Notes · 2026
A subdivision begins as one shape
A subdivision begins as one shape.
Then the questions start cutting into it.
- One parcel. One shape.
- It has frontage on an existing road.
- Setbacks pull the edges in.
- Too steep to build.
- A utility easement crosses it.
- The water needs somewhere to go.
- A creek, and its floodplain.
- What remains is the project: lots on the existing road, and a new road with a cul-de-sac so every lot has road frontage.
- Road
- Does every lot have legal, usable access?
- Frontage
- Does each lot meet the frontage it needs?
- Topography
- Where can a road actually go?
- Water
- How is each lot served?
- Sewer or septic
- What density does that allow?
- Drainage
- Where does the water go?
- Soil
- What can the ground actually support?
- Regulation
- What does the county permit?
- Market
- What lot, and what home, is actually moving?
- Cost
- What does the infrastructure do to the basis?
- Exit
- Who ultimately buys the lots?
Every answer takes something away from the original shape.
The acreage never survives intact.
What remains is the project.