Avoiding The First Mistake

Today, we’re going to give you some advice on what mistake to avoid before you even call an architect to help you realize your building dreams. In retrospect, it seems really simple, but it is probably one of the most common mistakes we see, especially before you contact us. What is it? It’s ignoring the site planning process.

This applies equally to residential and commercial projects, in different ways. Forgoing site planning from the jump will cause massive delays to your project. If you’re only starting to think about it when we ask you, you’re already behind the eight ball. Obtaining existing site information, site design, and site approvals can be long processes, and will pause your project. Or even worse, make you redesign your project partway through. Below are some things that have actually happened to our clients over the years and some suggestions on how to avoid it happening to you. As always, we practice primarily in Delaware and the Atlantic region, so if you live elsewhere, this may or may not apply elsewhere, always seek local professional help for advice on mistake avoidance.

Residential Site Planning Mistake

The good news is, like all things residential, forgoing site planning early isn’t as punishing of a mistake as we’ll see later. The most common version of this mistake is not having a survey or elevation certificate when you contact us. What makes this worse is that obtaining these is usually part of the property buying process. If you have a mortgage, the bank almost always requires these documents. If they are in need of updating, we can still use them to give you good advice in making decisions about what to do. But so many of our clients don’t have these documents, and that means the advice we can offer is limited (or thoroughly conditional.)

So, what are these documents? The survey or plot plan is a document provided by a surveyor that lays out the legal boundaries of your property and any easements and improvements located there as well. That is the bare minimum, they can also have topography or spot elevations, some zoning information, and even wells and septic locations. All of these can be important to making good choices early in the process. It is not uncommon for people to misunderstand how much room they have to add onto a structure to the setbacks. We often get homeowners who have decided they have the room for a new front porch because they measured to the street. It’s a fun conversation to let them know that they needed to measure to an invisible line that only really exists in a reference book in city hall. Most jurisdictions do prefer a survey that is relatively recent (about 5 years old or less), but that’s not a hard and fast rule. In addition, we can easily work with an older survey as it is very rare for that to cause a problem while we wait for an updated version.

An elevation certificate is a little more specialized and not always required. It’s a document that let’s us know any FEMA flood plains that affect your property, and where your existing structure is in relation to that level. This is important if you’re in a flood zone to make sure we’re in compliance with FEMA regulations. This can be critical if your structure does sit in a flood zone as to what you can and cannot do and what is financially feasible. They do expire relatively quickly, but even an expired one should be enough for us to give you good guidance while we wait for an updated one.

Mistake Consequences

So, what happens if you don’t have them. Mostly, delays. Not having one at all can set you up for a month to two month delay in obtaining it. We had a client who had an absolute drop dead had to start construction by a certain date deadline when he purchased a property (for cash) without getting a survey. Unfortunately, this mistake was crucial in the end. The project was an addition and we couldn’t progress the design at all while we waited for the client to obtain a survey after our initial consult as the overall size would be dependent on the setbacks. This is a very common situation on tighter lots. That survey took two months to get in hand because the surveyor he selected outright forgot about our client. In fact, it would have been longer if we had not reached out after a month checking on the status on his behalf. Unfortunately, that two month delay meant we missed his window by a week in the end. It was an all around unfortunate situation that could have been completely avoided by getting the survey in the closing documents.

Similar stories can be told bout elevation certificates, where not having one early causes delays and stress on the clients. In addition, in the case of an elevation certificate, not having one can lead to surprises later one. There have been cases where we didn’t know there was a flood zone on the property at all, until we submitted for permits. Then when we finally get the certificate, we have to make wholesale changes to the project to make it legal. Obviously, massive redesign at the very end is not efficient or fun for anyone.

Commercial Site Planning Mistake

Just like residential work, commercial work the primary problem is delays. But gargantuan delays. Years of delays. And unexpected bills. Very large bills. The difference between residential and commercial, at least in our area, is that the planning process is much longer and involves a lot more approvals processes. Our first question to every commercial client who is building new or changing the footprint of their property is, do you have a civil engineer. If not, we give them a list and tell them to come back once they’ve got one on board. There’s just no point in engaging an architect without an expert in site design for commercial properties.

We learned this lesson the hard way. We attempted to help out a local business by designing the building they wanted so that they could then take it to an engineer and use that footprint as a basis for the site design. The problem, the town had a very strict approvals process, and the client was convinced (no matter how many times we told them otherwise) that they wouldn’t be required to obtain site approvals. Quite how they made that determination is still something I’ll never understand. But in the end, the project dragged on for 6 or 7 years because it turned out that they couldn’t get approval for a new building on that site. They had to make it a renovation. In this case, that meant keeping one wall and completely redesigning the building around a new footprint that would work with the site design which became primary. Now, we did have to develop the site and the building concurrently, primarily because of the strict process which worked great in a lot of ways. But the half a decade process was not fun.

What if you don’t tell your architect that you’re in a flood zone? That was a fun conversation we had recently. A client came to us with a giant property and was supposedly working with an engineer. As we saw no difficulties in placing the modest building on the site, we agreed to do the building first and then let the engineer place it. But, the client never mentioned that it was in a flood zone and it was not immediately obvious that it was. So, a year and a half later, when the engineer calls our office and asks how our design was dealing with 6 feet of water flooding the site in a storm event, we had an honest answer. It doesn’t. In fact, the entire design had to be thrown out and reconsidered (or we had to install an eighty foot ramp or bring in several hundred truckloads of dirt to raise the building and parking out of the flood zone.) A reconsidered building design is the least bad option. And while we can save aspects of the original, this would have been a better conversation early in the process than trying to tack it on in the end.

Good Processes to Follow

So, you want to avoid this mistake and have a successful project. First and foremost, get the documents during settlement. It is the cheapest way to get a copy of these, and you’ll have them for later planning needs. You’ll also have a chance to discover if there is a discrepancy. Is the street in your front yard? Is the fence where it’s supposed to be? Do you have a utility easement you were unaware of? All of these things should be revealed by the survey. It’s worth the fees tacked into your closing costs and even the delay if it takes an extra week or two.

Next, make sure you provide all of that information to your design professionals. It is garbage in/garbage out if we don’t have the documents to base our advice on. You also will probably need to bite the bullet and pay for a site design professional if you have a commercial project. You will absolutely need one if you’re doing new building or addition work, and possibly even just for change of use as that can affect parking or fire lane requirements. There’s nothing wrong with the building and site design professionals working concurrently, however, the site design process generally takes a lot longer in our area. Part of that is the notification requirements for hearings. Part of it is the nature of the approvals agencies. Part of it is that there are even fewer engineers in our area than there are architects (and there aren’t many of us either, locally.) Lastly, budget the time, the larger and more complex your project, the more it is a marathon, and not a sprint. Make sure you budget a realistic amount of time (and fees) to get to the finish line.