Reviewing the Approval Record
Use the sourced framework to establish the operative record, test current status, and translate findings into assigned decisions.
Review the approval-record framework
Services / Project Feasibility & Due Diligence
Know What the Approval Record Actually Supports
Establish the operative record, test the assumptions behind the development thesis, and assign the questions that could change the transaction or project path.
Start with the decision and the reliance needed
The scope should begin with the decision the sponsor must make: pursue a site, price an acquisition, release a contingency, select a plan, reset an existing project, or authorize the next professional workstream. The diligence standard follows from what that decision requires the team to rely on.
CDA organizes the documentary record, business assumptions, approval path, dependencies, and assigned verification. The work gives the sponsor a traceable basis for action while preserving the separate responsibilities of agencies, counsel, engineers, surveyors, environmental consultants, architects, financial advisers, and other qualified professionals.
Evidence to collect
Operative Approvals
Collect adopted resolutions, ordinances, findings, conditions, approved plans, tentative maps, incorporated exhibits, amendments, extensions, and later agency actions.
Environmental Record
Identify the CEQA document, notices, findings, mitigation program, monitoring evidence, project description, and later environmental review relevant to the current plan.
Agreements & Obligations
Inventory development agreements, dedications, improvement obligations, fees, affordable-housing commitments, utility arrangements, and third-party consents.
Mapping & Permit Status
Distinguish tentative-map approval from final-map, grading, building, infrastructure, and other technical or ministerial steps.
Site & Delivery Evidence
Organize title, access, utilities, grading, geotechnical, drainage, infrastructure, phasing, cost, and schedule inputs for review by the responsible professionals.
Sales & Public-Report Record
When relevant, identify DRE public-report status, subdivision filings, ownership documents, budgets, reserves, and remaining professional or agency inputs.
Questions that can change the transaction or project path
Can the existing record support the intended plan?
Compare the business plan with the approved project description, plans, conditions, map, phasing, and recorded obligations. Assign discrepancies for agency and professional evaluation.
What remains open, contingent, or unverified?
Identify missing exhibits, uncertain expiration or extension status, unresolved conditions, later approvals, technical work, agency discretion, and third-party action.
What does the uncertainty change?
Connect each open issue to diligence timing, price, closing conditions, project scope, professional cost, schedule contingency, post-closing responsibility, or a sponsor decision.
The decision record CDA helps organize
A concise brief sits above the supporting register so the sponsor can see the decision, its evidentiary basis, the assumptions that matter, and the follow-up required before the next commitment.
- Verified Facts
- State the fact, source document, date, controlling exhibit or section, and the reviewer responsible for confirming its use.
- Material Assumptions
- Record the sponsor direction or working premise, the evidence still required, and the consequence if the premise changes.
- Open Issues & Dependencies
- Connect each missing record, agency question, professional review, condition, and predecessor to the decision it can affect.
- Assigned Decisions & Actions
- Name the owner, due date, required evidence, available options, escalation point, and next update to the brief.
How the review moves from facts to assigned follow-up
- 1
Frame the Decision
Define the sponsor decision, deadline, reliance required, materiality thresholds, available records, and agreed scope.
- 2
Establish the Record
Index the source documents, control versions, connect incorporated exhibits, and identify missing or conflicting evidence.
- 3
Test the Development Path
Trace approvals, conditions, changes, technical dependencies, agency actions, and obligations against the intended project.
- 4
Assign Verification
Route legal, technical, environmental, financial, title, agency, and other questions to the responsible reviewer.
- 5
Update the Decision Brief
Record verified facts, assumptions, open issues, options, responsibilities, dates, and the consequence of unresolved items.
Continue from the Decision Record
Project Readiness & Decision Brief
Control the decision, source record, assumptions, unresolved issues, professional input, and immediate actions.
Use the Project Readiness Brief
Subdivision & Land Development
Connect the development thesis to planning, mapping, and implementation.
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Bring the Decision and the Record Into Focus
Share the decision ahead, the approval record available, the principal assumptions, and the questions that could change the transaction or development path.
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