For developers, acquisition teams & firms
Services
Every engagement is a flat fee against a written scope, with the delivery date agreed before work starts. Prices are on this page and on the fee schedule — you should never have to ask twice.
| Engagement | Flat fee | Turnaround | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoning Verification | $650 | 2–3 days | You need one clean, cited answer on district and permitted use |
| Floodplain & Hazard Review | $850 | 2–4 days | Any part of the site touches water, wetland, or a mapped zone |
| Site Feasibility Review | from $2,500 | 5–7 days | You are deciding whether to tie up the parcel at all |
| Approval Path Memo | from $1,500 | 5–10 days | The use is not by-right and you need a real schedule |
| Jurisdiction Primer | $3,500 | 10 days | You are entering a market your team does not know yet |
| Overflow & White-Label | retainer | ongoing | Your pipeline outruns your research capacity |
Rush pricing when a diligence or submittal deadline is driving the schedule: half-normal turnaround +50%, overnight +100%. Say so up front and it gets priced rather than quietly missed.
$650 · 2–3 business days
Zoning Verification
Narrow, fast, and cited. You have a parcel and a use in mind; you need to know whether the two are compatible and what the ordinance will let you put on the ground.
The value is in the second layer. The base district is public information anyone can look up in ten minutes. What takes real reading is the overlay that modifies it, the use-table footnote that conditions it, the text amendment that changed it last spring, and the definitions section that quietly decides whether your use is even the use you think it is.
What it protects you from
- Relying on a GIS layer that has not been updated since the last rezoning
- Missing an overlay or PUD ordinance that governs over the base district
- Misclassifying your own use under the ordinance's definitions
You receive
- Confirmed base district and every applicable overlay
- Permitted / conditional / prohibited determination for your use
- Dimensional standards table — setbacks, height, coverage, density, parking
- Direct citation to governing code sections and effective dates
- Flags where the ordinance is genuinely ambiguous
$850 · 2–4 business days
Floodplain & Hazard Review
Flood risk is the most common late-stage deal killer in these markets, and it is almost always knowable early. It is also where the federal map is only half the story — local ordinances routinely impose freeboard, compensatory storage, and buildable-area rules stricter than the FEMA minimum, and those local rules are what actually govern your site plan.
This is the service I am most qualified to sell. I serve as a county floodplain administrator: I make substantial improvement and substantial damage determinations, review development in mapped zones, and administer NFIP compliance as a matter of routine. Very few people selling research to developers do that work themselves.
What it protects you from
- Losing buildable area to a floodway you did not price in
- Financing or insurance problems discovered after the appraisal
- Assuming FEMA's minimum is the standard when the local ordinance is stricter
- Missing a pending map revision that changes the answer mid-deal
You receive
- Mapped flood zone(s) with FIRM panel number and effective date
- Floodway vs. fringe relationship to the developable footprint
- Local floodplain ordinance requirements layered on the federal baseline
- Known pending map revisions or letters of map change
- Adjacent constraint notes — mapped wetlands, drainage, waterway proximity
- A clear statement of what requires a licensed engineer or surveyor
Regulatory research, not engineering. Where a certification, elevation certificate, or hydraulic study is required, the memo says so plainly rather than approximating it.
From $2,500 · 5–7 business days
Site Feasibility Review
The comprehensive one — the document you want before the option period starts burning, because it tells you whether the deal you underwrote is the deal that exists.
A feasibility review reconciles four things that are frequently in conflict: the zoning ordinance as written, the future land use map in the comprehensive plan, the physical and environmental constraints on the ground, and what the jurisdiction has actually approved on comparable sites. On interesting parcels those four usually disagree — and the disagreement is the finding.
What it protects you from
- Underwriting a density the ordinance will not carry
- Discovering an overlay or historic designation after the appraisal
- Assuming a plan designation makes a rezoning a formality
- Budgeting six months for a path that realistically takes fourteen
You receive
- Written memo sourced to code sections, map panels, and plan documents
- Parcel and regulatory context maps
- Development-potential summary against your stated program
- Approval pathway with responsible bodies and meeting cadence
- A candid Open Questions section
- Debrief call
Priced per parcel. Multi-parcel screening runs $400–$600 per parcel at five or more.
From $1,500 · 5–10 business days
Approval Path Memo
When the answer is "not by right," the question stops being legal and becomes a scheduling problem. Which bodies, in what order, on whose calendar, with what notice period — and where it realistically slips.
Entitlement schedules fail for boring reasons: a submittal deadline three weeks ahead of the hearing, a body that meets monthly and cancels in December, a required neighborhood meeting nobody budgeted time for, a continuance that costs a full cycle. This puts all of it on a calendar so your carrying-cost assumptions rest on the real cadence.
What it protects you from
- Carrying cost overruns from a timeline nobody stress-tested
- Missing a submittal cutoff and losing a full monthly cycle
- Sequencing approvals in an order the jurisdiction will not accept
- Walking into a hearing without knowing what the staff report will say
You receive
- Approval sequence mapped to actual boards and commissions
- Submittal deadlines, meeting calendars, notice requirements
- Required studies and exhibits at each stage
- Realistic timeline with slip points identified
- Preliminary read on likely conditions of approval
- Fee schedule summary where published
$3,500 · 10 business days
Jurisdiction Primer
Built for firms entering a market they do not know yet.
A firm that is genuinely excellent in its home counties has that excellence in relationships and accumulated institutional knowledge — and none of it travels. Entering a new market means either eating a long, expensive learning curve or finding someone who already reads that kind of code and knows how those agencies work.
A primer is the shortcut: how this county actually operates, what its standards are stricter about than you would expect, how long each body really takes, and where firms from out of state consistently get caught.
You receive
- Governing ordinances, adopted plans, and current amendments in play
- Review bodies, meeting cadence, and submittal calendars
- Local standards that exceed state or federal minimums
- Floodplain, drainage, and stormwater posture
- Process quirks that catch out-of-market applicants
- Working call with your team
$2,500 each for three or more jurisdictions ordered together.
Monthly retainer
Overflow & White-Label Research
For permit expediting firms, engineering and survey shops, land use attorneys, and acquisition groups with steady deal flow.
Two situations drive it. The first is volume — your pipeline outruns the hours your team can spend on regulatory research without hiring. The second is geography. I work under your name, on your template, to your deadline. Your client sees your work product.
What it protects you from
- Slow-walking work because research capacity is the constraint
- Carrying fixed headcount for demand that arrives in bursts
- Sending a junior person to learn a new jurisdiction on a live deal
Structure
- Monthly block of hours, or per-deliverable flat fee
- Output on your template, under your brand
- Standing intake — no new scoping conversation each time
- Confidentiality and non-solicitation as a matter of course
- Unused hours roll one month
Sensible first step: one paid pilot on a real parcel. You see the work product and the judgment behind it before committing to anything ongoing.
Not sure which one you need?
Describe the parcel and the decision you are trying to make. I will tell you which engagement fits — or that you do not need one.