All Forum Posts by: Jamaal Ragland

Hello, everyone,

Thank you for the feedback. I have been trying to follow them and was hoping to provide some more positive updates.

@Paul H., I took your advice and contacted the local Planning office, calling them twice a week since your post. I haven't been successful with reaching anyone and having a meaningful conversation. I have sent emails with no responses. At least they clarified my zoning for the second property, which is CUP, rather than the AG-1 that was assigned to it by the city of Atlanta before the city of South Fulton came to be. The good news with that is that I can now build up to 5 SFH per acre rather than 1 SFH per acre. I still have to figure out the gas and sewer easement limitations. More importantly, I don't have to undergo a zone change request!

I am currently not in Atlanta, which complicates things. I don't know how to go about finding a local planner to help me with this.

2b. Finding a civil engineer that's locally based has also been a challenge. I have emailed many of them who just said that what I am looking for is a civil engineer, and they are "so" and "so" engineers. I finally got a response after posting on Upwork. I was originally trying to get someone to quickly check out the land to make sure there are no flooding issues. However, based on the price quote she gave, I may just trust the 2013 FEMA data till I get a geotech engineer to assess the site once I get the other engineers to help me plan out the layout of the land. Let me know if this sounds reasonable.

I have been chatting with a few architectural firms. However, one of the two local firms has never done subdivisions, and the other does not provide a land layout, only plans for each house model. The non-local firm was supposed to provide some prelim designs by now, but I am struggling with needing to remind them of the scope of the project after each call. I don't think they will work out for me. I am back to the drawing board.

3. I started reviewing the application requirements, which don't seem to be bad once I am able to get a solid engineering team on board.

4. I have not started on this yet.

@Paul H., I really appreciate your feedback, and it has been a good guide for me in this process.

@Scott Mac, that's a great point. I have been trying to think of those things. I think once I get an engineer onboard, I will be able to make better contingency plans.

@Doug Smith, that's a really good point. I have been trying to find a local firm that can spearhead the project in Atlanta. As Paul suggested, I am looking for an architectural firm that can provide most of the necessary steps till we get permitted.

@Chris Seveney, that's a good point. Unfortunately, reaching the city has not been easy, but I learned that the new city has zoned my property differently since its inception. So, now, I do not need to request zone changes.

@Jamaal Ragland, I will send you a message shortly.

Thank you so much to everyone!

@Jamaal Ragland

Jamaal,

You are offering exactly what is needed here and I sincerely hope that it is recognized and accepted as such.

We have a couple of properties in Atlanta, Georgia, in very desirable neighborhoods. My brother and I got really lucky during some tax sales. 

Property 1 is 14.7 acres but has two easements: a gas utility running on the site, maybe 3% of the property, and a sewer line that splits the property in half.  The property is also currently zoned as AG1, which also limits us to building 1 property per acre. We are thinking of building some mini mansions once we change the zoning to residential.

Property 2 is 1.57 acres, but a third of it is a pond and is not too far from a previously identified flooding zone. So, it is not clear if it has the potential to flood. We are thinking of building townhouses once we fill in the pond.

I would like to prep both properties for building and finding funding—however, the steps to get there are not very clear to me. Here is my current total plan that was advised to me, which seems pretty good to me. I am struggling with getting the contacts in the area to get this done. So, ANY advice is welcomed. I am new to this, so there may be things that I am not thinking about.

• 1. Do an environmental survey or get a civil engineer? - Do we have a flood zone?
• 2. Get an architect to figure out what can be built there - can help with permits that are needed;
• 3. Get a contractor to:
  • Put together a detailed budget
  • Pull the permits
• 4. Call the power company and utility company (sewer), etc

I have two recommendations to start this process. One person says to get a civil engineer to check out the second property. A company I previously used for a survey says that they think I need a geotechnical survey.

My questions are:

Do you have any recommendations on what assessments I should start on? Also, do you have a referral for this?

Has anyone gone through a zoning change, especially in this county (Fulton, Georgia)? What was your experience? Do you have a contact point at the county you could share with me?

Based on the steps outlined above, is there anything else I need to consider? Please keep in mind, this will be my first development project. I want to prep both lands but will start building with property 2 to get my feet wet.

Any other advice you may have, including getting the funds to build them?