Feasibility Before You Buy: A 10-Point Site Screen

Good development discipline is mostly about killing bad sites quickly and cheaply. The screen below takes a few hours per parcel, costs almost nothing, and routinely saves five figures in wasted diligence.

Run it before you spend money on consultants. Anything that fails badly at this stage does not deserve a geotechnical report.

1. Zoning and use

What does the current zoning permit by right? If your intended use requires a rezoning, special exception, or variance, you are buying a political process with an uncertain outcome and a hearing calendar. That is not disqualifying, but it must be priced in time and risk.

2. Yield

Sketch the actual unit count or building footprint the site can hold after setbacks, buffers, parking, and stormwater. Compare it to the yield your pro forma assumes. Most bad deals fail right here.

3. Utilities

Where is the nearest water and sewer with available capacity, who owns it, and what does it cost to reach? Gravity versus pumped sewer is a major cost fork. Confirm capacity, not just proximity — an adjacent main with no allocation is not service.

4. Access

Is there legal, physical, and permittable access? Check for encroachment permit requirements on state roads, sight distance, turn lane triggers, and shared or prescriptive easements. Access problems are often unsolvable at any price.

5. Environmental constraints

Look for wetlands, critical area, flood zone, protected trees, and any prior industrial use. Aerial history and public mapping will flag most of it in an hour. Anything flagged becomes a diligence item with cost and schedule attached.

6. Topography and soils

Steep grades, low pads, and poor soils translate directly into earthwork and foundation cost. Regional soil survey data is free and directional; borings come later, but they should confirm what you already suspect, not surprise you.

7. Stormwater

Where does water leave the site today, and where can it legally go after you build? Downstream capacity, outfall rights, and detention area are frequently the constraint that reduces yield.

8. Fee load

Total the impact, tap, plan review, and permit fees on a per-unit or per-square-foot basis. Fee load varies significantly between jurisdictions and can decide between two otherwise identical sites.

9. Schedule to approval

Count the hearings. Count the agencies. Multiply by your monthly carrying cost. A site that takes twice as long to entitle is a materially more expensive site even at the same price.

10. Exit

Who buys or leases this when it is finished, at what price, and what comparable evidence supports that? If the exit only works at the top of the market, the site is a bet, not a project.

Scoring the screen

Score each item pass, caution, or fail. Then apply three rules:

• Any fail on access or utilities ends the evaluation.
• Three or more cautions means the deal only works at a discounted basis — go get one.
• All passes means spend the diligence money and go deep.

What this screen is not

It is not a substitute for surveys, delineations, borings, or engineering. It is a filter that decides where those dollars go. The goal is to reach a confident no in hours rather than an expensive maybe in months.

The takeaway

Sites are eliminated cheaply or expensively. A standardized ten-point screen makes elimination cheap, keeps your diligence budget pointed at the parcels that can actually work, and gives you a defensible reason for every decision — including the ones where you walked away.