subdividing farmland into acreages books/information?

[solbergren]

Hey I'm looking into the process of buying farmland and subdividing into acreages w/ services. I can't seem to find much info on how to go about this, can anyone point me in the direction of a book/website/anything to get me started???



thx!



sol.

 

[Thomas Beyer]

Land development is good idea in principle. A great one actually. Buy by the acre and sell by the foot. Easier said than done, though.



Here are the rough steps:

• 1) First you need municipal planning to approve it in principle, as some areas will never be approved and others with conditions or minimum sizes
• 2) Then you need a rough cost estimate for services (roads, water, sewer, gas, storm water, ..) to see if there is a business plan, given lot demand and rough prices in the area
• 3) Then you need to do an Area Structure Plan
• 4) Then you apply for sub-division
• 5) When granted the county or city will tell you what their specific requirements are for: police, fire, roads, storm water, allowances for community amenities (churches, schools, parks, ..), sewer electricity, gas etc.
  6) Then you need to engineer all that, and once approved by all these stakeholders can you get title to the proposed lots if you post appropriate bonds with the county or city
  7) Then you have to do all the proposed services.
  8) Then you also have to get financing in place, unless you have sufficient cash to pay for it all, as each lot might cost between $30,000 to $100,000 to service, depending on county/city, density, size, distance to various services etc. .. (so the first toilet flush might be $1M for a 40 lot sub-division, or maybe only $40,000)
  9) Then you have to market lots while doing the servicing work

We are doing such a project right now in Cold Lake, AB. Very profitable if done well, but also very cash and labour intensive upfront. Delays are frequent. A simple question to the county which you'd think should be no more than ten minutes causes a month long wait. Many known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns to overcome (with cash, expertise and patience usually) We decided to hire an experienced land developer for a small monthly fee but share of profits. All doable, with enough expertise, patience and capital.



If you find a book or in-depth website, let me know.



Here is one for BC: http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/262_70 and for the MD of Provost: http://www.mdprovost.ca/landUseBylaw.php Other provinces or towns/MDs are similar, but each county or city adds their own wrinkle.

 

[solbergren]

Awesome, thanks for the detailed post! Alot of details to look after, this gives me an idea of where to start/consider a project of this size, I may have thought it was a little simpler . I'll start looking into it and see what I come up with, thx!