Parcels with usable land a quarter mile from the nearest home
How the list narrows
Every 10 to 20 acre parcel outside city limits was tested. Public land and parcels with unreliable outlines are set aside, not discarded; they are kept in the full results with a flag.
Where the qualifying land is
Each circle counts the qualifying parcels within a two-mile cell. Exact parcels are not published on this page.
Land inside an ETJ is outside city limits, but the city may still regulate subdivision and some uses there.
Three worked examples
Each example shows the parcel, the 1,320 ft buffers around nearby homes, and the usable land that is left.
What the full results include
Every qualifying parcel, in a spreadsheet, map files and an overview map.
Spreadsheet (Excel and CSV)
County, parcel ID, owner name, owner mailing address, situs address, appraisal and mapped acreage with a mismatch flag, usable acres outside the buffers, distance from parcel center to the nearest home, appraised value, property use code, ETJ status and city, and a Google Maps link. Every row also carries its tier and review flags.
Map files (Shapefile and KMZ)
Qualifying parcels, the usable-area polygons, and every home, school and place of worship used in the test, so each result can be checked in Google Earth or any GIS.
Overview map and method note
A one-page PDF map of the results and a one-page note on sources, data dates, assumptions and known gaps.
Method
- Parcel size
- 10 to 20 acres by appraisal district acreage. Mapped acreage is measured as well, and any parcel where the two differ by more than 10% is flagged.
- Unincorporated
- Outside every city limit, confirmed two ways: the county's current city limits map and the city tax codes on the appraisal roll. Each parcel is tagged with the ETJ it falls in, if any.
- Setback
- Each home, school and place of worship is buffered by 1,320 ft, measured from the building itself, not the property line. Buildings across the county line are included. A parcel qualifies when at least one acre lies outside every buffer.
- Identifying homes
- Building footprints show where buildings are but not what they are. Each footprint is matched to its parcel on the appraisal roll, whose improvement records give the number of dwellings, including mobile homes and homes on ag-exempt land. The best-matching footprints are treated as homes and the rest as barns or shops. Where the roll records a home that no footprint captures yet, usually new construction, the whole parcel is treated as the home's location. Just outside the county line, every address point also counts as a home.
- Two tiers
- Strict parcels still qualify when every building over 400 sq ft and every address point is assumed to be a home. Check parcels qualify only because a nearby building was read as a barn or shop; each one is reviewed on current aerial imagery before it is reported.
- Set aside
Sources
| Layer | Source | Vintage |
|---|---|---|
| Parcel boundaries | TxGIO StratMap land parcels | 2026 |
| Appraisal roll and improvements | Denton Central Appraisal District, certified roll | July 2026 |
| Building footprints | Microsoft Global ML Building Footprints; Overture Maps buildings | Aug 2026; Sep 2026 |
| Address points | Overture Maps addresses (county address points) | Sep 2026 |
| City limits and ETJ | Denton County GIS; Census TIGER outside the county | Sep 2026; 2025 |
| Schools | Texas Education Agency; NCES public and private school files; Denton County GIS | 2023–2026 |
| Places of worship | OpenStreetMap; Overture Maps places | Oct 2026; Sep 2026 |
This page shows a sample of the pilot. Owner details and the full parcel list are not published here.