Permitting Strategy - the path before the paperwork.
Senior advisory engagements that map the regulatory path, sequence approvals, and surface schedule risk before a single submittal goes out the door.
Strategy first, paperwork second.
Before a permit gets submitted, the path has to be designed. Our strategy engagements deliver a regulatory roadmap, a sequenced approval calendar, and a quantified risk register your team, or ours, can execute against. We pressure-test assumptions early, when fixes are cheap, so your program enters submittal with the agencies aligned, the dependencies mapped, and a schedule that holds up to lenders, partners, and your board.
What we do
Strategy deliverables that de-risk a program before execution begins, grounded in current agency practice, not what the code reads like on paper.
Jurisdictional analysis
A deep read of every code, ordinance, and overlay zone affecting your site or corridor, including unwritten agency practice and recent precedent decisions.
- Deliverable: annotated code & overlay matrix
- Outcome: fewer mid-review surprises
Approval sequencing
A critical-path schedule for permits and approvals tied to your construction milestones, with float, dependencies, and statutory review windows modeled explicitly.
- Deliverable: sequenced calendar (CSV/Gantt)
- Outcome: defensible schedule for finance & GC
Agency pre-meetings
Confidential pre-application meetings with reviewing agencies to surface concerns early, calibrate scope, and build relationships before formal submittal.
- Deliverable: meeting notes & reviewer positions
- Outcome: scope locked before submittal
Cost & schedule modeling
Probabilistic timeline and fee modeling so finance can underwrite with confidence, including P50/P90 scenarios and sensitivity to the riskiest approvals.
- Deliverable: P50/P90 cost & schedule model
- Outcome: underwriting-ready assumptions
Entitlement & feasibility memo
A plain-language read on what's actually permittable on the site, what's contingent, and what would require a code amendment, variance, or political lift to achieve.
- Deliverable: feasibility memo with go/no-go
- Outcome: clear basis for invest/exit decision
How a strategy engagement runs
A focused 4-8 week sprint led by a senior principal, structured to give your team a defensible plan and a clear go/no-go at the end.
What happens week by week
- 01 · Kick-off
- 02 · Discovery
- 03 · Synthesis
- 04 · Handover
- Phase 01, Wk 1
- Scope, principal assigned, success criteria locked.
- Phase 02, Wk 2-3
- Jurisdictional reads, agency pre-meetings, benchmarking.
- Phase 03, Wk 4-6
- Roadmap, sequenced calendar, risk register, cost model.
- Phase 04, Wk 7-8
- Executive readout, deliverable, execution recommendation.
- 01Phase 01
Kick-off
Document review, principal assigned, and success criteria agreed in week one, with a working session to align on scope, decision points, and the audience for the final readout.
- 02Phase 02
Discovery
Jurisdictional reads, agency pre-meetings, and peer-project benchmarking, including informal calls with reviewers and a scan of recent comparable approvals in the same jurisdictions.
- 03Phase 03
Synthesis
Roadmap, sequenced calendar, risk register, and cost/schedule model produced and stress-tested internally before draft delivery, with a mid-engagement check-in to confirm direction.
- 04Phase 04
Handover
Executive readout, written deliverable, and a recommended execution model, yours, ours, or hybrid, plus a 30-day follow-up call once your team has lived with the plan.
- No.
- Every engagement delivers a written roadmap, a sequenced calendar (CSV/Gantt), and a quantified risk register.
- The deck is the readout, not the deliverable, and everything is yours to keep, edit, and re-use without restriction.
Design the path before you pour the paperwork.
Share your project brief, target start date, and the decision this engagement needs to support. We'll come back within one business day with a fixed-fee scope, named principal, and proposed kick-off date.
Start a strategy engagement