By Victor Lopez

How much for the dirt? Is that a retail site with frontage? I got a great deal on site in the perfect location and all I need to do is fill in the wet areas! We’ve all heard plenty of these stories about site selection for self storage development, but what you do with your site once you find it makes all the difference. Here is the condensed version of how to maximize your site.

The first step in planning your site requires a great deal of information about zoning regulations, setbacks and other jurisdictional requirements. This is where you want to have an experienced design builder or a very good civil engineer with self-storage experience to get through the city or approving jurisdiction. A local civil engineer that is familiar with all the current zoning regulations will save you weeks and months in getting your site plan approved. While hacking out your site plan, some of the most important considerations are land coverage, site improvements and building layout. The key to site planning is understanding these variables and what they cost in order to maximize the coverage on your site.

Land cost and land coverage can go hand in hand. What you pay for the dirt and how much gross building square footage you squeeze out of it affect the overall financial performance of the facility. But it goes beyond just how much you pay for the site because you always need to consider what you will be able to build and what it is going to take to get there. The first hurdle in maximizing your coverage is determining the setbacks and required buffers for your site. Examining the plat and verifying additional requirements with the city will easily determine these. Be sure to check what is required for fire lane widths and turning radius for your local fire department. Also determine the required landscape areas and buffers.

Now that you have determined the physical parameters of your site, you have to consider what site improvements are in your way of maximizing your coverage. Earlier in your development process you should have determined what existing utilities you have or at least how far you have to go to get them. Don’t cut yourself short by not using existing utility locations to your best advantage. You will also need to satisfy the fire marshal by installing the required number of fire hydrants and associated fire lines. Another site improvement consideration is excavation and grading. Will the site require a lot of dirt to be moved or can you layout the buildings to follow the natural grade? You might consider using split-level buildings to take advantage of steep grades on the site. Retaining walls can also help capture more useable space on a site with steep grades, but use them as a last resort due to the significant cost of retaining walls. Finally, storm drainage is a significant site improvement consideration. Use surface drainage as much as possible to keep costs down and ensure your civil engineer has carefully determined the requirements for storm water detention and filtration. Detention ponds can take up valuable space and reduce your coverage or add significant cost if you use concrete ponds or underground detention. Water quality ponds or filtration ponds will also become costly if not carefully placed and sized properly.

Now that you have figured out how much of the site you can use you can start laying out the buildings. This is where the site plan begins to take shape and overlaps into the unit mix plan. Don’t cut yourself short by having all your building the same width because a metal building manufacture has a clearance sale on metal buildings. Likewise don’t get yourself in a jamb by lining all the property lines with single loading buildings of the same width. A good point to remember is that your building layout supports your unit mix. You may have to reposition and or resize your buildings to get a better unit mix.

The objective is to maximize the financial performance of your facility by getting the most out of your site. By understanding the costs associated with site coverage, site improvements and building layout and effectively putting them all together you will be able to maximize your site.

Victor Lopez is the president of NDS Construction, a full-service design and construction company. NDS has completed more than 200 projects totaling more than 8 million square feet of storage and has won numerous awards for design as well as “Facility of the Year.” For more information, call 888.980.8250; visit www.ndsinc.com .