Feasibility & Due Diligence
Find out what the land will actually allow — before you commit
The cheapest problem is the one you find before closing. A feasibility review tells you what the parcel supports, what it will cost to get there, and whether to walk away.
What a feasibility review answers
Every parcel carries a set of constraints that don't show up in a listing: zoning and overlay districts, critical areas and their buffers, access and frontage requirements, utility availability and capacity, easements of record, and whatever the jurisdiction's comprehensive plan has queued up for that area.
A feasibility review reconciles all of it into a single answer — how many units, what building envelope, what infrastructure, and roughly what it costs to get from raw parcel to permit. That answer is worth having before earnest money goes hard, not after.
What gets reviewed
Zoning designation, permitted uses, density, setbacks, height and lot coverage. Critical areas screening — wetlands, streams, steep slopes, geologic hazard, flood, and the buffer widths the local critical areas ordinance actually applies. Legal and physical access, including frontage improvement triggers. Water, sewer, power and stormwater availability, and whether capacity exists or has to be built. Title exceptions and easements that affect the buildable area. Prior permit history on the parcel, including expired applications and open code enforcement.
The deliverable
A written feasibility memo with a clear recommendation: go, no-go, or go with conditions. Where conditions apply, the memo names them, estimates what resolving each one costs in time and dollars, and identifies which ones are deal-breakers versus which are just expensive.
Most clients use the memo two ways — as a decision document for themselves, and as a negotiating instrument with the seller.
What you get
- Written feasibility memo with go / no-go recommendation
- Zoning and development-standards summary for the parcel
- Critical areas screening and buffer impact assessment
- Utility and access availability findings
- Order-of-magnitude development budget and schedule
- List of consultants the project will require, and when
Bring CLD in when
- You have a parcel under contract and a feasibility contingency running
- You own land and want to know what it supports before spending on design
- A broker's pro forma assumes a lot count you haven't verified
- The site has water, slope, or access characteristics that worry you
Common questions
How long does a feasibility review take?
Most residential and small commercial parcels take one to three weeks depending on how quickly records requests come back from the jurisdiction. If you're running a 30-day feasibility contingency, engage in the first few days, not the last.
Is this the same as a Phase I environmental site assessment?
No. A Phase I is a specific ASTM-standard investigation of contamination history, performed by an environmental professional. A development feasibility review covers land use, permitting, and buildability. Many projects need both, and the feasibility memo will tell you if yours does.
Can you do this before I make an offer?
Yes, and it's often the better sequence for parcels where the constraints are visible from public records and aerials. A short pre-offer screening costs less than a full review and can keep you from writing an offer at all.
Where this service is available
In person across Snohomish County · King County · Skagit County · Island County. Code research and submittal preparation for this scope is also available remotely, nationwide.
Related
Services that usually go with this one
Permitting & Entitlements
Plan review is a conversation with a reviewer who has a checklist and a queue. Projects move when someone reads what's actually being asked and answers it completely.
Read more →Critical Areas & Environmental
Critical areas don't make a site unbuildable. They make it a different site than the one you thought you were buying, and the difference is worth knowing early.
Read more →Short Plats & Subdivisions
A land division is an infrastructure project with lot lines drawn on it. The layout that maximizes lots on paper is often not the layout that survives review.
Read more →Tell Carol about the project
The first conversation is a straight read on whether the project is workable and what it would take to move it. No charge for that call.