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The industry’s bible. Nine chapters cover everything you need to know about land development from initial market studies to site selection and analysis. New and innovative design ideas for streets, houses, and neighborhoods are included. Whether you’re developing a whole neighborhood or just one site, you shouldn’t be without this essential reference. Contents About the Author, xvii Acknowledgments, xix Disclaimer, xxi Introduction, 1 The Concept, 2 The Project Team, 6 Increasing Land Development Constraints, 8 The Effect of Social Changes on New Development Types, 9 Chapter One Identifying Your Market, 11 Types of Market Studies, 12 General, 13 Site Specific, 14 Highest and Best Use, 15 Customer Profile, 15 What Kind of Study Do You Need?, 16 Housing Supply and Demand, 17 Housing Mix, 18 Projecting Demand, 19 Adjusting the Projection, 20 Sources of Demographic Data, 24 Census Data, 25 Other Sources of Demographic Data, 27 Capture Ratio, 27 Understanding the Target Market, 28 Psychographic Data, 28 Specialized Knowledge, 32 Project Viability, 35 When to Study the Market, 35 Before Land Purchase, 36 After Land Purchase, 37 During Project Build-Out and Sales, 38 After Project Completion, 38 Purchasing Market Information, 39 In-House Market Studies, 39 Professional Market Studies, 40 Continue to Market, 43 Advertising and Other Marketing Activities, 43 Selling the Project, 44 Selling to Builders, 44 Selling to Home Buyers, 45 Reducing Risk in Today's Marketplace, 46 Chapter Two Financing Your Project, 47 Loan-to-Value Ratios, 48 Real Estate Collateral, 49 Risks, 50 Development Financing, 50 Sources of Capital, 51 Types of Loans, 54 Acquisition Loan, 56 Other Types of Land Purchase Agreements, 57 Development Loan, 59 Construction Loan, 62 Permanent and Interim Financing, 62 Alternative Sources of Financing, 63 Partnerships and Investors, 64 REIT's, 64 Joint Ventures, 65 Pension Funds, 65 Assessing Project Feasibility, 66 Pro Forma Analysis, 67 Cash Flow Diagram, 68 Sensitivity Analysis, 70 Profit Analysis, 72 Accuracy of Methods, 74 Future of Development Financing, 75 Proper Documentation Eliminates Potential Mistakes, 76 Chapter Three Site Selection, 79 Two Approaches to Site Selection, 80 Development Idea in Search of Site, 80 Site in Search of Master Plan Concept, 82 Three Categories of Site Characteristics, 83 Physical Factors, 85 Geotechnical Conditions, 85 Topographical Conditions, 89 Site Features, 92 Hazards, 95 Improvements, 97 Site History, 97 Legal and Political Factors, 98 Zoning, 98 Planned Growth, 100 Comprehensive Land Use Plan, 100 Subdivision Ordinances, 102 Contiguous Property, 104 Overlapping Regulations, 104 Political Factors, 105 Off-Site Factors, 108 Special Studies, 109 Environmental Impact Studies, 109 Storm Water Management Plan, 110 Wetlands Review, 110 Traffic Studies, 111 Tree Surveys, 112 Sources of Information, 112 Geographic Information Systems (GIS), 115 Evaluating Preliminary Site Data, 114 Organizing Site Data, 114 Decision Matrix, 115 Starting with the Site, 119 Developing Brownfield and Grayfield Sites, 120 Site Selection and the Target Market, 121 Chapter Four Site Analysis, 123 Gathering Additional Data, 123 Project Design, 124 Project Costs, 124 Site Analysis Tools, 125 Current Maps, 125 Drawings and Tests, 125 Land Survey, 126 Physical Factors, 127 Topography, 127 Soils and Subsurface Conditions, 130 Hydrology and Drainage Requirements, 131 Storm Water Runoff, 135 Site Features, 135 Project Opportunities, 136 Project Constraints, 144 Regulatory Requirements, 144 Zoning, 145 Design Standards, 145 Mixed-Use or Planned Unit Development, 147 Subdivision Review Process, 149 Environmental Approvals, 152 Building Codes, 153 Off-Site Factors, 154 Frontage Roads and Sidewalks, 154 Utilities, 155 Applying Site Analysis to the Master Plan, 156 Producing Multiple Solutions, 157 Selecting a Final Concept, 160 Chapter Five Major Environmental Regulations Affecting Development, 163 Transforming the Physical Environment, 163 Regulatory Climate, 164 Creative Alternatives, 165 Environmental Permitting, 166 Reviewing Project Impact, 166 Submittal Process, 167 Key Areas, 169 Wetlands, 170 Hazardous Wastes and Contaminated Properties, 177 Brownfields, 179 Water Quality, 182 Air Quality, 186 Noise Control, 187 Radon, 188 Plants and Wildlife, 192 New Approach to Development, 193 Marketing the Environment, 194 The Green Developer, 195 Recognition Programs, 195 Environmental Awareness, 196 Chapter Six Developing a Master Plan Concept, 197 Evolving Target Markets, 198 Initial Idea, 200 Producing the Master Plan Concept, 200 Community Identity, 201 Site Characteristics, 202 Target Market's Preferences, 203 Regional Considerations, 205 Sense of Community, 206 Social Interaction, 207 Planning for Privacy, 207 Creating a Unique Place, 208 Finalizing the Master Plan, 211 Services and Amenities, 212 Two Basic Community Types, 213 Conventional Suburban Developments, 213 Pedestrian-Supportive Developments, 214 The Master-Planned Community Today, 217 Choosing CSD or PSD, 217 Infill or Pocket Development, 219 Urban Renewal and Residential Development, 219 Development Guidelines, 220 Architectural Guidelines, 220 Construction Guidelines, 222 Deed Restrictions and Covenants, 223 Master Plans of the Future, 224 Sample Projects, 224 Chapter Seven Site Engineering and Storm Water Management, 225 Site Engineering Plan Components, 225 Master Plan, 227 Conceptual Grading Plan, 227 Storm Water Management Plan, 228 Erosion and Sediment Control Plan, 228 Grading