This book draws on the author’s considerable expertise in land development processes and planning, and planning education. It takes a learning-by-doing studio approach and shows how to undertake a development feasibility study in three main stages: the preliminary proposal, a design and finally, a full report with a financially appraised proposal.
Understanding Land Development shows how to tackle a real life project where there are situations of uncertainty and where there may be multiple solutions to a problem. It demonstrates how to undertake research into a range of issues – site conditions, market conditions, development finance, sustainability, land use planning and infrastructure – and shows how to analyse this diverse information to generate a concrete development proposal. The book covers planning skills, including site analysis, financial analysis, spreadsheet preparation, design, plan interpretation, project planning and strategic thinking.
By taking the approach presented here, the reader will learn to become a more effective planner by understanding how land development leads to built environment outcomes that may not be the idealised outcomes to which planners aspire.
Provides a structure for responding to a client brief
Gives all the elements of a development proposal
Emphasises design in property development and covers the basic design principles
Covers all the steps in financial appraisal and completing the final report
The appendices contain an Excel spreadsheet and suggested timeframes for development activities
Preface and acknowledgements 1 Introduction
Purpose of this book
Why a project-based studio approach?
What the project involves
Finding and choosing projects
Choosing guest speakers
Other key resources and student requirements
Working in teams
Format for presentation of professional reports
Scope, detail, depth, accuracy of reports and standards
Ethics and professional practice 2 Learning from a project-based approach
Introduction
What do students learn?
Key lessons from past projects
Reflecting on the learning process: what can you learn?
Learning from your studio project 3 How to respond to a client brief
What is a brief?
Responding to the brief 4 Generating a proposal
Introduction
The capacity and nature of the developer or client
Research
Putting it all together 5 Designing the proposed development
Introduction
Design in development
What goes in the design?
What is a good development design?
Further research into design standards and styles
Learning-by-doing is the way to go 6 Financial appraisal and the final report
Introduction
Pre-lodgement meeting and report (optional)
Financial feasibility
Making a recommendation
Suggested report structure Appendix 1: Example of a studio project brief
Call for tenders and project brief Appendix 2: Estimating project ARR
Assumptions
Examples of profit calculation (ARR)
References
Index
Students and academics undertaking or teaching undergraduate and masters programs in Australia in urban planning; urban and regional planning; urban and environmental planning; town and regional planning.
Other built environment professionals and urban policy students may also find the approach useful. These include urban sociologists, urban geographers, civil engineers, transport planners and architects.
Eddo Coiacetto is a Senior Lecturer in urban and environmental planning at The Griffith School of Environment at Griffith University. He previously spent several years in professional practice.
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