Developing A Community

Developing A Community Introduction Who Pays? Community Design & Maintaining Affordability Development Guidelines The Approval Process Why Does A Lot Cost A Lot?

The following topics are intended to give those not familiar with residential land development in Calgary a general understanding of the role of a developer.

Just imagine you suddenly became owner of an undeveloped parcel of land on the outskirts of Calgary. What would you do with it? Obvious options might be to hold it as an investment or try to sell it right away. It might be appropriate to use the land for agricultural purposes. However, let's imagine the parcel is in an area being heavily developed for residential uses. One might consider the apparent strength of the current housing market and elect to develop the land for residential purposes. Images of wealth enter one's mind and provokes a smile. However, caution should be noted. Although developing land may indeed be profitable, one must fully understand all that is involved in the development of a community. This is an extremely complex and expensive venture!

A variety of issues should be carefully considered and understood, should the site be developed. The first thing you will need to do is conduct a thorough market analysis to determine if there exists a market for residential development in the area. If so, what should the housing mix be (single family versus multi family, etc.). In addition, things such as site topography and geology, the presence of environmentally significant areas, the current zoning on the site, the proximity of the site to existing services (water, sanitary and sewer), the 10% MR (Open Space) requirement, and various other factors must be carefully studied. These factors will all have impact on the costs associated with developing your site.