Plan, 229 Cut and Fill, 229 Spot Elevations and Slopes, 229 Code Compliance, 230 Microengineering Process, 232 Best Management Practices, 234 Principles, 236 Types of Systems, 237 Designing Closed Systems, 239 Designing Open Systems, 243 Combining Open and Closed Systems, 244 Storm Water Drainage Plan, 247 Site Drainage Patterns, 247 Rational Formula, 249 Subarea Drainage Requirements, 250 Retention and Detention Basins, 253 Creating Project Amenities, 258 Erosion and Sediment Control Plan, 259 Temporary Control Measures, 262 Permanent Control Measures, 266 Site Engineering and Your Project, 266 Chapter Eight Residential Streets, 267 Street Design, 267 Evolution of Street Design, 268 Local Street Standards, 269 Applying Local Standards to the Master Plan, 271 Two Basic Models: CSD and PSD, 272 Street Patterns, 273 Choosing a Pattern, 274 Street Width, 276 Cul-de-Sac Turnarounds, 278 Street Geometry, 281 Intersections, 281 Curb or Corner Radius, 282 Vertical and Horizontal Alignment, 283 Entrances, 286 Multiple Entrances, 286 Single Entrance, 287 Sidewalks and Pedestrian Activity, 289 Landscaping, 289 Focal Points and Pedestrian Routes, 290 Alleys, 291 Utilities 291 Cross Sections and Storm Water Runoff Systems, 293 Runoff Systems for Center Crowns, 293 Runoff Systems for Inverted Crowns, 293 Basic Street Design Process, 294 Enhancing Your Project's Identity, 295 Chapter Nine Selecting Housing Types, 301 What the Buyer Wants, 302 General Design Issues, 302 Density and Pattern, 303 Single-Family Detached, Large Lot, 304 Single-Family Detached, Small Lot, 305 Attached Housing, 310 Other Types of Housing, 320 Matching the Target Market's Demands to Housing Types, 321 Style Preferences, 323 Site Characteristics, 324 Climate, 326 Home Buyer's Identity, 332 The Key to Success, 332 Appendix A Sources of Marketing Data, 335 Appendix B Land Development Considerations Checklists, 339 Appendix C Resources, 353 Introduction LAND DEVELOPMENT, A PROCESS THAT IS BOTH AN ART AND A science, comprises a large number of interrelated parts. A clear understanding of how each part affects the other is one of the keys to successful project development. Equally important is the timely execution of each part related to the whole project. Awareness of the effects of the project's scope and timing produces an efficient process from start to finish. Developers also need to understand and incorporate the holistic nature of developing land into their plans and procedures. Developers should pay particular attention to how each separate part of the land development process affects the other parts to facilitate the desired outcome. The land development process is continually evolving. Developers must be prepared to respond to fluctuating market trends, decreased land availability, more stringent regulations, and economic trends. The successful developer stays abreast of these social, economic, legal, and design factors. Because of the length of time involved in taking a new development from concept to sales, developers must anticipate changes in some of these factors. Predicting the lifespan of a current trend and forecasting future trends is not an exact science, but your success can be greatly improved through diligent research. Figure 1.1 presents the broad work categories and corresponding tasks that make up the land development process. The development tasks may change in response to external conditions even though the broad categories tend to remain static. Although this list is presented in a linear order, the land development process is not a linear one. The developer and the project team may have to retrace their steps at many points along the way. As new information becomes available, you must reconsider past decisions. This synthesis of information, in which you discard unworkable ideas and seek new conclusions, is the essence of the process. In a successful process, the developer makes the appropriate modifications of original impressions and decisions at various stages along the way. Because you can approach the process from several different standpoints, where it begins influences the entire order. The approach advocated by this book begins by determining the best marketable idea for a given local area, followed by the search for the best site to accommodate that idea. If you have already acquired a parcel of land, the search begins with determining the highest use for the site. Another approach might begin with a search for a suitable site to support a previously determined marketable idea. Once the site and the idea are placed together for serious consideration, the process of researching, analyzing, and synthesizing data to produce the final master plan remains virtually the same for each approach. The Concept The land development process commonly begins with a good idea for the creation of a new community, one that will serve its residents' needs and aesthetically coexist within the preexisting local urban or suburban area. The new development must prove economically viable for both the developer and the residents. To formulate a successful idea, the developer should begin with an understanding of the local marketplace and what the targeted buyer needs and wants in a new community. You gain this understanding by gathering and investigating all pertinent data. You must employ three major categories of investigation to create a master plan for a new community on a selected site. Once you have formulated the concept, the first step is to research the existing conditions. The next step entails analyzing possible project