Building Departments are rarely accountable to anyone. They are commonly staffed by what we might call "low level" people who have rarely had any real authority before; "power corrupts, absolute power absolutely corrupts." No matter how nice they may be otherwise they usually become petty tyrants in their official capacity and written standard variations they may ignore, neither private citizens and most local contractors have no sway over them.
Building anything without their department's prior approval (and sometimes even with prior approval) often gets ordered destroyed if it pleases the inspector - or if he just wants to teach another non-govie pee-on a lesson.
(Texas bureaucrats and their silly building rules are not unique. In Jacksonville, FL, a building permit is required to build a dog house - and it will be inspected when completed. In south FL, home owners are forbidden to replace their own failed light switches.
(It wasn't always that way but many yankees have occupied and they work together to make Southern things all better, meaning to do things the way they did up Nawth. And the Nawth has lots of government controls to protect them ... and they supply lots of taxes to pay for it too.)
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!!