Talk to a planner: agenda, questions, follow-up

1 · Learn the move · Specific task + easy yes

A planner's time is the cheapest diligence you will ever buy, and most holders waste it by asking what the ordinance already says or by asking something no planner can answer, like whether a project will be approved. Make the meeting an easy yes: a short request naming the parcel, the idea, a small time ask and three questions you could not answer from the text. Put the questions in the request, so the planner can see whether they are hers or someone else's. After the meeting comes the part that protects you. The follow-up restates what you heard, built only from your notes, with every 'I think' and 'probably' kept exactly as said, and asks to be corrected and where a written answer would come from. The model writes all three pieces and adds nothing the planner did not say. A planner's informal comment is not a determination, and whether you can rely on one is a question for land-use counsel.

Write three things. One: a short email asking the planner for a 20-minute pre-application meeting, naming the parcel, the idea and three specific questions. Two: the question list, each tied to the section I already read. Three, after the meeting: a recap email built only from my notes, hedges kept exactly, asking to be corrected and where a written answer would come from.