Concept site plans and developable area studies in Texas

Why the deed acreage is not the answer

The acreage you buy is not the acreage you build on. A detention pond, a driveway location or a sewer route can change what the site holds. A concept site plan puts your building, parking, drive aisles and fire lane on the tract and tests them against access, drainage, utilities and the review path. It is a decision tool, not a design.

When to start

Before you close, or before a concept plan is fixed. For a drive-thru or kiosk program, before the lease goes hard. After closing, you carry the site at the price you paid.

What we check

1. What the ground takes out. Flood mapping, wetlands and streams, soils and topography.
2. What drainage takes out. Whether detention is triggered, and how the pond affects the usable area.
3. Where access can go. Driveway locations and who reviews them. A driveway onto a state highway needs a TxDOT permit.
4. Who serves water and sewer. Whether service reaches the site, and how far a line or lift station has to run.
5. The use and the review path. Zoning and plat triggers, and whether a rezoning, a plat or a site development permit comes first. Inside city limits the city reviews; outside them the county does, and a city often reviews plats in its ETJ.
6. Whether the use fits. Stacking for a drive-thru. For a car wash, enough depth for the tunnel, stacking and vacuums, drawn to scale with the fire lane.

What we do

1. Pull the records. Parcel facts, code research and records requests for neighboring plans and as-builts.
2. Draw early layouts on your survey, if you have one. Where something is missing, we work around it and mark it open.
3. Meet the reviewer early. We use a pre-application meeting where the city offers one.
4. Phase it if the site needs it. A master plan can carry a first phase to a construction set and hold a later phase as a preliminary plan.
5. Hand it forward. The concept plan becomes the base for the sealed site and grading plans, so the work is not redrawn.

What you get

• A concept site plan drawn to scale, with the building, parking, drive aisles, fire lane, access and detention.
• An early written read on access, drainage, utilities and who reviews the site.
• As part of a site feasibility review: a report reviewed by a licensed Professional Engineer, with a buildability rating and a fatal flaw screen.

Work like this

• Georgetown. Records, survey coordination and early layouts, then a pre-application meeting, for nine light-industrial buildings, about 113,000 square feet, on 9 acres. The rezoning is approved. The plat and site development permit are pending.
• Lindsay. A layout of 48 home lots and a 2.5-acre future industrial site on 14 acres, with the detention pond, water line extension and sewer.
• Hutchins. A two-phase site master plan for a concrete contractor: a phase 1 construction set and a phase 2 preliminary set.
• Small-footprint programs. Civil site plans for 128 drive-up water kiosk sites in seven states, 50 of them in Texas.

MES has 525+ projects and 165+ small-footprint sites, and is licensed in 9 states.

What affects time and cost

• What you already have. A survey, title work or a utility letter shortens the work.
• How many uses or layouts you want tested.
• The ground. Floodplain, wetlands or an Edwards Aquifer zone change what the site can hold.
• The review path. A rezoning or a special use permit adds steps before a site plan.

As part of a site feasibility review, the work is a fixed fee per site, credited toward our design and permitting if you go ahead. One site or several can go in one review. When water and sewer are the open question, our fixed-fee pre-acquisition utility screen answers it, and its fee is credited toward design.