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We spoke with business development professionals in leading engineering, architecture, and construction firms who rely on Curate to surface business insights from local government documents to find out which types of meetings and documents are the most useful for finding projects at the earliest stages.

Here are some of the signals proactive business development leaders look for within local government meeting minutes and agendas to find actionable leads.

Comprehensive plans lay out a communitys goals and plans for the next 10 to 20 years. They may include plans for extensive zoning changes and will often lay out proposals for expansions of road and sewer infrastructure to accommodate growth. The intent of these changes is often to improve the communitys economic competitiveness by paving the way for new development precisely why these documents can be a valuable lead for architects and engineers.

Curate clients in the engineering space pay close attention to comprehensive plans to find potential opportunities for the kinds of projects they specialize in.

For example, a community might note in its comprehensive plan that a key part of its strategy to expand the supply of affordable housing near its downtown is to change the zoning of specific neighborhoods to allow for higher density. This change will open up new parcels for multifamily development in those specific neighborhoods, so architects and engineers specializing in multifamily projects can proactively create new business opportunities by bringing these insights to the attention of developers within their network. If the developer is from out of town, they may not be aware of the change, and thus the architect can provide value and win the developers trust which goes a long way toward winning their business.

A conceptual review meeting is usually an optional step in the public approval process, but developers will use it when they are pursuing projects that may be risky or controversial, such as a new multi-use retail and residential project in an already densely populated area. Even if a project aligns with the communitys overall goals for adding housing and retail spaces, the immediate neighbors to the project could sink it if they dont support it.

A conceptual review is an opportunity for the developer to share their plans with the public, gather feedback about the size, scope, and design, and make changes or scrap the project completely based on the results.

David Siegel, executive director of the Minnesota Builders Exchange, notes that conceptual reviews can be especially useful for general contractors and subcontractors, because developers have usually hired an architect or engineer to create the preliminary design that theyll bring to the community but, in most cases, they havent yet hired a contractor.

Zoning issues are a strong signal that future development is coming to a specific area. There are two types of zoning changes to look out for: a zoning change and a zoning variance.

A zoning change is typically initiated by community leaders as part of an overall growth strategy. This can be a good signal to start reaching out to developers to see if theyre interested in developing that area, but it doesnt usually signal the early stage of a specific project.

However, if a business or a developer wants to build a new facility in an area where the zoning doesnt support that kind of building, they have to petition the council for a variance or a conditional use permit. If theyre unable to get the appropriate variance or exception, the project wont be able to proceed, so project leaders usually complete this step at the earliest stage of a project, in some cases before theyve committed to an architect or engineer.

Getting access to private projects is particularly difficult because theyre not really in the public eye, Siegel says. But they still usually have to get some kind of permit or approval from the city. Maybe they need a variance from township ordinance in order to do this. Or maybe there will be heavier trucks coming in than originally anticipated, and theyll need to have the roadway re-done.

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How Engineering, Architecture, and Construction Firms - FiscalNote