & Yacht Club, in the Kaufman County part of the city, sought 5 feet of relief from a 25-foot rear setback. Each subdivision’s planned development ordinance can add its own rules. In Heath Crossing, a 2023 zoning case took up letting Mediterranean and Spanish Revival homes use a 5/12 roof pitch without a conditional use permit. Before we design a home addition, we pull the ordinance for your subdivision.
Big houses also get rooms smaller ones skip, like a dedicated theater. That’s mostly an electrical, framing, and sound job: dedicated circuits, low-voltage runs, isolated walls, and a door that seals.
Septic, sewer, and the one-acre lot
Not every Heath house is on city sewer. Heath’s subdivision rules call for a sanitary sewer connection where one is accessible, but the City Council grants variances. In April 2023 it took up a request to allow on-site septic systems on every lot of a proposed 16.453-acre addition on Smirl Drive instead of building a sewer line, force main, and lift station, per the city’s hearing notice. A 2022 case did the same for two lots in LeRuisseau.
The city permits septic systems itself. Its OSSF permit application asks for the home’s living square footage and bedroom count, the site evaluator’s and designer’s licenses, and the installer’s Heath registration number. The checklist with it wants a floor plan showing every room, closets included, with total heated and air-conditioned square footage, two soil profile holes at opposite ends of the proposed drainfield, and floodplain information. The permit to operate follows a passed inspection under the state’s TCEQ rules in 30 TAC Chapter 285.
On a septic lot, the first question about a bedroom addition isn’t framing. It’s the drainfield.
The practical version: if you’re adding a bedroom, a guest house, or a pool cabana with a bathroom, we confirm what your existing system was permitted for before we draw anything. Sometimes it’s fine. Sometimes the addition brings a system modification with it, which changes the budget and the site plan. You’ll know before you sign.
Building on the Lake Ray Hubbard shoreline
The lake isn’t Heath’s. The City of Dallas owns Lake Ray Hubbard and its take area, the strip of shore between the take line and the lake’s normal pool elevation of 435.5 feet. Under a 2004 interlocal agreement, Dallas leases that strip to Heath, and Heath subleases pieces of it to the owners whose lots back up to it.
What you can build there is set by Heath’s Lake Edge Zoning District ordinance, adopted in 2006 and revised in 2007. It’s specific:
- Boathouses, fixed piers, dock decks, and lakeside gazebos are allowed. Boat ramps, cabanas, greenhouses, and hard surface sports courts are not, and a barbecue pit takes a conditional use permit.
- A boathouse with its adjoining pier and dock deck can’t exceed 30 feet total width, and its roof tops out at 18 feet, or 21 with a clerestory.
- Boathouse pilings are wrapped in masonry that matches the house, such as cut or rough limestone, brick, or river rock, starting 2 feet 8 inches above normal pool.
- Inside the view clear zone, no new structure or planting may rise more than 6 feet above grade.
“No uses are grandfathered in the Take Area and over the Lake.”
Heath’s Lake Edge Zoning District ordinance
Dallas reviews every boat-related, dredging, and seawall proposal before approval, and dredging also needs the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Texas Parks and Wildlife. Heath’s lake structure checklist asks whether you hold a valid sublease and whether your contractor’s workers’ compensation, auto, and general liability certificates are attached. Sea wall repairs and replacements need a city permit as well.
Where Heath allows commercial space
Heath wants very little retail, and the comprehensive plan says so plainly. A typical community runs about 0.5 retail acres per 100 residents. Heath runs 0.09, a number the plan calls intentionally low, with residents shopping in Rockwall or Dallas instead.
So commercial work clusters in a few spots.
FM 740 and FM 549. The Tom Thumb center anchors this junction. When the City Council approved its zoning in October 2017, the planned development grew to just over 17.76 acres, with a 30-foot landscape buffer and at least one large canopy tree every 100 linear feet.
Laurence Drive suites. State accessibility filings show what small tenants have built along Laurence Drive: a 1,564-square-foot medical office finish-out at 511 Laurence in 2023, a 1,900-square-foot dental office at 473 Laurence in 2020, and a 1,935-square-foot sauna studio at 315 Laurence in 2024. Wellness, medical, personal service. That’s Heath’s tenant mix, and it’s the work described on our medical and wellness build-outs page.
The Towne Center Overlay: one story, real materials
The roughly 110-acre Towne Center Overlay District sits at FM 550 and Laurence Drive, around City Hall. Its design book calls for two looks: Historic Texas, built of brick and stone, and Farmhouse Chic, with wood, stucco, and cementitious siding in white, teal, and neutrals with black metal accents.
Ordinance 220927E, adopted in September 2022, cut the height limit to one story, 18 to 25 feet tall. Two stories need a conditional use permit; three are banned. Walls must be brick, stone, wood clapboard, or board and batten, with smooth stucco on no more than 20 percent of any facade. Storefront glass must be clear, exterior security grilles are prohibited, and dumpsters go in brick or stone enclosures. We price the facade with those rules in hand, not after the Architectural Review Board weighs in.
The Reserve
The Heath Economic Development Corporation and Municipal Benefits Corporation own 45 acres they call The Reserve, beside 50 acres of city open space. They’re courting upscale dining and retail, a day spa or wellness center, equestrian uses, and corporate campuses, and their request for proposals closed in February 2026. In January 2025 the City Council approved a ground lease there for 1880 Kitchen, a restaurant of at least 5,500 square feet named for the year Heath was established.
Whether it’s a Laurence Drive suite or a new overlay building, our tenant improvements page explains how we scope it.
