Glossary
Usable Acreage
What remains of a site after floodplain, buffers, easements, detention, right-of-way dedication and unbuildable slope are removed.
Usable — or net developable — acreage is gross acreage minus everything that cannot be built on: regulated floodplain, creek and water-quality buffers, easements, the footprint of detention and water-quality ponds, right-of-way that will be dedicated at platting, and slope too steep to develop. It is the number that determines yield, and therefore the number that should drive price. Pricing land on gross acreage is one of the most common and most expensive errors in raw-land acquisition, because every one of those deductions is discovered during diligence rather than at listing.