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Developing Raw Land

Author amgtemplate

Published on: January 25, 2020

​Developing Raw land

Questions you need to answer in developing raw land.

1. Planning/Zoning
   1. What is the zone?
      1. Is your use allowed?
2. Access
   2. What are the yard setbacks?
   3. What is the height limit?
   4. What is the allowable development size or building ratio to the lot size?
   5. Are there any special restrictions on this piece of land?
3. Access
   1. Is there a legal road or easement to the property?
   2. Is the existing access road and roads leading into the area approved by the Fire Department?
   3. Are there any improvements required for this access road?
   4. Are there any maintenance fees if any of the access is private?
4. Services: are these available or are any improvements required to get them to the site and are there any additional costs involved in connecting or getting them to the building pad?
   1. Water
   2. Septic
   3. Gas
   4. Electric
   5. Telephone and Internet
5. Site Layout, Legal
   1. Is there a survey for accurate planning?
      1. Are there any on site concerns?
         1. Oak Trees and others?
   2. Where can or will the house be on the site?
   3. If this is a hillside or questionable soils area what are the soils conditions?
   4. ​Where will the driveway be?
   5. How will the Fire Department get to and protect the house?
   6. Are any on site improvements required and need to be laid out?
   7. ​Septic
   8. Water tank
   9. Fire Hydrant

4. Site Layout, Optimization
   1. View
   2. Sun
   3. Wind
   4. Entry
   5. Yards and decks
5. Governmental Issues and Costs
   1. What are the permit and development fees?
   2. Are fire sprinklers required or desired?
   3. Are there any site improvement requirements such as landscaping?
   4. Develop a list of required consultants:
      1. Architect
      2. Surveyor
      3. Soils and geological
      4. Landscape
      5. Engineering: structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing
      6. Health or Biological

7. Develop a project budget
   1. Land development
   2. House
8. Develop a project schedule
   1. Where are you in the development process?
   2. If you are looking at a possible piece of land for acquisition, you don’t need every detail of every item on the list, but you need to know if there are any deal killers brought up by this investigation.
   3. Also reviewing these items will give a relative value and cost implication of this particular property.
   4. Some items may just require a verification that they are not needed.
   5. Some require a budget.