constraints and opportunities based on the research. You then need to synthesize the results of your research and analysis into a coherent, functional plan that supports the original idea for the new community. The investigation process involves market research, site selection and analysis, project design, site engineering, project cost, and financial feasibility. Each component plays a unique role. Market research involves determining what type of buyers to target; understanding their buying power, lifestyle characteristics, and product demands; matching housing types and master plan concepts with those characteristics; and formulating the appropriate advertising and sales strategies. Site selection and analysis involve developing a list of desirable site characteristics; discovering all the physical, regulatory, geotechnical, and social factors of a particular site; and analyzing the impact of those factors on the project's viability. Project design matches marketing research with the site's innate characteristics to produce a master plan with housing types that reflect buyer preferences. Site engineering encompasses the physical manipulation of the topography and installation of the infrastructure necessary to support the master plan concept. Project costs include the soft costs (regulatory fees, marketing, investigation) and hard costs (labor and materials) of each work item. You must correctly forecast these costs and develop a schedule to complete each task so that you can produce an accurate cash flow for the project. The project's financial feasibility is determined by its profitability, which is the result of actual sales minus project costs. The Project Team Land development requires input from a variety of disciplines. Assembling the right mix of professionals and consultants to provide the specialized knowledge required for the various aspects of creating a successful project will place you on the path to project viability. The primary members of the project team include a marketing professional, a financial professional, a project planner, and a design team.. The developer steers the project team. His or her primary responsibilities are to assemble and direct the team, determine the factors that each team member must investigate and analyze, reduce costs, and define the overall project goals to prevent duplication of work, gathering of unnecessary information, and increased costs. The developer should establish effective methods of communication and determine how the team will share information. Regular meetings should be scheduled to help the team stay focused. The marketing professional's primary responsibilities are to identify the appropriate buyer, discern buyer preferences, and execute the advertising campaign and manage the eventual project sales. The financial planner determines the project's feasibility under various sales rate projections, factoring in all project costs. Marketing and financial analysis may be handled in-house or contracted out to a firm. The project planner, or director of the project, might be an urban planner, architect, or landscape architect. Although one of these professionals might assume the leadership role, each would require input from the other disciplines. The project planner oversees the development of the conceptual master plan including marketing, financial feasibility, and design. The civil engineer, another member of the design team, might be responsible for evaluating geotechnical conditions and determining infrastructure requirements. The most successful master plans result when the architect, landscape architect, and civil engineer work together to achieve the developer's vision for the new community. At times, the developer may need to call in auxiliary project consultants to help create the master plan. These consultants might include hydrologists, geologists, soil scientists, environmental experts, construction managers, and attorneys among others. The size of the project, as well as the location of the site, will help determine the kinds of consultants needed. The project planner should determine the need for additional consultants, advise the developer about their respective roles, and coordinate the distribution of all information among the design team. Although the developer must bear the expense of an expert project team up front, it can actually help keep down costs associated with proving project success and complying with a more complex regulatory climate in the long run. You cannot avoid the new project constraints created by the increased regulation of social and environmental impacts. However, a creative project team can help the developer find ways to turn project constraints into opportunities for new designs with increased market appeal. Increasing Land Development Constraints Land development remains a vital part of the U.S. economy as it enables local regions to provide housing and jobs for growing populations. However, an increasing number of legal and permitting issues have had a negative impact on land availability. Today developers must confront increased site work and construction costs; shrinking municipal budgets for providing community services, security, schools, and other infrastructure; and the public's growing concern about increasing sprawl and decreasing environmental quality. These trends make it more difficult for developers to acquire and attain zoning approval for new home construction, which in turn has a negative impact on housing affordability. These factors contribute to the overall dwindling supply of land