Someone suggested going for a student housing rezoning permit but I don't want it to take up a huge portion of the time of my contract or cost exorbitant amounts of money..

Property tax, occupancy tax, personal property tax, business tax, permit/inspection fees, higher than standard utility fees, ever-increasing fees by the platforms.  

Funny thing about builders, they don’t want to invest that much time into you until you are ready to go the the permit phase. the same bank that gave me the land loan is also prepared to give me the construction loan.  

I’ve paid for permit applications, clearing trees, survey, design and engineering, and architectural plans.

Purchase price: $1,435,000 Cash invested: $3,010,600 Sale price: $8,400,000 We identified multiple lots around the light rail system in WA, where we felt that properties are going toincrease in value significantly, these lots were re-zoned from SFH to multi-family (MUR35mostly), we have developed, permitted and starting to build: 8849 Midvale Ave N, Seattle – Two combined lots, zoned for multifamily where we built 12 townhomes

Purchase price: $1,435,000 Cash invested: $3,010,600 Sale price: $8,400,000 We identified multiple lots around the light rail system in WA, where we felt that properties are going toincrease in value significantly, these lots were re-zoned from SFH to multi-family (MUR35mostly), we have developed, permitted and starting to build: 8849 Midvale Ave N, Seattle – Two combined lots, zoned for multifamily where we built 12 townhomes 23007 55th Ave W, Mountlake Terrace – 7 townhouses in a walking distance from thelight rail station, in planning stages with the city of Mountlake Terrace, WA

As far as sourcing the lot, dealing with zoning or the city on new construction permits, engineering plans, etc. 

One of the big challenges, as you may be aware, is the permitting for this type of community.

However, this exemption often depends on specific criteria being met like building permits, zoning compliance, and certificate of occupancy for the newly created units and you would get this from the LADBS.

The county is going to go off the building plans/permits.