The importance of the building site, location, and actual physical property on which one plans to put up a house can affect the cost of the home.

What this episode covers

Show Notes:Explore the extensive physical, legal, and environmental site restrictions that impact custom home building costs and land development. Drawing from over 30 years of nationwide experience, Steve explains how property easements, zoning building envelopes, maximum lot coverage ratios, and maximum building height calculations influence foundation and architectural design. The conversation also details practical strategies for managing natural site challenges—including Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) fire access hammerheads, protected native vegetation, raptor nesting seasons, and septic drain field percolation testing—ensuring owner-builders can properly evaluate vacant land before breaking ground. Key Q&A Highlights from Episode 49 Q: How do property easements and utility rights-of-way limit where a custom home can be built? A: Utility easements grant power or water companies legal access to maintain overhead or buried infrastructure, creating strict no-build buffer zones along property boundaries. Private access easements for neighboring landlocked parcels also restrict foundation placement, requiring careful site planning to avoid building over legally protected access corridors. Q: What is a maximum lot coverage percentage, and why do zoning boards enforce it? A: Maximum lot coverage is a municipal zoning regulation that limits the combined surface area occupied by a home, garage, driveway, and concrete patio to a specific percentage of the total parcel, such as 30%. Cities enforce these ratios to preserve neighborhood green space and prevent excessive impervious hardscaping from flooding adjacent properties with stormwater runoff. Q: How is maximum building height calculated on a sloped or hillside lot? A: Building height measurement methods vary widely by municipality, ranging from the average height between the roof eaves and peak down to the lowest point of the ground, to the average grade across all exterior corners. In mountainous regions like Colorado, local codes often measure maximum height from the natural, undisturbed grade that existed prior to excavation rather than from the finished backfilled grade. Q: What site plan requirements do fire departments enforce in Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) zones? A: Fire departments in wildfire-prone WUI areas require dedicated access site plans showing wide driveways, vertical tree-clearance limits, and engineered turnaround areas like hammerheads for emergency vehicles. These access plans map out natural terrain obstacles like rock outcroppings and dense brush, ensuring fire trucks will not bottom out or get trapped on narrow rural roads. Q: Why does a septic system drain field require dedicated reserve area on a building site? A: Health departments typically require soil percolation tests to identify not only the primary absorption drain field but also a fully compliant 100% reserve area on flat, undisturbed ground. This mandated reserve zone prevents the homeowner from placing foundations, driveways, or outbuildings over land set aside for a future replacement drain field if the primary system fails. Transcript: Steve Tuma: Generally things that are common is there might be easements power easements you know you your utility company may have a power line underground or above ground where they have a right to go in there within a certain distance and maintain the lines now you would still own it but you can’t generally put build your house underneath you know right next to a power pole.

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