All Forum Posts by: Jamie Hora

"Good" in terms of what?  Cities favorable to permitting?  Land acquisition costs?  Active growth?

I would discuss the wetland regulations with the City or County as well.  There are also buffers & separation distances you may be required to stay out of.

I would check your floodplain limits as well, sometimes they go hand-in-hand. 

This would be considered land prep.  But if you are hiring a General Contractor, they likely will be in turn having a subcontractor do the work anyway and then including a ~10% upcharge for their fee. If you are managing contractors yourself, this would be land prep.  Usually rough grading would be done by the same contractor as well. 

Haul off can be expensive which may be driving up the cost.  As always, getting 3 bids will give you an idea to confirm you are getting an accurate cost. Also as other have mentioned, there should be a written & definable scope, so that bids are all pricing the same work.

Meeting with the City is a good place to start to discuss the project and verifying the zoning & land use. Verifying minimum lot setbacks, easements, square footage and building height. This also gives the opportunity to understand other development requirements such as landscaping (possible tree removal fees), detention/stormwater runoff requirements, locations of existing utilities, public improvement requirements such as lighting/sidewalks/utility extensions, verification of floodway.  

These are the big ticket items to understand at the beginning of the project. 

I second @Henry Clark about getting an estimate from an engineer.  You want to make sure they have local experience.  I have estimates for items you mentioned, but it construction/material costs vary significantly by region that other estimates would be useless.  

A contractor's estimates could be okay too for preliminary purposes, but if you do not have any sort of plans done yet, I think an engineer's estimate would prove more accurate because they would have to determine actual quantities first. 

Sidewalk, Lighting, Storm improvements in City Right of Way are typical requirements along frontage of property if you are in a City.  Just look at the neighboring properties and you can get an idea of what will be enforced for you as well. 

Hi @Samuel Eastling.  I like the story behind your post.  I do civil work all across Texas and have done design & permitting in 20+ cities, and have also Civil license in some other surrounding states.  If you're with an architectural firm, you may already have some great civil partners.  But if not, I'd be happy to look at existing properties and do some due-diligence on them and provide our thoughts to help determine which sites may be most ripe for development based on all conditions & factors.

Feel free to reach out.  If not, best of luck on this endeavor!

Hi @Account Closed, I am a civil engineering consultant based in San Antonio. I'd be happy to have a conversation with you about your site.  We are not involved directly in items like leasing or construction management, but provide surveying, platting, civil plans and such in order to get building permits.  Feel free to send me a message. 

@Brent Thomas, I've not done much work in Houston, but should should assume detention will be required. I do not know of any areas within the city that are exempt from detention. However, their code is fairly straight forward in estimating the volume & area required to detain.  Last I checked it was 0.75 acre/ft per acre of disturbance.  Many developers in Houston use underground detention because the area above ground is limited and valuable. 

So if you're driving around and dont see anything ponds, dont assume that people are not detaining. It is probably just underground.

Are you in City limits? County Limits? Is the street frontage against a state owned highway?  These would be the factors that determine if a permit is needed before building a driveway, and with who.  The simplest way to know for certain is call the City or County planning or building department. 

What type of vehicles will be accessing the site? If it is going to be some type of development, I would reach out to a geotechnical engineer for recommendations on the best type of pavement sections. 

That is a good list to start with.  Most of these have sub-tasks as well.  But my one addition that I would add at the top is to meet with the City Planning staff. Have them explain the full permitting process and ask open ended questions so you can be aware of everything you'll need. 

Regarding the zoning, even though it is zoned commercial, confirm that storage units of your type are an approved use.