Put your capital behind land development projects that hold up.
A short walkthrough of what we examine and what you walk away with.
Your feasibility study includes up to three steps — enter at the screening and go only as far as your decision requires.
A desktop screen of all six disciplines on readily available data — a clear recommendation before you spend on design, permits, or surveys.
Screening application to filter your prospects, Executive Brief (proceed / pause / walk away), Red-Flag Map, and an Assumptions + Verification Ledger.
Tells you whether the site is worth pursuing — a clear go, pause, or walk-away before you spend on design, permits, or surveys.
A deeper read with scenario economics, so you, your partners, or your lender can weigh 2–4 viable paths on defensible time and cost ranges.
Scenario Table, Risk Register, and a range-based Critical Path Timeline.
Shows whether the numbers hold up across viable paths, so you, your partners, or your lender can commit with eyes open.
Agency signal on your preferred path before you commit to full design and entitlement spend.
An agency-ready concept, an Agency Question Set, and a Pre-App Readiness Checklist.
Gives you the agency’s read on your preferred path before you commit to full design and entitlement spend.
We review your project in progressive detail across six disciplines.
Connects your project vision to what the site and the rules will actually allow. We start with feasibility and concept, then move to the project description and the studies that define the details. This applies to ministerial and discretionary projects alike.
- Zoning, overlays & general plan policy direction
- Ministerial vs. discretionary pathway scan
Covers every environmental issue that can stall a project. Biology and wetlands are our core strength. We also run the full CEQA Appendix G checklist — cultural, hazardous materials, flooding, and more — plus NEPA where it applies.
- Wetlands & aquatic desktop screen
- Sensitive species & habitat database review
- Cultural resource flags
Turns the planning concept into a buildable project. That covers site layout, engineering, buildings, and landscape. We stay with it from concept through construction documents and construction administration, so what gets built matches the design intent.
- Highest-and-best-use concept
- Parcel orientation & massing constraints
Establishes the physical facts a project stands on. That means boundaries, topography, and geotechnical conditions, plus how roads, grading, drainage, and utilities will work. We take it from feasibility checks through the studies that support design and permitting.
- Topographic & drainage flags
- Utilities serviceability check
- Off-site improvement exposure
Maps and manages the approvals your project needs. A permit analysis identifies what applies. We then prepare and process the permit packages, and manage conditions of approval and mitigation through to clearance.
- Likely local entitlements (rezone, CUP, subdivision)
- Likely state & federal permits
- Rough sequencing of approvals
Keeps the project’s numbers honest at every step. We translate planning, design, and permitting realities into cost ranges, market and demand assumptions, and a clear-eyed risk picture. That gives you defensible go / no-go and investment decisions.
- ROM cost stack
- Margin-killers checklist
- Desktop risk flags (go / caution / no-go)
See all Cost, Market & Risk services →
A feasibility study is decision-grade analysis, not field verification. At each step, we document the assumptions that would need to be confirmed as you move into design, permitting, and construction.
Ranges below. Fees stack if you combine steps, and the final fee depends on project complexity — every scope is fixed-fee and agreed in writing before any work begins.
Here’s how it works, from first contact to the deliverables you choose — every scope is written and agreed before any work begins.
Submit a short form or give us a call with your address, parcel, goal, and timeline. Send over any studies you already have — we work from the available records either way.
We review your project, confirm your goal, and send back a preliminary read with a suggested scope of work — what it covers, a cost range, and a timeline.
Choose Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, or all three. We send a fixed-fee written scope and price for what you choose — no open-ended commitments.
We carry out the steps you chose on the timeline for each and hand over the deliverables. If you go through Step 3, it ends with the agency’s feedback and our recommendations.
Feasibility is the first stretch of a five-stage sequence we call the Development Decision Ladder — the same decisions experienced developers work through, laid out in order. Use the graphic below to see where your project sits today.
Your feasibility study covers the first three steps. See the full five-step path — from first screen to construction compliance — and where each decision takes your project.
Professionalism, Quality, Responsiveness, Value
Without Cox Planning Solutions, we would not have moved forward with our project at all. Their guidance and diligence helped get our project back on track after receiving a letter from the city requiring a biological study, and hiring another consultant who did not follow through.
Diligently completed wetland permits
COX Planning Solutions has diligently completed several wetland permits for our company and also have been instrumental in helping us decide what properties to purchase.
Creative Custom Solutions, Every Time
I really like working with Cox Planning Solutions because of their knowledge of regulatory agencies and their requirements. I would definitely recommend them for anyone who is looking for a planning company to help them with challenging projects.
Professionalism, Quality, Responsiveness, Value
COX Planning Solutions has helped us tremendously with our wetlands permits, including effectively negotiating our Water Board approval, completing our application submissions on schedule, and managing completion of all our protocol surveys. Their work has stood out compared to other consultants we have hired and we plan to continue our relationship as we complete our project.
Questions we hear from owners and developers weighing a Development Feasibility Study.
No. You can enter at whichever step matches where your project is and what you need to find out. Some owners start at the Initial Screening and decide from there; others come in at the Executive Underwrite or Pre-Application Readiness because the earlier questions are already settled. Each step is scoped and priced on its own, so you only commit to what you choose.
What do I get at each of the three steps?
Step 1 is a roughly one-week desktop screen of all six disciplines with a proceed, pause, or walk-away recommendation. Step 2 adds scenario economics so you, your partners, or your lender can weigh viable paths on defensible cost and time ranges. Step 3 gets agency signal on your preferred path before you commit to full design and entitlement spend.
Can the study tell me exactly what I can build?
Yes — in the later steps. Step 3, Pre-Application Readiness, pairs a conceptual site plan with a pre-application review, putting your proposed program in front of the permitting agency. You get a direct read on what the site can support and how the agency is likely to view what you intend to build. The early screening shows the range of what’s achievable; the later steps narrow it to a specific, agency-tested concept before you spend on full design and entitlement.
It is structured due diligence — aimed squarely at the questions that decide whether your project can be approved, and how. Most due diligence hands you technical information and stops there; ours pairs that technical work with decision-grade analysis: every assumption logged in the Verification Ledger, where confirmation is still needed, and a clear read on whether it makes sense to move forward. You get the data and the recommendation that comes with it.
That’s expected this early, and it’s not a problem — we can start wherever you are. The screening runs on readily available records, and every gap is captured in the Verification Ledger with a prioritized list of what to pull first; an address and a goal are enough to begin. Where it goes from there is mapped by our Development Decision Ladder, which covers the full arc from acquisition to construction close-out.
Can I skip the study and go straight to permits?
Sometimes — but skipping the screen is how projects land in redesign loops and schedule traps. The study is built to catch the expensive surprises before you commit to design, permits, or surveys, so your deeper spend goes toward a path that actually holds up.
Tell us about your project on a short call. We’ll map out your next steps and send them to you in writing — your free initial assessment.
We guarantee correct work, documented assumptions, and defensible ranges — never approvals or valuations.
Fixed fee · ~1 week · No documents required · Written scope before work begins
