Property boundaries
Property lines, setbacks, easements, access points, and usable development areas establish the physical framework for the property.
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Before You Design the House, Design the Property.
A thoughtful site plan is more than a drawing showing where your house will sit. It is a roadmap for how your property functions today—and how it can develop tomorrow.
Start Planning Your PropertyLet the Property Inspire the Plan.
One of the most exciting parts of developing land is standing on an open property and allowing creativity to flow. Where should the house sit? What view do you want to wake up to? Where will guests arrive?
Could there eventually be a barn, shop, guest house, pool, garden, livestock area, outdoor kitchen, or second residence? What does the property need today—and what might you want ten or twenty years from now?
This is where thoughtful site planning begins. A site plan should document the current phase of development while also considering future phases.
Don't make a decision during Phase One that creates an expensive problem during Phase Three.
What Could This Property Become?
Before placing the first structure, start with the wish list. Everything does not need to be constructed during the first phase. A thoughtful site plan establishes priorities for today while preserving appropriate locations, access, and infrastructure capacity for future phases.
Primary residence
Guest house or ADU
Additional family residences
Barn, shop, or garage
Pool and outdoor kitchen
Gardens and greenhouses
Livestock areas and corrals
Equipment storage
RV and trailer parking
Recreational or gathering spaces
Agricultural uses
The House Is Only One Piece of the Property.
Open Range approaches site planning by considering how the entire property works together.
Topography & elevations
High points, low points, slopes, and elevation changes influence building placement, roads, drainage, views, infrastructure, and construction costs.
Drainage & water movement
Understanding runoff, swales, low areas, and water-diversion requirements helps determine where roads, structures, and infrastructure belong.
Building placement
The placement of homes, barns, shops, ADUs, and garages affects views, privacy, access, solar exposure, infrastructure distances, and future expansion.
Driveways & roads
Consider driveway locations, grades, road lengths, drainage crossings, construction access, emergency access, and future traffic early.
Water infrastructure
Potential well locations, storage tanks, filtration, distribution lines, livestock water, and future demand should be coordinated with the full plan.
Wastewater
Septic and wastewater requirements can substantially influence where structures can be located, so they should be considered before a homesite is finalized.
Energy infrastructure
Solar arrays, batteries, generators, propane storage, utility buildings, underground distribution, and room for expansion all need a place.
Agricultural infrastructure
Barns, fencing, corrals, pastures, equipment access, gardens, greenhouses, and water distribution should work together rather than as separate projects.
A Site Plan Is Also a Budgeting Tool.
One of the most overlooked benefits of site planning is its value during contractor bidding and project budgeting. Contractors cannot provide highly accurate pricing when they are working primarily from verbal descriptions and assumptions.
A coordinated site plan gives contractors a common reference point. When approximate locations, routes, dimensions, distances, structures, and infrastructure requirements are identified, they can better understand the intended scope.
Better information creates better bids. Better bids create better budgets.
Roads and driveways
Excavation and site preparation
Underground utilities
Electrical and water distribution
Wells and septic systems
Drainage improvements
Concrete, fencing, and landscaping
Agricultural infrastructure
Plan Today for What Comes Tomorrow.
Rural properties often develop over several years. Planning future phases does not mean paying for or building everything today. It means today’s infrastructure decisions should account for tomorrow’s possibilities.
Phase one
Driveway, well, septic, energy infrastructure, and primary residence
Phase two
Barn, shop, pool, outdoor living, and agricultural infrastructure
Phase three
Guest house, additional family residence, expanded agriculture, and recreational improvements
A water line installed today may eventually need to serve a barn.
A driveway constructed today could become the main access for several residences.
A solar and battery system may need room for future expansion.
A septic location could affect where a future guest house can be built.
Planning ahead doesn't mean building ahead.
Your Site Plan May Also Become Part of the Permitting Process.
Depending on the jurisdiction and scope of the project, development approvals or permitting may require a formal site plan or other site documentation. Requirements vary by state, county, municipality, property type, and project.
Property boundaries and setbacks
Easements and existing structures
Proposed structures and access
Utilities, wells, and wastewater systems
Drainage information and elevations
Other jurisdiction-specific information
When professional surveys, engineering, architectural documents, drainage calculations, environmental studies, or other licensed services are required, those documents must be prepared by the appropriate qualified or licensed professionals. Open Range Development's conceptual planning can help establish the overall development intent and provide a coordinated starting point for the project's licensed professionals.
Walk the Property Before You Draw the Property.
Look at the views. Watch where the sun rises and sets. Understand where the land rises and falls. Walk it after a heavy rain and see where the water travels. Think about privacy, guests, livestock, children and grandchildren, and what this property might look like ten or twenty years from now.
Your site plan shouldn't simply show where you're putting a house. It should tell the story of what the property can become.
Open Range approach
Start With the Property.
Open Range Development helps rural property owners turn their ideas, wish lists, infrastructure requirements, budgets, and long-term goals into a coordinated development strategy. Whether you own five acres or five hundred, thoughtful planning can help you make better decisions before expensive construction begins.
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