available and approved for residential development and have produced an affordable housing crisis in many parts of the country. To compound these problems, evidence suggests that heightened public scrutiny manifests in an organized attempt to influence the way land is developed. In general, the best land has already been developed, and much of the remaining land contains restrictive qualities that caused developers to pass on it in the first place. When the residential development boom first began, developers naturally chose sites that were optimally located and easily developed, instead of sites that had engineering problems or no available utilities. Therefore, developers today face problems that were relatively uncommon in the 1940s through the late 1970s. Yet, a great deal of the remaining land exists in prime locations and, if done correctly, is worth developing. These factors point to the increased necessity of discovering, analyzing, and synthesizing the critical marketing, financial, geophysical, regulatory, and social information to determine a project's success. Today's buyers are more sophisticated about the issues involved in land development. They are seeking high-quality communities, not just housing. Therefore, developers must strive to preserve the natural features of the land where applicable and tailor their community design to promote and support a certain lifestyle. This type of quality-based approach will appeal to buyers and help to ensure a successful project. The Effect of Social Changes on New Development Types The next decade will be an exciting time for land development. Emerging niche markets offer a range of opportunities for developers. The 50+ demographic will continue to be a prime target, but that group's needs and desires differ from the same age-group 20 years ago. This group is working longer, living longer, more active, and eager to begin the new phase of their lives in which children and work will not come first. They are interested in self-improvement, physical fitness, and social and recreational activities. Chapter 1 will discuss the full range of emerging target groups along with their customer profiles. Because of changing demographics, economic factors, and an increased dependence on new technologies, developers need to stay flexible. Flexibility can be especially helpful in determining site plan design, target market, and housing product. As the process of determining a market and choosing a site moves forward, you need to keep alternative uses and choices in reserve should sudden unforeseen changes occur. Unless you have a high level of confidence in your target market's viability, avoid selecting a site that is suitable for only one purpose. New trends in social interactions, job types, and commuting preferences also serve to create a steady supply of new markets. Security issues, increasing fuel prices, and the cost of materials have also emerged as factors to consider. Town centered communities that are pedestrian friendly, have higher densities, are transit-oriented, and have mixtures of commercial and residential uses are making inroads into the previously dominant conventional suburban development form. One thing is certain: In the next decade, considerations for land development will be changing at a more rapid pace than ever before. However, good timing, sharp instincts, an expert team, and innovative planning will play important roles in the process of creating a new community. The chance of success is greatly improved when the developer understands the full range of the land development process and the impact of each of the various components involved. BACK COVER Land Development - Tenth Edition Land developers know that success hinges on knowledge, planning, and experience. Land Development is the comprehensive resource for this demanding and exciting industry. Packed with photos, illustrations, checklists, and practical guidance, the 10th edition is an indispensable reference for any developer or builder wanting to understand the essentials of residential land development. Clearly written and logically organized, this classic text is used extensively in land development college curricula. Readers will acquire extensive knowledge of the interrelated factors that contribute to a successful land development project, including Market analysis Financing strategies Site selection and analysis Master plan conceptualization Environmental regulations Site engineering and storm water management Design of neighborhoods and streets innovations in housing types Author Daisy Kone emphasizes flexibility to accommodate the ever-changing trends in demographics, plan designs, technology, and environmental regulations. With land becoming an ever more precious resource in the midst of unprecedented population growth, the reliable information in Land Development will give you the edge that seasoned professional use to acquire the most desirable tracts of land. DAISY LINDA KONE is an architect, planner, and manager in the design-build residential construction industry. A consultant based in Houston, Texas, she specializes in the environmental impact of construction and residential construction development. She is co-author of The Public Works Manual with Andrés Duany and Stephen Mouzon, a collection of standards and street assemblies designed for mixed-use residential and commercial development projects. BuilderBooks.com Books that build your business National Association of Home Builders 1201 15th Street, NW Washington, DC 20005-2800 800-883-8665 www.BuilderBooks.com