Infrastructure, Utilities & Site Development
Examine "before the first stick" costs: site work, utilities, access, drainage/stormwater, and off-site requirements. Identify which standards most often break feasibility and what alternatives preserve safety/performance with less cost.
How this fits in the series
Builds on: A2 (land yield and zoning)
Leads to: A5 (size and design),
A7 (alternative construction)
Core concepts and execution implications
- Site standards are cost standards.
- Can name the specific requirement driving cost, not "site work" broadly.
- Yield and site cost interact strongly.
- Can evaluate site burden as $/unit and tie it back to yield constraints.
- Prescriptive rules can hide large cost without clear outcome benefit.
- Can reframe debates around outcomes (safety/performance) vs burden.
Connections
- Cost elements: B05-SiteInfra; secondary: B04-Utilities, B01-Land
- CROs: CRO-STANDARDS, CRO-LANDSCAPE, CRO-INFRA_BURDEN, CRO-SHARED_INFRA
- Decision authorities: Public works, municipality, utilities, city forestry, planning department
- Cross-series: P4 Failure Mechanisms (site conditions affect performance loads)
- Explore in Affordability Framework →
Cost elements in this session
Site and infrastructure (B05-SiteInfra)
Earthwork, grading, retaining, access, internal utilities, drainage, sidewalks, landscaping. These costs are shaped by prescriptive standards that may exceed what's needed for safety and performance.
💡 Site standards are cost standards. Street width, curb/gutter, and stormwater rules affect price.
💡 Yield and site cost are linked. Constraints that reduce yield raise per-unit site cost.
⚠️ Standards overshoot the goal — prescriptive standards add cost beyond what the safety/performance goal requires.
⚠️ Stormwater consumes yield — detention and grading constraints reduce buildable area and increase per-unit site cost.
⚠️ Off-site surprises late in the process — late conditions create cost shocks and force redesign.
Decision authorities: Public works, municipality, stormwater authority, utilities.
Explore in AF: Site Infrastructure (B05) → CRO-STANDARDS, CRO-LANDSCAPE, CRO-INFRA_BURDEN, CRO-SHARED_INFRA
Utility fees (B04-Utilities) — secondary
Extensions, trenching, service upgrades, and coordination requirements. When utility work drives schedule, it affects financing carry.
💡 Performance-based paths can help. Alternative compliance can meet goals with less cost.
⚠️ Utility coordination becomes delay — sequencing and approvals create hidden timeline risk.
Primary CROs for utility fees (CRO-UTILITY_FEES) are covered in A3.
Explore in AF: Utilities (B04) → CRO-UTILITY_FEES
Land acquisition (B01-Land) — yield interactions
Site constraints that reduce buildable area affect per-unit land cost. Yield is a structural lever.
💡 Off-site obligations matter. Projects can be sunk by requirements not visible in unit costs.
Primary CROs for land acquisition (CRO-DENSITY) are covered in A2.
Explore in AF: Land (B01) → CRO-DENSITY
Example: prescriptive standard vs outcome-based alternative
Prescriptive requirement: 36-foot-wide residential street with curb, gutter, and sidewalk on both sides.
Outcome we actually care about: safe vehicle passage, emergency access, pedestrian safety, stormwater management.
Possible alternative: 24-foot paved surface with swale drainage and sidewalk on one side—meets the same safety outcomes at significantly lower per-unit infrastructure cost.
The point isn't that narrower is always better. It's that prescriptive standards often embed assumptions that haven't been revisited, and the cost difference can be $5–15K per unit in site infrastructure.
Barriers & levers
Top barriers blocking the CROs in this session. Full barrier table in the Affordability Framework.
CRO-STANDARDS barriers
- OVERSIZED_STREETS — Oversized street cross-sections increase grading, paving, and land consumption. Authority: Public works department.
- EXCESS_PARKING — Excessive parking requirements consume land and increase paving/drainage cost. Authority: Municipality.
- CONSERVATIVE_STORMWATER — Worst-case stormwater detention assumptions oversize infrastructure. Authority: Public works, stormwater authority.
CRO-LANDSCAPE barriers
- MIN_TREE_COUNT — Minimum tree count per lot increases planting, irrigation, and site labor cost. Authority: City council, planning commission.
- TREE_CALIPER — Tree caliper requirements force purchase of large, high-cost trees. Authority: City forestry, planning department.
- MANDATORY_IRRIGATION — Mandatory irrigation systems regardless of plant selection. Authority: Utilities, planning department.
- UNSCALED_LANDSCAPING — Standards not scaled by unit size; small homes incur same site costs. Authority: Municipal planning department.
CRO-INFRA_BURDEN / CRO-SHARED_INFRA barriers
- NO_PROPORTIONALITY — Projects fund system-wide upgrades unrelated to their marginal impact. Authority: Municipality, utilities.
- NO_SHARED_SYSTEMS — Utility rules prohibit shared or district systems, duplicating infrastructure. Authority: Utilities.
- OWNERSHIP_UNCLEAR — Unclear long-term ownership blocks financing and approval for shared systems. Authority: Municipality, lenders.