Land Development Advice

[John William Kuhfahl]

Hey everyone,

We just visited our vacant 40 acres about 40min north of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. It's zoned for residential. We have already been offered 209k for the land itself, and it's likely able to fetch a fair bit more. We are curious if we should build multiple campsites, which would include a lot of tree and brush clearing, and likely a bridge across the creek. I've attached some pictures I took of the property. Do you think we'd be better off selling the property and buying some land to build on elsewhere, or should we clear this? What would that entail cost wise? Any insights you could possibly give us would be much appreciated, we're pretty new to land development. Thank you.

[Dennis McNeely]

Land development is my home turf @John William Kuhfahl.

The bad news is that there is no part of the game that's inexpensive, and much of it involves fair chunks of time for approvals. 

The good news? I'd suggest you go through the preliminary site plan approval process and get a site plan approved. That will greatly improve your property's value if you intend to sell it. Alternately, it will greatly improve your negotiating position if you elect to partner with a builder / developer in the area to  actually bring the project out of the ground together.

Good luck!