This is the second installment in my blog series about the Eight Traits of Successful Developers. In the first post I discussed the first two traits: “Successful developers don’t fall in love too soon” and “Successful developers find the problem.” In this post I will discuss how successful developers understand that consultants must be realists rather than optimists – they must be thorough and candid. This trait is third in the series because I believe it helps developers succeed at trait number two.

In my 25 years of land development consulting I’ve had the opportunity to work with a wide variety of developers, from small first timers trying to develop the family farm to large institutional developers with dozens of active projects around the country. Within this wide range of developers there are many unfortunate stories of failures, bad projects, and sometimes financial ruin.

Land development is my passion. I and many of my peers chose civil engineering for a career because we wanted to do work we could be proud of, and land development gives us that feeling. We also recognize that land development adds value to our communities in a variety of ways, such as increased property tax rolls, a greater quantity of real estate inventory that appreciates over time, and the construction of public infrastructure via private investment. Land development is a noble undertaking because it adds value to the places where we live, work, and play.

Updated April 26, 2016

The Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE) is making Low Impact Development (LID) a priority in a major way: they are mandating the use of LID technologies for stormwater design and construction across the board.

Every agency in Washington will eventually be affected by this new rule. For those in the development industry, this is something to note and prepare for. Even if you don’t currently work in Washington, it is only a matter of time before other states follow Washington’s lead, so this will impact you at some point.