All Forum Posts by: Jamie Hora

Hi Yehuda. I am a licensed civil engineer in Texas and perform these for clients on a regular basis.  I'm located in San Antonio and have projects in and around Dallas-Fort Worth.  I would be happy to have a discussion with you about the project and the exact services you need.  Feel free to send a direct message. 

If you wish for each home/lot to have their own septic tank, counties or city code will usually require a minimum lot size (1/2ac - 1 ac min roughly).  Since you said tiny homes, this is probably not an option.  

Septic fields are an option, but they can require a quite a bit of open space.  Best advice is to reach out a septic designer and see how many drain fields you would need, or how many homes you can combine into 1 field based on code & practicality.  In my experience on my commercial sites (with restaurants), roughly 1 acre out of the 4 acre site could be eaten up by a septic field. Not sure about residential though.  

A well can definitely be set up to serve more than 1 home. Just need to see how much water a well in your area can produce, plus the cost / efficiency of a larger well vs multiple individuals. 

In both scenarios with "shared" services, I would also give consideration to the shared responsibility & maintenance of the septic field , well, and equipment. 

My commercial clients have still been busy over the last couple years.  I've done several projects in the Corpus Christi area and many in the valley.  The only slowdown we have seen is on multi-family clients.  

Have you already discussed it with the City/Jurisdiction that owns the water/sewer utilities? That negotiation with cost participation, or their funding of the project should begin with them.    

Unless they are for some reason resistant to the project, it should be them receiving the funds from the state to expand their utilities, not you needing to lobby the state.  If it is a small town City that issnt aware of such programs by the state, you could bring them the information and present it to them and request the City pursue it for both yours and their benefit.  (Assuming your project fits the criteria for such state funding). 

Dan, I'm also a civil engineer & will reiterate what some others have said. Any project that requires DOT permitting should get them involved early on and have a level of coordination to get their immediate feedback on the site plan. When we do this, we also include the developer in our meeting so they can hear the DOT's concerns/comments firsthand. This predevelopment meeting is done before design because they can be so impactful. For example, even if you are complying with their criteria, what if they have a road/ROW widening planned in 2 years that nobody knows about that eats up 30' into your property.

If you are going 'by the books', the Civil could have dropped the ball on this. If they are rejecting your permit because of the sight distance, it is worth understanding their experience with this DOT and how lenient they are on design exceptions. Some design criteria can be really tough on a developer, and I have had many instances where DOT will allow us to do things that are not exactly meeting their code. And if your sight distance is only short by 15%(?) of the requirement, that could be a reasonable variance with some DOTs.

Sorry that may not really help out your situation, but just thoughts from another engineer. 

An engineer would be a great start to help disect the conditions of the site.  But also a conversation with the City that it will be permitted in, to understand all requirements that you will be responsible for. 

Hey Nathan. I've worked on projects and am familiar with the permitting process in Waco.  My experience there is with designing a public road and multifamily.  Outside of Waco I have experience in single family, RV Parks, and a lot of commercial development.  Feel free to reach out to discuss  you potential projects in Texas!

I would definitely contact a local civil engineer or environmental engineering firm.  My initial hunch is that there may be extremely limited options of what can be built, and a likelihood of nothing being allowed.  You can also reach out to the Development Services department of the City that the land is in and they would also be familiar with that the code states. 

Best way would be by getting an estimate from a contractor.  

Are you demo'ing only a free standing building?  Is there pavement haul-off needed?  Are there underground utilities to be removed?  Land/Tree clearing?  Some sites require asbestos testing and/or possible environmental testing as well where demolition occurs.  If you provide a scope of what you are demo-ing, you may have better luck with someone's experience to comment here, but costs can vary regionally, so a local contractor would give you the best actual estimate. 

Hi Naqib. What size is the land?  Are you wishing for just a topographic survey or are you needing boundary survey as well?  I know a surveyor in Plano, only a few minutes from Princeton.  Feel free to send me message with some details and I can connect you.