Why Having an Architect Analyze Your Land Purchase Could Mean the Difference between Success and Failure

It’s just a piece of land. What could go wrong?

My partner and I recently purchased a piece of land in West Marin, a beautiful area north of the Golden Gate Bridge, situated between the quaint town of Fairfax and the rugged California coast. The simple question we asked ourselves was, “Can we build our dream home on this lot?” As with most new builds, there was no an easy answer to this question. To find out, we took on a period of intense research in which to do our due diligence. During this process we uncovered a whole host of issues, any one of which could have been deal breakers.

Doing our due diligence helped us to make a much more informed purchasing decision and made me realize how I wished all of my clients took this part of the process as seriously as we did. During this process we also developed a pre-construction development budget in order to identify costs that we otherwise would never have anticipated. Ultimately, we decided to buy the land but we did so with eyes wide open, appreciating that we now knew everything that there was to know about this particular property.

What follows is what we encountered on this particular lot and represents only a short list of the kinds of issues that could arise depending on where it is you intend to build.

Permissions

Otherwise known as an undersized, non-conforming lot, the lot in question was just under the minimum lot size mandated for its particular zoning district. However, if the lot was formed prior to the date when the minimum lot sizes went into effect, we would be permitted to build. In order to confirm this and to get official county approval to build here, we would need to submit an application for what’s known as a Certificate of Compliance. Once submitted, the county planners go through a 6-month research project to determine when the lot was officially formed. The sellers were certainly not going to hold the property for us while we got official permissions and so we had to find out for ourselves. We dug up old maps from 1915, proving that the lot had been created decades before the cut-off and so felt confident that the county would reach the same conclusion when the time came to apply. Box 1, checked.

Water

Water Meter

After several years of drought, the county municipal water district was threatening to limit the issuance of new water meters… indefinitely. No water meter, no house. We reached out to the water district board member who represents our little valley and talked through the likelihood and timelines of this decision. In the meantime, we got a few very big storms which brought the reservoirs back up to a level where we felt more secure about getting a water meter when the time came.

In most municipalities you can’t get your water meter until you have a building permit and so there’s really no real way to lock one in up front, before you’ve submitted for a building permit. Box 2, checked.

Fire Fighting

Next we spoke with both the county fire marshal and the municipal water district. What we learned from this process was that because the home site was too far up the hill from the fire hydrant at the curb, the fire department would require that a new fire hydrant be located on the property, adjacent to the house. This would cost money but was doable. However, after speaking with the municipal water district, we learned that the flow rate in the water main at the street was lower than what the fire department needed to effectively fight a fire. The county had plans to improve service on our street but this upgrade project was already 3 years behind schedule. The only other option would to install a 5000 gallon water tank on the property, specifically for the fighting of fires. Either way, we’ve got a solution. If the county gets the water main improved in time for the completion of the project, then we will install a fire hydrant. If not, it will be a water tank. Box 3, checked.

Septic

Being a rural site with no municipal sewer system, next came the septic system. Due to lightening quick closing periods in California, we didn’t have time to have a perc. test done on the property and so we needed to do some research. A perc. (percolation) test is a process whereby holes are drilled into the earth and water poured into those holes. The amount of time that it takes for water to seep into the ground is measured and this tells the septic engineer what type of septic system will be required and how many bedrooms that system will support. If the water seeps into the earth either too slowly or too quickly, you’ve failed and a home can’t be built on the property.

The disclosure package from the seller’s broker didn’t have any perc. tests in it and while from our experience, the site looked good for septic, where was no way to know for sure. After some persistent digging into the county records, we we found that 2 sets of perc. tests had been done on the property many years ago and that both tests had passed. Sadly, there was no recorded map of where the holes were drilled on the property and so we may not be able to rely on either of these tests, especially if we decide to locate the leach field in a different location from where it had originally been planned.

The good news is that while codes influencing the design of a septic system can change, geology doesn’t really change much on a human time scale. We will likely need to do a new perc. test but our investigation gave us confidence that the land would “perc. out” for a septic system. Box 4, checked.

Power

One of the first things we noticed when visiting this parcel of land was that the last telephone pole and electrical transformer was a good ways down the street. We estimated that it would take about 3 new telephone poles to get from the last point of service to the new house. This being the case, we put a call in to PG&E to learn the cost of telephone poles.

In most places new poles are subsidized so when an owner needs new service, the utility picks up part of the bill and passes on a fraction of the cost on to the owner. Another option is to go underground with the power or even some combination overhead and underground. Going underground costs more than going overhead but with spectacular views like those found on this property, it will be worth the cost to at least underground the last leg of service. Box 5, checked.

Watch our Site Visit video on our YouTube channel as we walk the property and go into detail on some of these challenges. Subscribe to keep up on our progress!

Conservation

Salmon

The quaint valley our property is located in includes a stream that is home to a small but declining salmon population. For years there have been measures in place to help the salmon thrive but the county and a local environmental group have been fighting for years over what new measures might look like.

