Entitlements

Every first meeting with a new owner starts with two questions.

1. Who is your ideal guest?
2. Do we have necessary entitlements to execute your business plan?

Owners tend to lock in on the physical site. The views, the access to recreation, where the prefab units go, ideas for unique programming. They want to talk about what to build.

Regulatory entitlements, when leveraged to your advantage, are one of the best ways to add real value to your land, and in some cases create a competitive advantage over other incumbents trying to enter the market. Entitlements are what you are allowed to do on a parcel, based on zoning and regulatory requirements. Even with entitlements in hand, local jurisdictions will still require site plan, engineering, and permitting review to confirm adherence to federal, state, and local requirements. We will cover that second phase in a future post.

For years, most rural parcels drew limited oversight. Owners leaned on existing agricultural or recreation zoning and cleared an administrative special use permit. Over the last five years that ground has shifted, and it has shifted in a direction most owners have not built into their pro forma. The process now takes longer and costs more than expected. It also demands a real strategy. Leading with an attorney can do more harm than good. Every case is different.

The gray-zone years are ending

For most of the last decade, the quiet advantage in this business was ambiguity.

Local codes had no word for what we were building. Safari tents, domes, park models, treehouses, A-frames. Ordinances written for primitive tent camping and mobile home parks had no category that fit. Owners read that silence as permission. In a lot of places, it worked.

Call that the pioneer years. The period when the code did not describe the product, and the gap between the two was where the value lived.

That period is closing. Four things changed it.

Jurisdictions started writing definitions. Coconino County, Arizona updated its zoning ordinance to allow campgrounds in the General Zone on parcels of at least ten acres with an approved Conditional Use Permit. County planning staff later reported fielding campground questions daily. That is a county doing the responsible thing. It is also a county trading ambiguity for a rule.

Safety code caught up, and it caught up fast. On September 5, 2025, Texas became the first state in the country to adopt NFPA 1194 as a statewide building and safety standard for RV parks and campgrounds. It came through Senate Bill 1, the Heaven's 27 Camp Safety Act, named for the twenty-seven children killed in the Camp Mystic flooding. The standard carries site spacing, fire lane widths, and dead-end turnaround requirements.

That has real implications for new parks and for existing parks looking to expand. A statewide safety standard is a site plan. It sets your spacing, your road sections, your access geometry, and through all of that, your unit count. Texas is the first state to take this step. It will not be the last.

Counties have started hitting pause. On February 17, 2026, Lake County, Colorado approved a six-month moratorium on new applications for group camps, vacation lodges, private resorts, guest ranches, RV parks and campgrounds, and special event facilities in the unincorporated county. The county's own explanation is the part worth reading. Proposals had increased sharply, many involved tiny homes, glamping units, or hybrid camp and event facilities, and the Land Development Code did not clearly address those uses. Two weeks earlier, on February 2, Pickens County, South Carolina adopted its own six-month moratorium covering RV parks, campgrounds, and commercial lodging.

A moratorium is not a denial. For an owner under contract, it is worse. It is a stopped clock.

And small projects got a lane of their own. California signed AB 518 into law on October 1, 2025, creating a category called a low-impact camping area. Up to nine campsites, no more than four of them for RVs, a two-acre minimum parcel, roughly one site per acre, and the property sits outside the Special Occupancy Parks Act. Counties must opt-in before any of it applies locally. San Luis Obispo County had already drawn a similar line, with ten or fewer camping units qualifying for a lower level of review.

Put those four movements together and the shape of the trend is clear.

Small is getting a defined, lighter path. Everything above that line is being reviewed as what it is, which is commercial lodging with a rural address.

Zoning is no longer where most projects die

This is the part that surprises owners.

Five years ago, the hard question was whether the use was allowed at all. Today, on a lot of parcels, use is allowed and the project still fails.

It fails at the fire marshal's desk, over access road width and turnaround geometry on a mile of gravel two-track. It fails at environmental health, when the county declines to review a forty-unit operation under residential septic rules and the wastewater line in the budget triples. It fails on the flood map. It fails on the water supply.

Zoning tells you whether you are allowed to try.

Fire, health, and civil review tell you what it costs and whether the yield survives.

An owner who spends the entire due diligence period confirming zoning has confirmed the least expensive item on the list.

The most expensive mistake usually happens before closing

The perfect view, the perfect pad for prefab units, a location next to a real destination. It all looks like the right place for your resort.

