- Entitlement decides whether the use is allowed; the building permit decides whether the construction complies.
- Discretionary approvals — rezonings, special use permits, variances — run on public hearing calendars, not review queues.
- Conditions of approval are obligations. Track them from the day they're issued, not at closeout.
- Civil, landscape, traffic and stormwater consultants are usually on the critical path before the architect is.
By-right versus discretionary
The first question in any entitlement analysis is whether the intended use is permitted by right in the zoning district. If it is, the path is typically administrative site plan review. If it is not, the project needs a discretionary approval — a conditional or special use permit, a variance, a rezoning or a planned-development amendment — and that means a public hearing before a planning commission, board of adjustment or governing body. Discretionary paths add months and introduce outcome risk that administrative paths do not.
What site plan review typically involves
- Site layout, setbacks, height, lot coverage and buildable area
- Parking counts, drive aisles, loading and circulation
- Access, curb cuts and right-of-way or transportation department review
- Stormwater management, drainage and utility layout
- Landscaping, buffers, screening and tree preservation
- Lighting, signage and architectural or design-standard review
- Traffic study or trip-generation analysis where thresholds are triggered
- Environmental, floodplain, wetland or historic review where applicable
The agencies you will actually be dealing with
Entitlement is a multi-agency exercise. Planning and zoning leads it, but engineering or public works reviews the civil package, transportation reviews access and traffic, fire reviews apparatus access and hydrant coverage, utility providers review capacity and service, and environmental or historic review layers in where the site triggers it. Each has its own comment cycle. LPG runs one coordinated record across all of them so comments are not answered twice or lost between consultants.
Conditions of approval: the part teams underestimate
An approval almost never arrives clean. It arrives with conditions — dedications, easements, improvements, studies, fees, plat recordation, agreements. Some must be satisfied before building permit submittal, some before permit issuance, and some before certificate of occupancy. Sorting them into those three buckets on the day of approval, assigning an owner to each, and clearing them proactively is the single highest-leverage habit in development coordination. Conditions discovered at CO time stop openings.
The handoff to building permit
The goal of entitlement coordination is that the project arrives at building permit ready to build: approvals recorded, conditions mapped, civil plans approved, utility commitments in place, and the documentation package assembled for intake. LPG prepares that handoff so the building permit phase does not restart research that was already completed.
How LPG supports the entitlement phase
- Entitlement strategy and jurisdictional research before submittal
- Application preparation and submittal across planning, engineering and fire
- Hearing scheduling, notice requirements and staff coordination
- Comment tracking and consultant coordination across review cycles
- Conditions of approval tracking and clearance
- Utility provider engagement and dependency mapping
- Status reporting to ownership and capital partners
- Handoff package for the building permit phase
Frequently asked questions
- How long does entitlement take?
- Administrative site plan review can run weeks to a few months. Anything requiring a public hearing is governed by the agency's calendar and notice requirements and commonly runs several months or longer. We map the calendar early; the jurisdiction controls it.
- Can we start design before entitlement is finished?
- Usually yes, and often you must — the civil and site package is part of the submittal. The risk is designing past a condition that changes the site layout, which is why we flag likely conditions up front.
- Do you represent us at hearings?
- LPG coordinates submittals, staff communication, hearing logistics and the conditions record. Where legal advocacy or licensed professional testimony is required, we coordinate with your attorney and design professionals.
Zoning and land-use requirements are entirely local. Nothing here substitutes for the adopted code of the jurisdiction reviewing your project — always verify with the planning department.
Entitling a site? Map the path before you file.
Tell us the site, the use and the target opening. We'll outline the approvals, the agencies and the likely sequence — free consultation.