Planning - Cimarron

What is Planning?

Planning is the first and most decisive phase of a project, setting the roadmap every later phase — starting with design — will follow. At Cimarron, it is a structured evaluation of a project’s goals, site, regulatory path, schedule, and budget, completed before design professionals are engaged. The goal is to confirm feasibility, define the conditions for approval and construction, and hand design a clear, de-risked starting point. Because the regulatory and entitlement path is the largest source of cost and schedule risk, Cimarron focuses heavily on securing land-use approvals and coordinating early with the agencies that govern whether — and how — a project can proceed.

Why Planning?

Just as we plan our travel, set expectations, and budget before a trip, every project deserves a map. Too often design begins without one, and the project backtracks, loses time, and wastes money — usually when an entitlement or agency requirement surfaces after design is already underway. Planning resolves the major constraints and clarifies the approval path before design dollars are spent.

Cimarron as Your Planning Advisor

Engaging Cimarron early establishes clear direction, a defined entitlement strategy, and a realistic budget and schedule before design begins — saving money, protecting the schedule, and avoiding rework. Working across many jurisdictions, each with its own agencies and processes, we anticipate the approval path wherever a project is located. The areas below represent the scope we resolve during planning.

Goals and Feasibility

Project Goal Review. We align enterprise goals, project goals, and concept, then test scope, schedule, and budget against the project type — for example, a biotech manufacturing facility and a distribution center have very different requirements.

Due Diligence Surveys. We evaluate existing building, site, utility, environmental, and regulatory conditions to establish the baseline and surface the constraints that shape entitlement strategy.

Entitlements and Government Agency Coordination

Entitlements — the permissions agencies grant to govern how a property may be used and developed — are the centerpiece of planning. A clear, defensible approval path set before design is the best protection for a project’s cost and schedule.

Entitlement Strategy and Land-Use Approvals. We map every required approval and its sequence — zoning, rezoning, variances, conditional or special-use permits, site plan and subdivision approval, and development agreements — whether you are acquiring, redeveloping, or confirming allowable use.

Agency Coordination and Pre-Application Engagement. We engage planning departments, commissions, zoning boards, and building departments early, using pre-application meetings to learn expectations, identify likely conditions of approval, and clear obstacles before they drive the schedule.

Environmental Review and Compliance. We identify environmental approvals early — state and local review, wetlands and waterways, stormwater, air, and habitat considerations — since these are often the longest pole in the approval tent.

Utility Coordination and Will-Serve. We confirm capacity for water, sewer, power, gas, and telecom and secure will-serve commitments, avoiding redesign and surprise off-site obligations.

Transportation, Access, and Public Infrastructure. We coordinate traffic studies, access permits, right-of-way and easements, and fire and health requirements with the relevant authorities.

Incentives and Economic Development. We pursue abatements, grants, and development-authority approvals that can materially improve the project’s financial model.

Schedule

Master Schedule and Milestones. A milestone schedule anchored on the approval sequence and its submittal and hearing deadlines, continuously updated and carried forward into design.

Critical and Near-Critical Path. We track the activities that could become critical — most often agency approvals — to shorten duration and limit disruption.

Cost

Preliminary Budget. A realistic baseline that includes the entitlement, environmental, and off-site costs too often discovered late.

Financial Modeling. Cash flow and capital costs modeled against the schedule, including the approval timeline, to optimize the timing of outlays.

Delivery and Market Strategy

Delivery Method. We select the right method — Design-Build, Design-Bid-Build, or another — against goals, schedule, and approval path, before it constrains design.

Procurement Strategy. We weigh approaches such as off-site versus on-site or modular versus stick-built against cost, schedule, and the regulatory path.

Labor and Trade Availability. We confirm the project location can resource the work, which may shape method or materials.

Long-Lead and Special Items. We identify long-lead and specialty items so procurement is planned ahead of construction.

Market Sounding. Early contractor and supplier interviews gauge interest and capability and inform the strategy carried into design.

A Clean Handoff to Design

Planning ends where design begins. Cimarron hands the design team a de-risked foundation, not a set of open questions:

Design then moves straight into plans, specifications, constructability, value analysis, and sustainability — without revisiting the feasibility and approval questions planning has already answered. The result is a faster, cleaner, and less costly transition.

Contact Cimarron Construction Advisors & Construction Managers today for an initial consultation on our planning services and how we can help position your project for success.