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We walk the site, work out which approvals it needs, design what has to be designed, and carry the package through every agency until it’s approved. Scope and fee agreed before anything starts.
01 — What we work on
Most projects come from one of two places: the operation has outgrown what it has, or something built forty years ago has reached the end of its life. Both are good reasons to build, and both reward planning the whole thing before the first load of stone arrives.
Roofed and open storages, transfer and reception systems, push-off ramps, stacking pads and barnyard runoff control. Sizing, siting, grading, structural coordination and the permitting that comes with it — including the odor management plan that has to be approved before you build.
Freestall and tie-stall barns, heifer and dry cow housing, poultry houses, beef and swine facilities. New builds and expansions — site layout, pad grading, drainage, access for feed and manure equipment, and the approvals the new capacity triggers.
Bunker silos, feed pads, commodity sheds and grain storage. Silage leachate is the part that gets overlooked, and it is the part a conservation district will ask about.
Machinery sheds, repair shops and general-purpose buildings. Straightforward structures, but the yard around them usually drives more disturbance than the building does — which is what decides the permitting.
Access lanes, stone and concrete yards, clean-water diversion, roof water management, tank and hydrant locations. The building is the easy part; keeping clean water clean and dirty water contained is the work.
02 — Worth knowing
People tend to think of a building project as one approval. It isn't. A new storage or barn can be sitting in front of the township, the county conservation district, PA DEP and PennDOT at the same time, each on its own calendar and each able to hold the job up on its own.
It varies by structure, by use and by municipality — and the answer for your neighbor's barn is not automatically the answer for yours. Sorting it out before materials are ordered costs an hour. Sorting it out afterwards costs a season.
None of this is a reason not to build. It is a reason to line the approvals up first, because the ones that apply are the ones with calendars attached.
03 — Sequence
Almost every farm building project that runs late got the order wrong, not the design. This is the part worth reading.
| Step | What it is | Why the timing matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Siting | Where the structure can actually go — zoning setbacks, separation distances, soils, the existing operation | Moving a storage fifty feet on paper costs nothing. Moving it after the odor plan is approved costs the plan. |
| 2. Odor management plan | Act 38 odor management plan for new or expanding animal housing and manure storage | Approval is required before construction. This is the single most common thing to discover too late. |
| 3. E&S and stormwater | Chapter 102 — written E&S plan at 5,000 sq ft of earth disturbance, NPDES coverage at one acre | Measured on disturbance, not footprint. Big barns clear an acre more often than people expect. |
| 4. Zoning & municipal | Zoning, stormwater ordinance compliance, and a driveway permit if access changes | Runs on meeting calendars. Miss a submission date and you wait a month. |
| 5. Nutrient management amendment | Updating the Act 38 plan for the new storage, capacity or animal numbers | New storage changes the plan's assumptions. Better amended with the project than found at inspection. |
| 6. Construction | Contractor questions and changes in the field | Conditions differ from the drawing. Fast answers keep concrete moving. |
| 7. Certification | Completion paperwork to close out the permits and any cost-share obligation | The project isn't finished until the paperwork says so. |
The one that comes six weeks before you want to pour, rather than the week after the contractor is booked. Nothing on that list is difficult; several items simply have agency review time attached and cannot be compressed. Given a little notice they run in parallel and the schedule holds.
04 — Scope
05 — Questions
More than most people expect, and the mix depends on the structure, its use and your municipality. Zoning and the stormwater ordinance almost always. Chapter 102 once you disturb 5,000 square feet, and NPDES coverage at an acre. An odor management plan before construction if you're an Act 38 operation building animal housing or storage. A nutrient management amendment if capacity changes.
Rather than guess from what a neighbor did, we check it against your township and your structure at the start — that's a short conversation and it sets the whole schedule.
Earlier than feels necessary. If an odor management plan is required it has to be approved before construction, and that alone can set your start date. Six to eight weeks ahead of when you'd like to break ground is comfortable; the week the contractor is booked is not.
If you're only thinking about it, that's still a good time to call. Siting conversations cost nothing and they're the ones that save the most.
Our fee depends on the size and type of storage, how much earth disturbance is involved, whether an odor management plan and a nutrient management amendment are needed, and whether a cost-share program is in play with its own documentation requirements.
We agree the scope and fee by task before starting, so you see what each piece costs and can decide what you want us to carry — a fixed fee where the scope allows it. Agency fees are listed separately, never folded into our number.
Almost certainly. New or altered storage changes capacity and often the handling assumptions the plan was built on, so it generally needs an amendment. We handle both, which means they're consistent with each other and it gets done with the project rather than discovered at an inspection two years later.
Tell us about it and we’ll outline the permits it needs and what work like this generally runs.