Development Feasibility Studies — Tree Constraints Before You Commit
The most expensive time to discover a tree problem is after you have bought the site, paid for the design and submitted the application. The cheapest is before any of it.
A tree feasibility study establishes what the trees on and around a site actually mean for what can be built there — delivered early enough to influence the decision, and at a fraction of the cost of resolving the problem later.
Urban Tree Management provides tree feasibility studies for developers, land agents and architects across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire, Merseyside and the wider North West.
When a Feasibility Study Pays for Itself
- Before you buy. The developable area determines whether the asking price makes sense. Trees can remove a significant proportion of it, and finding that out after completion is an expensive lesson.
- Before the architect starts. A layout designed without tree constraints has to be redrawn once they are known. Constraints established first are designed around; constraints established later are designed out of, at cost.
- At option or promotion stage. Where deliverable yield determines the value of the agreement, trees are a direct input to that calculation.
- Before an outline application. To test whether the density you are proposing is realistic before committing to the submission.
- After a refusal. Where trees were among the reasons, establishing the real constraint position tells you whether the scheme can be adjusted or should be abandoned.
- When comparing several sites. A rapid appraisal across a shortlist tells you which sites carry the least arboricultural risk before you spend money on any of them.
What the Study Establishes
- Protection status. Whether any trees on or adjacent to the site carry a Tree Preservation Order or sit within a conservation area. This single question changes what is realistic more than any other.
- Root protection areas. Calculated for the significant trees and plotted onto your site plan, so the genuinely undevelopable area is visible rather than assumed.
- The indicative developable envelope. What is left once tree constraints are applied — the number that actually matters at appraisal stage.
- Tree quality. Which trees are likely to be high category and very difficult to justify removing, and which are low quality and might reasonably go. Not every tree on a site is a constraint, and treating them all as one costs you developable area unnecessarily.
- Third-party trees. Trees on neighbouring land whose root protection areas extend across your boundary. These constrain your site exactly as your own trees do — but you cannot remove them, you cannot prune them without consent, and you have no control over them. This is the most commonly missed issue in early appraisal and the one most likely to change a site's viability.
- High-risk features. Ancient woodland adjacency, veteran trees, protected hedgerows — any of which can be decisive.
- A view on the authority's likely position. Which trees the local planning authority is realistically going to defend, based on how they have handled comparable sites.
Output Your Design Team Can Use
Findings are supplied as a written appraisal with tree constraints plotted onto your site plan.
Where a CAD base is available we work directly from it and return a georeferenced DXF at OS National Grid coordinates, compatible with AutoCAD, BricsCAD and QCAD. Your architect receives a layer showing exactly where the buildable zones sit, rather than a PDF someone has to interpret.
Where no CAD base exists, tree positions can be established by GNSS survey or plotted onto OS MasterMap.
A Tree Preservation Order Does Not Stop Development
It is worth stating plainly, because it puts people off sites unnecessarily.
A TPO does not make a site undevelopable. It means the tree is a high-priority constraint that must be designed around, and that any works to it require consent and justification. Plenty of schemes are consented on sites with protected trees.
What a TPO does change is the margin for error. A layout that clips the root protection area of a protected high-category oak will be refused; the same layout shifted three metres may not be. Knowing which trees are protected, and how much room they actually require, before the layout is drawn is the difference between the two outcomes.
See our guidance on protected trees for the consent position.
What It Is Not
A feasibility study is a rapid appraisal, not a full BS5837 survey. It does not produce a measured schedule for every tree, and it cannot be submitted with a planning application.
It exists to answer one question — is this site viable, and roughly what does it look like once the trees are accounted for — quickly and cheaply enough to be useful at the point the question is being asked.
When the scheme proceeds, the full BS5837 survey follows, and the feasibility work informs it rather than being repeated.
Why Early Advice Matters More Under the Revised BS5837
The draft revision of BS5837 places considerably greater weight on early arboricultural involvement.
The Tree Constraints Plan is proposed to become the Arboricultural Constraints and Opportunities Plan, expected to show projected future canopy growth rather than only the present position. Canopy cover assessment is proposed to become standard on all development sites. Root protection areas for the highest category trees are proposed to increase from twelve to fifteen times stem diameter, with a one-metre buffer around each.
The practical consequence for a developer is direct: on a site with mature high-category trees, the buildable area under the revised standard may be smaller than under the current one. A scheme designed today may be determined under it.
That is an argument for establishing the arboricultural position earlier, not later.
Turnaround
Feasibility work is commissioned under time pressure — an option deadline, an exchange date, a design programme. Tell us the deadline at enquiry and we will confirm whether it can be met before you instruct.
Fixed fee quoted within two hours during working hours. No site visit is required to quote.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I commission a feasibility study?
Before you buy the land if you can, and certainly before your architect begins drawing. The whole value is in informing decisions that have not yet been made.
Can I use a feasibility study for my planning application?
No. Applications require a survey to BS5837. The feasibility study informs the scheme and reduces the risk of surprises; the full survey follows when it proceeds.
Do trees on neighbouring land really affect my site?
Yes, and this is the most commonly missed issue in early appraisal. A tree in an adjoining garden has a root protection area that extends across the boundary and constrains your site exactly as your own trees would — except that you cannot remove it and cannot work on it without the owner's agreement, or consent if it is protected.
Does a Tree Preservation Order mean I cannot develop?
No. It means the tree must be treated as a high-priority constraint and designed around, with any works requiring consent and justification. Schemes are regularly consented on sites with protected trees.
Can't my land surveyor plot the trees?
A topographical survey records the position of the trunk. It does not assess condition, structure or quality, and it does not calculate root protection areas — which is the number that determines what can be built. Those require an arboricultural assessment.
Tree Feasibility Studies — Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire & Merseyside
Establish the arboricultural position before you commit to a purchase, a design or an application. Independent, Level 6 qualified, and completely independent from any tree surgery contractor.
Get in contact with our highly experienced and personable team of arboricultural consultants today, to discuss your requirements and to obtain your zero obligation quotation.
