Ten Things You Should Know About Project Applicants
This week, Patrick Fox considers ten important things you should know about project applicants. On Wednesday he’ll return with a look at what you should know about project opponents.
Developers & Builders
Developers and builders often transform land from one use to another. In doing so, they are acting to satisfy a perceived community demand for a service or product. By recognizing the valuable role developers and builders play, and reaching out to gain their insights, planning commissioners can enhance the quality of the regulatory process.
Most Recent Articles
Ten Things You Should Know About How the Public Feels About Development
In the first of a three part series, Patrick Fox draws on results from his firm’s public attitudes survey on what Americans think of development and the planning process.
Are Your Procedures Fair?
Greg Dale explores why fairness may require more than the legal minimum.
Is Your Planning Process Strangling Economic Development and Growth?
When the approval process becomes too onerous and complex for applicants, especially those with limited resources.
Pro-Forma 101: Some Additional Observations on Developers & Risk
Some additional observations by Wayne Lemmon on the importance to developers of time and perceived level of risk.
Pro-Forma 101: Part 4 – Looking at Alternative Scenarios
In the final part of the article, Wayne Lemmon looks at the real power of a pro-forma in testing out alternative development scenarios including the impacts of increased costs; time; and housing affordability.
Pro-Forma 101: Part 3 – How Much Money Will the Project Make for the Developer?
Pro-Forma 101 continues with an examination of the impact on development of financing interest, and a look at how developers calculate a project’s anticipated profit.
Pro-Forma 101: Part 2 – What Will It Cost to Build the Project?
A look at how a pro-forma factors in the various aspects of project development, including the costs of land acquisition, planning and design, amenities and off-site costs, and management and overhead.
Pro-Forma 101: Part 1 – Getting Familiar With a Basic Tool of Real Estate Analysis
To achieve a minimum level of “literacy” about the economics of development requires at least a navigational knowledge of the basic tool of real estate feasibility analysis — the pro-forma.
Building a New Downtown – Part II
In part II of this posting, we take a closer look at how the Town of Mansfield, Connecticut worked with UConn and and a private developer to move forward on its new downtown, Storrs Center. Including some tips from some of the project participants.
We Don’t Let Planning Get in the Way: Pt. I
Rob Rowlson, the Town of West Hartford’s Director of Community Services, makes no bones about it: too often planning can be an obstacle to private investment and development. In Part I of this post, Rowlson talks about efforts to strengthen the core of the town’s downtown: West Hartford Center.
Main Street Mill: “The Perfect Trifecta”
I returned to the small town of Richford, Vermont, as the starting point of my travel plans for this Spring. I had visited Richford last Summer to first learn about the Main Street Mill redevelopment.
Reality Check from the Homebuilder’s Sales Floor
Planner and real estate market researcher Wayne Lemmon offers a response to Jordana Maisel’s article on providing accessible housing.
