Boat docks, boathouses and bulkheads on Cedar Creek Lake.

The Tarrant Regional Water District runs Cedar Creek from its lake office at 6613 Ashby Lane, Trinidad, TX 75163, (903) 432-2814. An Improvement Permit is required for all construction, placement or operation of any structure or facility of any type, and for excavating or placing fill materials, at or below elevation 325.00 feet msl — and that expressly includes any addition or modification to an existing structure. Applications now go through TRWD's online portal, and construction may not start until the application is approved. Submitting is not approval.

The submittal is specific. It requires the signatures of both owner and contractor, a recorded plat showing shore front dimensions and the location of the improvement, proof of ownership, scaled plans and construction details at one inch to thirty feet or larger with views from all five sides, and a $100.00 non-refundable fee — no cash. The outside corners of the lot at roadside and at elevation 325.00 must be clearly marked at the pre-permit inspection and stay marked throughout construction.

Contractors must carry general liability of no less than $500,000 per occurrence naming TRWD as additional insured with a waiver of subrogation. The guidelines state flatly that there are no exceptions, and a current certificate is required each time a permit is submitted. Allow ten working days for processing. Permits run a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 90 days; one extension may be granted for an additional $50.00. Building without a permit violates the General Ordinance and is a Class C misdemeanor carrying $10 to $1,000 per violation, per day.

Two honest notes on the fine print. The $100 permit fee and the $50 extension come from the District's published guidelines; TRWD maintains its fee schedule separately, so confirm the live numbers with the Trinidad office. And there is a genuine discrepancy on roof pitch — an older standalone Cedar Creek guideline sheet revised in 2001 caps it at 4 in 12, while the current consolidated Residential Improvement Permit Guidelines give 6 in 12. We design to 6 in 12 as the current figure and confirm it with the office before framing.

Cedar Creek is a blackland-prairie reservoir with a soft bottom — clay and silt rather than rock. Water runs moderately clear at the lower end and muddy in the upper end, with light native emergent, submergent and floating vegetation in the coves and creek arms down toward the dam. The shoreline is long, heavily subdivided and full of shallow coves, which is exactly the geometry that produces a large stock of aging bulkheads and a steady replacement cycle.

On water level: the conservation or spillway elevation is 322.00 feet msl and the current 100-year flood level is 325.00. Because of the flooding potential, TRWD purchased a flood easement covering the property between those two elevations — which is why the permit threshold sits at 325.00 rather than at the waterline. As a water supply and conservation project the level varies with withdrawals, evaporation, rainfall and runoff; TPWD reports typical fluctuation of about 4 feet.

On surface area, published figures disagree and we will not pick one: TPWD gives 32,623 acres, while the Texas Water Development Board's 2005 survey gives 32,873 acres at operating elevation 322 feet msl. Shoreline runs over 320 miles and maximum depth is about 53 feet.