Before you can build it, you need to know what you are entitled to build. Start with these questions:

• How the jurisdiction classifies the proposed use
• Whether the use is allowed by right
• Whether administrative approval is available
• Whether a Conditional Use Permit or Special Use Permit is required
• Whether rezoning is necessary
• How many units the current code supports
• What density, setback, parking, access, and operating standards apply
• What fire, wastewater, environmental, and building requirements are triggered
• Which agency holds decision-making authority
• Whether public notice, hearings, or appeals are part of the process
• How long the process is likely to take

A pre-application meeting with the local planning agency is the fastest way to get answers. Use it to learn the critical issues in that jurisdiction, the challenges you will need to overcome, and whether staff and elected officials are receptive. Getting the real issues, opportunities, and timeframes on the table early is what tells you how to proceed.

Build the strategy around the code that exists today

Most codes do not contemplate modern glamping or outdoor hospitality. Some include primary or secondary uses tied to camping or campgrounds. Often, a special use permit is required, or even a PUD, to secure the entitlements your vision needs. We build applications inside the framework of the existing code. Where new definitions or uses are required, we work with agency staff and show them successful applications from other jurisdictions. Four considerations shape that work.

1. What the current code allows. Identify the closest existing land use classification and determine whether the proposed use is allowed by right, conditionally, administratively, or not at all. That review covers the zoning map, permitted use tables, development standards, definitions, comprehensive plan, subdivision regulations, building code, fire code, health regulations, and environmental constraints.
2. What the business model requires. How many units. What types of accommodation. Whether the property includes food and beverage, event space, pools, bathhouses, wellness, retail, or trails. Seasonal or year-round. How guests arrive. Whether the operation needs employees or an on-site manager. Every one of those details changes how a jurisdiction classifies and reviews the project.
3. What gets triggered. Unit count, guest capacity, wastewater, road network, fire access, lighting, grading, floodplain, wetlands, and utilities all shape the approval path. A site can be zoned for a broad use and still meet serious resistance in civil, environmental health, fire, and building review. Projects that look simple at the zoning level often are not simple once the full operating program is on the table.
4. How the jurisdiction runs the process. The written code is half of it. Who reviews the application. Who decides. Whether there is a pre-application step. What makes an application complete. Whether hearings are required and what the notice distances are. Whether the decision can be appealed. What conditions of approval look like. What happens when the project changes after approval.

Administrative approval can change the economics

Not every project needs a public hearing or a rezoning.

When a use qualifies for administrative approval, the owner reduces time, uncertainty, and cost. Shorter entitlement periods reduce carrying costs. A clearer path improves lender confidence. An earlier decision lets you move on to your vision sooner.

Administrative approval is only available when the project fits the code. It cannot be assumed because the parcel is rural or agricultural.

When it is not available, a Conditional Use Permit often is. A CUP lets the jurisdiction evaluate the specific project, set conditions, and address impacts.

Rezoning is a heavier and less certain path, because it changes the land use designation rather than approving a use inside the existing one.

The right strategy is rarely the most aggressive one. It is the one that fits the regulatory framework while still getting the owner where they need to go.

Community sentiment is part of the strategy, not a separate problem

A technically compliant project can still fall short with strong public opposition.

Residents raise traffic, noise, lighting, water use, wildfire risk, emergency access, and property values. Some communities welcome tourism investment and jobs. Others see outdoor hospitality as short-term rental expansion wearing a nicer coat, or as a commercial resort dropped into an agricultural setting.

You want to know which one you are walking into before the hearing, not during it.

Early conversations surface concerns while there is still time to answer them through site planning, operating standards, access improvements, buffers, lighting controls, quiet hours, fire mitigation, and water strategy.

Engagement does not guarantee approval. It does separate legitimate concerns from avoidable surprises, and it shows the community that the owner understands what operating there requires.

Entitlements can be a competitive advantage

In some markets, a Special Use Permit is the only path to an outdoor hospitality resort. A working relationship with the local jurisdiction can streamline that process in an otherwise difficult regulatory environment, and that is a real competitive advantage, or at least early traction in a market others cannot enter.

What a planning partner is for

Getting through the entitlement process takes more than reading a zoning code.

It takes understanding how land use, guest experience, site planning, infrastructure, operations, capital, and community sentiment move each other. Evaluate the property before closing. Define the program honestly. Test it against the code that exists today. Identify the likely approval pathways. Keep the land planning process tied to the business plan rather than running beside it.

You still need to bring the local relationship. The agency wants to work with the owner, with the team bringing jobs to the community, and with a project that sends visitors into town to spend money.

The right partner does not just save time and money. It maximizes the value of your land and secures the full range of uses you need now and later.

Entitlement is one of the best ways to add value to your investment.