Understanding City Requirements During Due Diligence Part 2

More than likely, you are going to find properties that are not already currently zoned for storage, or you are going to want to make changes to the existing property. When that happens, you always want to check with planning and zoning to find out what the requirements are before you invest a lot of time and money and effort into the project. There are three more areas that can stop your project before it even begins. We are going to talk about the flood zone, and the setbacks and height requirements.

An often overlooked city requirement is the flood zone. If you are in the flood zone area, you want to find out what the requirements are to build in that area. You must be at least 1 foot above the 100 year flood plain in order to build and your insurance company will definitely want to know whether or not you are in a flood zone. If you are below the flood zone, then find out if you can bring in fill.

You may think that you have the perfect lot, but you need to know what the setback requirements are to know whether or not your project is feasible. There are usually 3 different setbacks, the front, the sides, and the back. Normally you can assume 50 feet in the front, 25 feet in the back, and 10 to 15 feet on either side of the property. However, you always want to verify with your city to see what the setbacks are in that city. Your project may not even fit after you take the setbacks into account.

Finally, what are the height restrictions? If you are thinking of doing a multi-story facility, you need to know how high you can go before you start your designs. Also, when you are looking into height requirements, find out how many floors you can have before you have to install sprinklers. That will change the costs of your project substantially.

Designing a conversion is fun and exciting but you have to make sure that you are covering all your bases as you do your due diligence. You don’t want to miss something that will prevent you from being able to move forward. As always, happy investing.