The right to build is made at a counter

The thing that carries the value was made at a counter, months before anyone signs.

People think a land deal closes at a table.

Raw acreage is a question. An approval is an answer: this many lots, this shape, this use.

That is what is being manufactured. Not dirt — the right to build a specific number of homes on it.

None of that work looks like work. Submittals. Comments. A revision because two departments read the same setback differently. A hearing that moves three weeks and takes the schedule with it.

An approval for the wrong thing is still an approval.