Infill Development / Raw Land Development

[Fred Sams]

Hello BP Nation

I’m a California real estate broker, Im not sure how to make a long story short I’ll really try because I do value your time.

Land infill and development primarily re-use (commercial – residential)projects is the niche of interest.

The current project I am exploring is a 5 acre raw hillside view lot, the lot is in a built out established bread and butter neighborhood. My interest is to entitle and create tentative parcel map. 

Selling off the lot(s) to developer(s). As you all well know this is not for the faint at heart, and so for success, At this point I am in the process of tying up the property with an option (tie don’t buy). Not knowing how many lots can be put on this property makes offering a purchase price difficult. 

How do you get a guest estimation for an initial lot count, do you figure it of a 10% 15% or 20% land loss to environmental, road ingress/egress, then divide that by the base zone (the per lot minimum) / total available land ?

I’m thinking I must tackle this in small chunks(like eating a elephant). That is I am developing a Strategic Plan, but currently at The entitlement, CEQA point.

Hopefully I can get this through the entitlement process and avoid as many hair balls as possible.

Simultaneously building a brain trust consisting of civil Engineer / architect / initial sweet equity partners/ ? /?

The City Planner who initially met with me, has been very friendly and said feel free to reach out via email. After reviewing the Parcel Information on form DS-302. He directed me to City Planning and land development web site and several links to drill down.

Land Development Code User Guide,

Guide to the Base Zones of the Draft Official Zoning Map

Community Panning Land Use.

Pre-Application Review

Can you recommend any initial questions I can pose to the City planner?

The logical order of necessary next steps are probably my biggest hurdle and or feedback request. Or whatever you can read between the lines and offer. I am all over the map I know but this is exciting stuff. I appreciate any and all feedback.