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Building on greenfield land
Developments on undeveloped raw land in urban or rural areas require careful planning and consideration. With the right surveys, you’ll find it easier to navigate planning constraints for greenfield land development. Surveys can help you engage with your surrounding community and create a design that makes the best possible use of the land.
The challenges of developing greenfield sites
What is considered greenfield land development?
Greenfield sites are areas of land that haven’t been developed before. They are often green spaces or agricultural land, but can also be open spaces within urban areas. They may be in existing residential or industrial areas, or around the edges of a town or city.
Unknown risks
Greenfield sites can have hidden issues that may impact development projects.
Planning permission
Greenfield sites can face more hurdles to achieve local authority planning approval.
Environment
Communities may oppose development that threatens the local environment.
Infrastructure
Undeveloped sites usually lack any existing access or utilities infrastructure.
A Guide to Greenfield Land Development: Key Considerations
If you’re weighing up between choosing brownfield or greenfield land development, you should consider the pros and cons of both. Many people see brownfield land development as time-consuming as it can have old structures that need clearing. However, building on greenfield land can take time too as it needs to be connected to existing infrastructure.
Unlike previously developed land, greenfield sites usually do not have the problems of working around existing utilities or roads. You can design new infrastructure to the area’s local plan and to meet your development’s modern needs.
There are so many unknown elements to undeveloped greenfield sites that it’s vital to properly survey the land. Surveyors can look into records to check whether the site’s surroundings may have impacted the greenfield land. For instance, they can uncover former industrial sites nearby, or previous coalworks and mineshafts that could seriously affect any greenfield land development.
Starting from a fresh slate gives you flexibility and the opportunity to really put your personal mark on a site. Green infrastructure, energy-efficient design and sustainable construction can ensure you minimise the development’s environmental impact. These elements can make a project more complex, but will also make it easier to meet local planning authority conditions.
Green belt land is specifically designated to protect it from urban sprawl and most other development. Not all green belt land is greenfield land and not all greenfield land is green belt land. It is much more difficult to get planning permission to build on green belt land, but it isn’t impossible.
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How surveys benefit greenfield land development projects
The right survey data can help you plan better to reduce the chance of certain risks during your greenfield site development. You can identify potential issues like any impact on or from surrounding buildings, and design drainage systems around any areas at greater risk of flooding.
A site survey can check the existing boundaries to ensure you are clear about the land’s legal boundaries. By investigating the surrounding area, surveys can give you information about existing utilities and access. This enables you to estimate the costs of connecting your development to nearby infrastructure.
Site investigations like soil tests can tell you a lot about the ground you’ll be working on. You can find any potential pollutants and see how stable the ground is. This ensures it can support the weight of the planned buildings.
By understanding the site’s natural gradients and features, like trees and ponds, you can design your development around them. This can ensure your greenfield site development is more cost effective. It helps you to meet planning application considerations and make housing developments or other properties more attractive to buyers.
Maintaining as much of the natural area can also be useful when developing greenfield sites with existing wildlife, plants and ecosystems. All new building projects in England must have a 10% net gain in biodiversity, so it’s important to have the information to incorporate this into your plans.
Showing how you will protect the local environment can help you connect with local communities. This is important, especially if they might oppose development. Surveys play a crucial part in supporting you to achieve this efficiently.
What surveys could you need?
As-Built Surveys
A fully up-to-date record of what has just been constructed, ensuring it matches the proposed plans. Useful for producing further plans that require an accurate site layout.
Floor Level Surveys
Quality survey check for various floor construction stages, from existing floors to newly constructed slabs.
Garden Surveys
Highly detailed, specialist topographical survey for garden landscaping and redesigns.
GPS Surveys
Ideal for covering large open spaces, like fields, or where access may be restricted or challenging.
Measured Building Surveys
3D site survey of a building’s layout and structure that can also be used to produce floor plans, elevations and cross-section drawings.
River & Floodplain Surveys
Surveys of riverbanks and beds, as well as adjacent floodplains. We record water levels and significant features for flood risk assessments and erosion monitoring.
Road Surveys
Comprehensive record of current road layouts and levels, including kerbs, street furniture and road markings. Ideal for visibility splays and new highways designs.
Setting Out
Geocordinated setting out services for building groundworks and steelworks for new housing, commercial and industrial sites.
Surveys for Land Registry Title Plans
Site surveys for creating Land Registry compliant plans to record areas of sale, transfer, correction or first registration.
Topographical Surveys
Accurate, scaled plan of a site’s terrain, and a record of the position and levels of both manmade and natural features.
Volumetric Surveys & Terrain Models
Measuring the total amount of stockpiled, extracted or collected materials and aggregates. Suitable for construction, calculating and auditing.
How we work
Step 01
Request a quote
We’ll need your project’s address and a site plan. We’ll then get in touch for a consultation to confirm site details and understand exactly what your project needs.
Step 02
Quote accepted
Once your project is confirmed with us, we’ll arrange a convenient date for your survey.
Step 03
We complete your survey
We’ll visit your project site to carry out the survey. We can meet you on site if needed. We will then process the survey data and create a survey drawing.
Step 04
Receive your survey
We’ll share the survey data with you, usually within a few days. We use industry standard file types and can issue all the drawings in multiple formats.
Who we work with
Why choose Cheshire Surveys
We provide a range of surveys and related services across the North West, Cheshire, North Staffordshire and North Wales.
Passion & technical expertise
25+ years experience
Quality services tailored to your project
