Planning commission recommended approval 6 to 1. Council voted it down 4 to 3 and I'd already spent the money
22 acres on the edge of a growing suburb, contract at $1.45M, contingent on rezoning from a two acre minimum residential district to something that would carry 74 lots. Fourteen months of work. It's dead and I'm out about $255k.
Where the money went. Land planner and concept engineering, $58k. Traffic impact study the county required before the hearing, $31k. Wetland delineation and a stream buffer determination, $24k. Land use attorney through two continuances and the hearings, $46k. Mailed notices, two neighborhood meetings including the room rental and a professional facilitator, $21k. Total hard spend $180k. On top of that, three contract extensions at $25k each, nonrefundable, applied to purchase price only at closing, so $75k gone the moment I walked.
What actually happened. Staff report was favorable. Planning commission recommended approval 6 to 1 after I cut density from 82 to 74 and added a 50 foot buffer along the two neighbors who spoke. I treated that as the hard part being over. It was the easy part.
Between the commission hearing and the council vote there was a November election. One seat changed. The opposition, which had been four households, spent that gap organizing around a single argument, that the elementary school two miles away was over capacity and the district had no funded plan. I had no answer prepared because school capacity had never come up in front of the commission. Two council members had told me in separate conversations that they were comfortable with the plan, and I took that as yes... it was not yes. Neither of them voted for it.
What I'd do differently, plainly. I would not have spent past the $60k concept stage without counting council votes myself, one at a time, in person, and asking each of them what would make them vote no. I would have tied my extensions to final legislative approval instead of milestones I could hit without getting approved, and I would have paid for the extensions in smaller, more frequent increments so walking earlier cost less. I would have had the school capacity question researched and answered before the first neighborhood meeting, because that argument was sitting there for anyone who wanted it. And I would never again treat a favorable staff report as a predictor of an elected body's vote. Staff evaluates the ordinance. Council counts constituents.