OUR SERVICES

In the process of purchasing real estate as a holding property, long term investment or development project it is critical to ensure there are no surprises that may negatively impact the purchaser’s plans for the property. We have extensive experience in researching potential targets that involves analyzing Official Community Plans, Neighbourhood Plans, Zoning Bylaws, municipal services, environmental concerns, transportation issues, local community expectations and recent Council decisions that might affect the future use of the property.

Our reports will identify opportunities as well as potential concerns that may impact the future value of the land for its proposed use. Knowledge is the key to informed decisions and detailed information at the earliest stages of the real estate process is invaluable.

Our firm has undertaken numerous highest and best use studies as part of a due diligence exercise but also on behalf of real estate appraisal firms and law firms who are engaged in legal cases requiring professional expertise. Most properties, given the market and regulatory environment, have a highest and best use that will return the greatest value to the existing owner or purchaser. Working through the multi-layered regulatory restrictions and opportunities can be a challenging task. Our familiarity with these regulations as well as all the controlling municipal planning documents, Provincial acts and regulations and even Federal controls allows us to fully research a property’s potential and provide an expert opinion on the highest and best use for a property.

As part of this research, we are also able to provide a cost side proforma identifying those development costs which will affect the viability of a proposed development. We investigate and calculate development costs including application fees, approval fees, Development Cost Charges, Community Amenity charges, park dedication, servicing costs for water, sewer, storm, roads, property dedications, right-of-way requirements and any identified Provincial or Federal requirements.

We coordinate a synergistic team of specialists to research and analyze all aspects of the development process to ensure we identify all critical influences that can impact a property or development.  These results can form the basis for a variety of decisions related to the disposition, purchase and development of real property.

Once the decision has been made to undertake a land development project, regardless of its size and complexity, we can offer a comprehensive project management service to guide any application through the complicated and often confusing approval process that may involve all three levels of government; Municipal, Provincial and Federal.

Land development projects are a complicated undertaking and require a team of professional consultants to successfully complete. Our firm has extensive real world expertise in building and coordinating a team of consultants for any size undertaking. We regularly engage consultants for all the key responsibilities including survey, civil engineering, architecture, environmental, landscape architects, arborists, agrologists, traffic, geotechnical, hydrology, appraisal, acoustical, public engagement, legal and marketing. We can quickly determine what expertise is required to successfully undertake a project and where in the timeline this expertise is required.

Our firm is committed to providing efficient, innovative and cost effective planning and project management that enables us to:

• Quickly analyze our Client’s needs
• Determine the necessary work program
• Coordinate a team of specialists to provide thorough project analysis and approval packages
• Maximize achievable unit/floor area yields, lot counts and property values
• Simplify Approving Agency red tape

Master plans are very useful even for relatively small projects but are incredibly invaluable when taking on larger projects particularly with a variety of proposed uses and as a staged development. Maximizing the development potential and finding the right mix of uses is key to a successful project. As part of a comprehensive master plan we also thoroughly investigate servicing requirements and available services as well as required service improvements.

In our experience an articulate master plan can even influence Neighbourhood and Community Plans by providing municipalities a vision of what a future community could look like and how a project could fit into that vision.

Master Plans can be a particularly useful part of a landowner’s due diligence in determining the highest and best use for a single parcel of land or a larger site composed of multiple land holdings.

Our broad understanding of the key issues involved in community building, municipal needs, amenity integration and the development process has allowed us to provide key input and analysis into a variety of municipal planning studies and prepare internal reviews of corporate processing, efficiency and long term needs.

External perspectives and independent analysis often provides insights that are not always available to agencies undertaking self-analysis. Our professional experience brings a new take on old challenges and seeks to collaboratively find new ways forward.

The Agricultural Land Reserve and the governing Agricultural Land Commission can be one of the most confusing and challenging agencies governing land use in British Columbia. Even long-time farmers and agricultural land owners are mystified by the operation of this body and confounded by the decisions emanating from the Commission. We have extensive experience in dealing with a variety of applications at the Commission including exclusions, non-farm uses, subdivisions and consolidations, family succession planning, Environmentally Sensitive Area compensation, farm development plans, agricultural land conversions and restorations, and Transportation, Utility, and Recreational Trail Use.

Our team of expert Agrologists, Arborists, Environmentalist and farm Economists can analyze any parcel to determine agricultural capability (or lack thereof), highest and best use including an economic program to convert and develop the most appropriate and financially successful crops and even manage on-site works. This same analysis can often be used to support an application for non-farm use or exclusion if the results of the study clearly indicate the land is not viable agricultural lands.

Many Agricultural Land Commission applications require an initial application to the local municipality before it is presented to the Commission for analysis, deliberation and decision. Applications for exclusions, non-farm uses and/or subdivision are particularly difficult and our experience with municipal land use applications combined with the ability to provide a detailed analysis of the agricultural parcel’s capability will be invaluable for deliberations at both levels of review.

Our lengthy and comprehensive experience in all facets of the planning and land development industry has uniquely qualified us to act as an expert witness in both legal cases and presentations on public expropriation negotiations and legal challenges. Our extensive involvement in the purchase and sale of real estate, land planning, municipal approval process, property expropriation, and project development allows us to present expert opinions on a variety of issues that often find themselves under legal review.