Long-term land-use is the first item on the list because it speaks to quality of life. If nothing else, log homeowners are sticklers about that aspect. Each county government’s planning and zoning department willhave long range plans for any given area. They may be designated for business, residential use of varyingdensities, agriculture, and public use such as parksand schools. Down the road, there may be plans toerect a maximum-security prison or a landfill. Zoning may prohibit any building at all. Find that out now.Also find out about any planned road improvements. If you’re ever driving down a six-lane highway and wondered why people have built such beautiful homes within sight of the road, chances are they didn’t know the road was planned when they purchased the land many years before. Try selling a home after that!Where are the roads? Are they paved or dirt? Who is responsible for keeping them up? Does access to the site involve crossing someone else’s property? If so, you’ll need an easement, or permission to use that land. Be sure the availability and cost of the easement is settled before committing to your building site. When you consider the slope of the land, will extensive grading or fill be needed? Make sure there are no environmental hazards on the property, such as old buried oil or gas tanks. They are expensive to remove, and even more of a burden if cleanup is required. Although most industry insiders estimate that 25,000 log homes are erected each year, chances are you seldom see them along busy thoroughfares and don’t get a sense of just how many are out there. Typically, log home owners prefer to build their homes on isolated, often wooded, tracts of land. As these parcels become less available, you’rebound to see more log homes in subdivisions and other planned communities. Check plot maps and subdivision restrictions in those instances. Despite the fact that log homes are ©2005 Kuhns Bros. Log Homes, Inc. 3 of 8 considered high-end abodes, many subdivisions prohibit them. (People have been known to get around those prohibitions by building with the beveled colonial log profile which gives a more traditional look on the outside while retaining the more rustic looking log.) No restrictions? This isn’t necessarily a good thing. If you’re not restricted, then neither is your neighbor. How do you feel about a chicken coop being erected nearyour home? Have you considered fire prevention? Home insurance may be impossible to secure if there are no hydrantsor rural fire department with water trucks in the area in which you build. Find out if the site is serviced by municipal water and sewage or whether you will have to drill a well and install a septic or mound system. These items will add considerably to your expenses. If you require a septic system, you must have a “perc” test on the land to see whether the soil can handle the drainage. This involves digging a hole about 10 feet deep and waiting a few days to determine if the ground water rises to the point where a septic system would contaminate it. Independent specialists can do the test, but in some areas it must be conducted by a health official, so check with your local health authorities. A mound system will work in areas where percolation is slow, but are more expensive and sit high enough that they figure into the landscaping scheme. What about electricity? If there are no power lines to the home site, contact the local utility to find out the costs associated with bringing power to the site. But don’t stop there! Consider the case of a landowner who had contracted with the local utility to erect a pole across the road – a road he assumed was a public road – from his rural home site. After waiting several weeks for the installer to show up, the installation was halted because a neighboring landowner objected to the erection of the power pole. Having no choice, the installer had to pack up the pole and leave the landowners to settle their dispute. Valuable time was lost. Don’t assume a road is public, only to find out later that it was private access. Make certain there is dedicated access or easements.