Land-Clearing Project Sequencing Guide

Clearing is cheap early and expensive early, depending entirely on what it precedes. Done after the survey, the approvals and the utility locate, it gives the next verified task exactly the access it needs. Done before them, it removes screening for an area that may move, exposes soil that then needs stabilising for months, and occasionally clears ground that turns out to be regulated.

It sets out step and cannot start until and clock across 10 rows, covering 1, 2, 3 and more. It is on this page so the comparison can be read directly rather than reconstructed from prose.

Build the dependency list before pricing anything. That comes first because everything after it depends on the answer, and reversing the order is what makes this scope expensive.

1. Build the dependency list before pricing anything. 2. Put permit lead time in the schedule as a line, not as slack. 3. Install erosion controls before the first machine. 4. Clear only what the next verified step needs. 5. Diary the 14-day stabilisation deadline from first disturbance. 6. Book the maintenance interval at handover.

Book the maintenance interval at handover. It gets skipped because by that point the visible problem is solved, and the cost of skipping it does not appear until the following season.

Clearing first because the machine was available. Close behind it: Treating permit time as absorbable. Missing the stabilisation clock because the builder is delayed.

1. Clearing first because the machine was available. 2. Treating permit time as absorbable. 3. Missing the stabilisation clock because the builder is delayed.

Because coordinate survey, permits, utilities, clearing, tree work, excavation, drainage, erosion control, seeding, and maintenance — and none of those variables can be answered by a number. A range is arithmetic on assumptions; this page is the list of assumptions worth checking first.

No. Nothing here is a permit determination, a wetland delineation, a boundary opinion or a safety finding — including "build the dependency list before pricing anything", which is guidance about what to establish, not a statement that it has been established. The property owner is the applicant for every approval on land-clearing project sequencing guide, and the authorities behind the 3 rules cited on this page are the ones whose answers count.

The 3 rules cited on this page each carry the authority it came from and the date it was checked against that authority's own published material. The "The dependency list" table is dated the same way. Rules change — the check date is printed so you can see how old the answer is rather than having to guess, and on land-clearing project sequencing guide the figures most likely to move are the ones with a scheduled change already announced.

Construction activity disturbing one acre or more of earth needs coverage under General Permit 3-9020 — and so does a smaller disturbance that is part of a larger common plan of development that will ultimately reach one acre. Low Risk coverage caps concurrent disturbance at five acres and requires temporary or final stabilization within 14 days of the initial disturbance. Whether a mulching pass counts as "earth disturbance" depends on how much soil is exposed — ask the Stormwater Program before assuming it does not. On land-clearing project sequencing guide specifically this bears on step 2 of the sequence on this page — put permit lead time in the schedule as a line, not as slack — because that is where the boundary between what you may do and what you may not gets fixed. Source: Vermont DEC Stormwater Program, General Permit 3-9020 for Stormwater Runoff from Construction Sites, checked 2026-09-01.

Act 250 jurisdiction turns on the purpose of the work, the acreage, whether the town has permanent zoning and subdivision bylaws, road construction, and prior activity within a five-mile radius over five years. The tier framework enacted in Act 181 of 2024 is still being phased in and the thresholds have moved during that phase-in. Request a jurisdictional opinion from the District Coordinator for the district the parcel sits in. That opinion is the determination — no contractor estimate, map or calculator substitutes for it. In the context of land-clearing project sequencing guide this belongs alongside "Build the dependency list before pricing anything" — both are things established before any machine work, and both are the landowner's to establish rather than the contractor's.

Underground facilities are not visible from an aerial photo and a mulching head does not stop for them. Locating is a legal obligation before excavation in all three states, and the free national number routes to each state's own centre. Call 811 before the machine moves, and separately mark private lines the public locate does not cover — well lines, septic, invisible fence, LP gas runs from a tank, irrigation, and anything a previous owner installed. In the context of land-clearing project sequencing guide this belongs alongside "Build the dependency list before pricing anything" — both are things established before any machine work, and both are the landowner's to establish rather than the contractor's.

Step: Boundary survey. Cannot start until: —. Clock: Weeks. Read across the "The dependency list" table on this page for how it compares with the other 9 rows.