Trying to subdivide 40 acres adding all infrastructure except sewer?

Question

Hi,

I am trying to take 40 acres and subdived into about 38 1 acre lots people can build houses on. I need to add streets, electrical, water, and telephone to each of the lots. All the utilities are right next to the property. Does anyone have a idea what something like this will cost?

Please give me answers to the questions and not direct me where to go.

Thanks ALOT

Mike

Answer 1

All of this is very much dependent on a large number of factors, and therefore is impossible to even ballpark any numbers, or amounts

First of all, have you researched if you can even develop the land. There are many jurisdictions, where land can only be developed based on local community plans, and even then there are often restrictions that may prevent the development of the land due to provincial, regional and or local prohabitions.

To give you one example, that occurs often here in Beautiful BC Canada. That a community plan will indicate that some deveopment might be possible, however, there may be creeks on the property, which are under the jurisdiction of the ministry of environment and fisheries. the same property may be affected by rights of way for things like highways, railways, main hydro lines, and most frequently by the agricultural land commission.

If the ALR (farm land Restrictions) apply to a property, you can kiss your development goodbye, as they will not allow it to be removed without due cause, and justifyable proof that the land can not now or ever produce in a way it was intended.

so those are a few reasons why your plans may need some initial research.

Next are issues, that are the reason that there is no way to figure out real costs from your question, and the reason that you need to hire a good engineering company to consult with you to get your plans to reality.

In order to do estimates on development, one would have to soil testing, geotechnical testing, surveys for both lots lay out, road lay out, deal with the services and survey the how's and where for them.

If you are implying that you want each property to have its own septic system, you will have to survey and perk test each and every site, and then design a building enveloppe for each and every lot,

your district or municipality may have a thing called development cost charges, which are extremely vague charges for every thing from basic extra cashflow for the town, to park land donations, to fees charged for permission to gain access to municipal service lines but do not ever pay for the actual hook ups.

All of this has not even considered the topography of the land, if you are in a flat sandy area great, but anything else, you will likely have to do some or a lot of grading, blasting, filling and or removal of soil, which may be a problem regarding being able to get permits for septic systems.


So that is just for starters, then you have application issues to deal with, like public hearings, legal fees, that can go all over the place, registration fees, etc etc

Oh by the way, and not to under-estimate, the cost of borrowing the money to do all of this and or the opportunity cost of the moeny needed for this development.

Timing wise, if everything went your way, it would take at least 6 months, but one year would be more realistic.

The long and short is that there is no such thing as a short cut in land development
Then there are all the political issues like public hearings, meetings, doing all the pr work.

I life in an area of fast and furious development, but covering 7 municipalities, from one to the other, the process differences, and with that the costs, requirements, and proceducedures are so different that is has a major affect on the land cost, the willing ness by developers, and the over all progress within each of these town.

From the fastest town to the longest duration period for development on a simple 6 lot subdivision we have seen as little as 2 months, to as long as 2 years for a similar type of development.

Good Luck and Merry Christmas

Answer 2

I actually do not know what it will cost, but I am quite certain you will NOT get 38 l acre lots after putting in streets, and utilities.

My guess would be closer to 30 1 acre lots.
Streets take a lot more space than you would think.

Call your county to find out what is required in regard to utilities and streets. You are probably going to have to have a development engineer prepare what will be required.

Good Luck.

Answer 3

I am an appraiser in NY. We appraise subdivisions all the time here is a breakdown of what we use in a nutshell to estimate costs
Legal Costs will vary maybe 10-30k
Engineering/Plans- 10-30k
Utilitity and road construction @200-225 per lf
Permit fees vary
Taxes vary
insurance vary
Transfer Taxes
These are the major components but this is in NY. Costs maybe cheaper in other areas.

Answer 4

Sam is correct. You forgot about county and utility easements etc. You need a surveyor and an engeneer to giv you the cost after talking with the planning and zoning board.

Answer 5

Depending on where you are anywhere from $3k to $15K a lot