Permits, plan review, and the CO in Heath
Everything runs through 200 Laurence Drive. Building and Inspections adopted the 2021 International Code Council codes with NCTCOG and city amendments, effective October 1, 2024, along with the 2023 National Electrical Code. The commercial permit packet still lists the 2020 electrical code, so we confirm the edition with the plans examiner before drawings are final.
For anything that needs a site plan, rezoning, or plat, the city encourages a Development Review Committee pre-application meeting with Community Development, Public Works, Capital Improvement Programs, and Public Safety. The first one is free. Each one after that is $300.
The commercial packet sets the ground rules:
- A separate permit for each tenant space or building.
- The general contractor lists its plumbing, electrical, and mechanical contractors, and all of them must be registered with Heath before the permit issues.
- An asbestos survey statement for any commercial remodel or demolition, an energy code analysis, and proof the plans went to the state for accessibility review.
- A plan review goal of ten working days, starting only once the submittal is complete.
That last line is state law. TDLR requires registration and plan review when a project’s total estimated cost reaches $50,000; below that, the work still has to meet the Texas Accessibility Standards.
Food, fire, and the certificate of occupancy
Food service operations, grocery stores, day cares, and assisted living facilities need health department plan review, which the applicant submits directly to the reviewer the city names. Heath’s food service permit application lists $250 for a restaurant or club and asks about grease traps and certified food managers.
In Heath, applying for a commercial building permit is also applying for the certificate of occupancy; the packet says so in capital letters. The CO application covers a new tenant in an existing building, an expanded lease space, a new owner, or a new business name, and it routes to the building department, health, fire, and planning and zoning.
“Signing this application does not authorize occupancy of the space and/or structure.”
City of Heath CO application
Fire sign-off comes from Heath’s Department of Public Safety, where every officer is certified in law enforcement, fire protection, and emergency medical services. We know how a fire review can hold up a CO. At Fade & Style, the PVC station-wall system needed extra fire marshal test documentation first; we worked it out with the supplier and the city, and the shop still opened on its original date.
For Laurence Drive tenants, our closest match is Calibration Brain & Body in Frisco, a 4,250-square-foot wellness and media studio conversion we finished in five weeks, with a podcast studio, acoustic panels, and a custom front desk.
Three Heath places locals know
The marina in the photo at the top of this page is Rush Creek Yacht Club, at 320 Rush Creek Drive. Founded on the shore of Lake Ray Hubbard in 1969, it hosted the 2024 International Sunfish Class Association World Championship and keeps wet and dry slip storage, a pool, and a dining room.
Terry Park
At 599 Terry Lane, Terry Park is the city’s lakeside park, with a two-lane boat ramp and two courtesy docks, a covered pavilion, and a playground. The city’s parks page calls it one of Heath’s best spots for boating, picnics, and sunsets, and keeping it open for residents’ use of the lake is a written objective in the comprehensive plan.
Towne Center Park
The city’s signature park, at 1000 Festival Street, sits beside City Hall and Amy Parks-Heath Elementary. Its renovation and addition was registered with the state at an estimated $12.5 million. The city now lists an event lawn and pavilion sized for up to 2,000 people, eight pickleball courts, a splash fountain, and a pond meant to be refilled from the city’s Water Well #1.
How a Heath project runs with MASACO
Our process has six steps everywhere, and Heath shapes most of them.
- Understand. We walk the house or suite and pull your subdivision’s ordinance, septic permit, and any take area sublease.
- Visualize. You see 3D renderings before any price.
- Plan. A fixed-scope proposal organized by trade, with allowances spelled out.
- Execute. One project manager, a written photo update every week, and every Heath permit and Dallas lake review handled by us.
- Deliver. As-builts, permits, inspection records, the CO when there is one, and warranties, in one close-out package.
- Support. We stay reachable after handover.
Heath is about 50 minutes from our Plano office. Opening a lake house kitchen to the view, adding a guest house on a septic lot, or fitting out a wellness suite on Laurence Drive? Schedule a consultation, and we’ll bring Heath’s own checklists to the first meeting.
Building in Heath: what to know.
Heath grew from 1,459 residents in 1980 to 9,769 in 2020 under a plan that allows no more than one home per acre of developable land, so the city is mostly custom homes on large lots, some on septic systems, with lake homes backing up to a Lake Ray Hubbard shoreline the City of Dallas owns. Commercial space is kept deliberately scarce, mostly around the Tom Thumb center at FM 740 and FM 549 and the Towne Center Overlay District near City Hall, where new buildings are held to one story. Building and Inspections at 200 Laurence Drive handles building permits, septic permits, and certificates of occupancy under the 2021 international codes and the 2023 National Electrical Code.
Heath neighborhoods and districts.
- Heath Golf & Yacht Club
- Buffalo Creek
- Antigua Bay
- Stoneleigh
- Heath Crossing
- Providence
- McCrummen Estates
- The Renaissance
- Ridge Lakes
- Shepherds Glen
- Cove Ridge
- LeRuisseau
- Towne Center Overlay District
- The Reserve
Heath on the map.
Photo credits
- M 3209613 nw 14 060 20220704.tif (cropped) by NOAA Office for Coastal Management / USDA-FSA Aerial Photography Field Office (NAIP 2022), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
- M 3209613 nw 14 060 20220704.tif (cropped) by NOAA Office for Coastal Management / USDA-FSA Aerial Photography Field Office (NAIP 2022), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
- M 3209613 nw 14 060 20220704.tif (cropped) by NOAA Office for Coastal Management / USDA-FSA Aerial Photography Field Office (NAIP 2022), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
- M 3209612 ne 14 060 20220704.tif (cropped) by NOAA Office for Coastal Management / USDA-FSA Aerial Photography Field Office (NAIP 2022), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
