Primary sources first
Every research page starts from the documents that bind a project: state statutes and administrative rules, county and city codes, published checklists and fee schedules, staff reports, agency guidance and adopted plans. Where a rule lives in a code, the page cites the code section and the body that adopted it. Secondary material (trade press, market reports, industry associations) is used for market context and is attributed to its publisher, never presented as the rule.
Statute and code text is quoted word for word only when it was read on the official host, the legislature, the agency or the jurisdiction's own code publisher. Where the official text could not be read there, the page paraphrases the rule and names the official source instead of quoting a copy.
One cited source behind every figure
Every figure on the state pages, case studies, asset pages and guides traces to a cited document. Sources are numbered in the order they first appear, and every numbered source is cited at least once on the page. A number the studio works out itself, such as a sum of two cited fees, is labelled as the studio's arithmetic so it is never mistaken for a published figure.
The case studies are model projects in real jurisdictions. They show how a county's or city's code shapes a site plan, using that jurisdiction's own documents, and say so at the top of each page.
What we leave out
A page says only what its sources support. When a source cannot be confirmed, when two sources disagree and the primary document cannot settle it, or when the only support is a summary, a snippet or a proposal that has not been adopted, the item is withheld rather than estimated. A page that cannot reach the depth a developer needs after those items are withheld is not published until the research is there.
The same discipline sets what the pages claim about the studio. The plans are preliminary site plans, drawn to the jurisdiction's checklist, and engineering is by the client's engineer of record. Where a jurisdiction requires a sealed plan at a stage, the page says so as a fact. Where unsealed site plans are accepted collects the stages that accept a preliminary plan, each with its source.
Review dates
Each research page shows the date it was last reviewed: the date its content last changed. When a code is amended, a fee schedule is reissued or a cited page moves, the page is updated, its sources are re-read and the date changes with it. The archived blog articles keep their original publication date and show an updated date when they have been revised.
Who does the research
The studio's principal, Viola Sauer, is the author of the research pages. If you find a figure that has changed, or a rule that reads differently in your jurisdiction, start a project or write to the studio through the same form: corrections are checked against the source and the page is updated.