Frequently asked, subdivision feasibility questions

A subdivision feasibility study tells you whether your specific parcel can actually be split into two or more buildable lots — and what it would take to get there. We pull the zoning, minimum lot size, road access, utility availability, and the permit path for your county, then write up a single report that turns “I think this could work” into a concrete yes-or-no, with the proof and the next steps attached. It’s the work you’d otherwise spend weeks doing yourself — and that runs in front of paying a surveyor.

No — and almost no county will accept a subdivision application without one. Eventually a licensed surveyor has to come out, walk the parcel, set boundary pins, run a topographic survey, and produce the plat the county records. The mistake most landowners make is paying the surveyor first, before they know the project is real. The $299 study runs in front of the surveyor so they (and you) don’t spend $2,000–$5,000 on fieldwork for a parcel that turns out not to be subdividable.

A written report scoped to your specific parcel — zoning analysis, minimum lot size and setback verification, road access notes, utility availability, permit path, cost ranges, and a surveyor-ready scope of work. It’s the same depth of analysis a planning consultant would bill hourly for, packaged as a flat-fee deliverable you can hand to a lender, a partner, a surveyor, or the county planning office. Delivered in 5 business days. See the feasibility study service page for the full breakdown.

Five business days from purchase for most Eastern Washington parcels. We email the full written report (PDF), with the cover letter, the surveyor scope of work, and the county-rule pull — straight to your inbox. We don’t compress that timeline artificially: pulling the actual zoning code and checking access/utilities takes a few days even when there’s nothing blocking the project. If your situation is time-sensitive, flag it at checkout and we’ll tell you whether we can move faster.

Nine Eastern Washington counties: Grant, Adams, Douglas, Lincoln, Chelan, Kittitas, Benton, Franklin, and Yakima. The full list and the local context for each — minimum lot sizes, water rights notes, common zoning designations — is up on our Grant County page (and the eight other county pages linked from there). If your parcel sits outside that footprint, reach out; in some cases we can add a county on a one-off basis.

You still get the report — we don’t gate the deliverable behind a “yes” verdict. The write-up explains the actual constraint (lot size, access, wetlands, zoning designation, water or septic feasibility) in plain language, with citations to the county code. Most landowners use a “no” finding to talk to a planner about a re-zone, a lot-line adjustment, or a different use for the parcel altogether — none of which is wasted work when it’s grounded in the actual rules.

We don’t issue refunds once the study work has started — by the time we’re two days into the report, that time is sunk in the deliverable. If your parcel turns out not to be subdividable you still receive the full written report explaining why, and we follow up with a free 15-minute call to walk through your options. If you change your mind before the work starts, reach out and we’ll cancel and refund. The feasibility study checkout page lays out the policy in plain English before you pay.

You, plus whoever you choose to share it with. Most landowners hand the report to a surveyor (so they know exactly what to scope and bill), a county planner (for an early read on the project), a real-estate attorney (if a partnership, sale, or financing is in play), or a lender (when the parcel is collateral on a loan). It’s written in plain English with the citations and code references in the body — so a non-technical reader gets the answer, and a technical reader gets the proof.