City of Houston Permit

So I live inside the loop in the heights area. The house I own is one of those houses that needs to renovated but sits on a lot of land.

When I bought the house I knew I wanted to build a sports court. The total costs of the court to build is about 25k.

The same day the contractor did a site prep (laid rebar and flattened out the ground) the CoH decided to throw a red sticker on my fence and told me to stop work or fines may result. Concrete was going to be poured the next morning.

I called the city and they took my information and I told them that I was going to build a sports court and what the issue was. The CoH let me know that I needed to apply for permits to make sure the water can still drain.

So I called the contractors architecture friend and he mentioned that there’s no way I would get approved for that much concrete (30×60). Drainage and grass to concrete ratio were his main reasons.

The next step that I’ve done is call the city to see if there’s any utility issue with my property and they are doing a walk through to make sure no lines/piping is underneath my sports court.

I’ve gotten multiple opinions from contractors and just wanted to get y’all’s thoughts on projects that you’ve done or known about with the city involved. I am very tempted to just build the sports court and just pay the fine. The sticker says fines up to 2k which sucks but I wouldn’t mind paying that. My worry would be if the CoH decided to demolish it on their own terms.

Also, just want to clarify that I don’t think it was neighbors that complained. I already talked to my neighbors and they were excited to use it as well. The CoH said that because I built a new fence they came to check on that and happened to stumble upon the court being built. Unlucky?

Any insights would be very helpful!