During our investigation we learned that a new, more stringent stream ordinance had been drafted and was about to be ratified into law. This being the case, I pulled up county GIS (Geographic Information System) maps and worked out at-scale, where the boundaries, setbacks, and lines of influence might lie in relation to our plans. We then spoke with the the county biologist and had him out to the site to do an assessment, taking measurements from the nearby ephemeral stream and putting markers on our property.

We discussed with her, and our landscape architect, what kinds of mitigating measures we might take in order to comply with the new, more stringent law (should it be passed), while at the same time achieving our design. The combination of these activities gave us confidence that we could solve any issues related to the stream ordinance through smart design. Box 6, checked.

Spotted Owls

In speaking with the biologist we also revealed that there are known spotted owl nests within half a mile of the property. This close proximity would trigger construction noise level restrictions at certain times of year. We worked up an outline construction schedule to be sure that we would have a workable window of time in which to construct the home between the owl nesting and rainy seasons. Box 7, checked.

Fire Truck Access

Aside from the spectacular views across the valley, one of the things that made this property so special to us was the presence of two majestic Douglas Fir trees, each over 100’ tall. These two trees act almost as a gateway into the property, something that felt to us almost like a portal between the busy world of life out in the world and the quiet, tranquil homestead we wanted to create for ourselves.

The site topography necessitates that we run the driveway between these two trees. Not a problem, we like that. This issue comes with the fact that county code mandates a maximum driveway slope of 25%, 18% in the WUI (wildland urban interface). Because the driveway would pass between these two trees, they set the vertical apex of the driveway. The “toe” (bottom) of the driveway would naturally be set but the curb cut at the road below. These two points set the slope of the driveway. With the road fixed, the only way to decrease the slope of the driveway would be to excavate down a foot or more at the apex. Trees however, don’t take kindly to having the lower portion of their trunks and root systems exposed. There would be no way to decrease the driveway slope without potentially killing these beautiful trees.

So we did some drawings and calculations to see how the driveway might be adjusted in order to get our slope below 25%. Getting below 18% turned out to be too much though and we will likely land somewhere between these two numbers. Our property lies within what’s known as the urban wildland interface (WUI) and so technically our driveway must not exceed 18% in slope. We really want to preserve these trees but know that the Fire Marshall is likely to push back on a steeper driveway.

We’ve come up with a list of mitigating measures, things we would be willing to trade on in order to gain permission for a driveway somewhere between 18% and 25%. There’s no way to be sure that the Fire Marshall will accept these mitigating measures but we feel we can make the all-in solution attractive enough to get a tiny variance. There’s typically no way to negotiate these kinds of items ahead of time. Agencies having jurisdiction are typically pretty noncommittal until they’ve got a set of plans in from of them for permitting. We’ve decided to take our chances on this one. While clearly not our first choice, the worst case is that one or both of the trees need to come out. As with so many of the issues related to a new build, we will continue to work this particular problem until we have a solution. That’s just the way it goes. Box 8, to be determined.

Truth Be Told, There Are Always More Boxes to Be Checked for any New Home Land Selection, Design, and Construction Plan

All You Can Do Is Continue Working All of the Problems until You’re across the Finish Line

These were simply the issues that we encountered on our own land purchase. We’ve seen many other sorts of problems pop up on properties that we’ve worked on, properties much more expensive than our little lot. And while most problems are solvable, one way or another, not all can be addressed through clever design and engineering. As the human population continues to push into the WUI (wildland urban interface) regulatory agencies are putting greater restrictions on what can and can’t be done.

Some areas have partially systematized the process of screening property for development potential. One example is the Lake Tahoe’s IPES (Individual Parcel Evaluation System) scoring system. Established in 1987 and only applicable for parcels formed after that date, this system evaluates parcels based on eight key points: relative erosion hazard, runoff potential, access to building site, disturbance in stream environment zone, condition of watershed, ability to revegetate, water quality improvements, and proximity to Lake Tahoe.

Most areas however, have less of a system for understanding these issues and more of a bureaucratic haystack that needs combing through. And while it’s not our favorite part of our job, it is a crucial part of what we do and the only what that we are able to bring most projects into reality. And so we take the task very seriously, uncovering what we will be up against in the very earliest stages of design, prior to making any irreversible design decisions. Then we meet with the local planning department to confirm that they see things the way we do. Only then to de dive into the most costly and time consuming parts of the design process. In the end, it all comes down to planning. As the old saying goes, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

Call an Architect Sooner not Later

Regardless of where you intend to build, there are likely to be issues that you never imagined would impact what you can and can’t do. Analyzing your property to discover, understand, plan for, and solve critical issues is all part of what an architect does — before we get to the work of designing your home.

At Parco Studio, we have decades of experience designing and building ambitious projects in many jurisdictions all around the globe, getting projects over the finish line, even in the face of what initially seemed like impossible odds.

Whether you’ve already purchased a piece of property for your new home or are just starting to look at land options, it’s a good idea to get your architect involved early in the project. Let’s talk!