Your Partner in Deliberate Land Development

Your Values, Your Vision, Our Guidance and Expertise

Idaho Conscious Design simplifies the land development process by taking the time to understand what you want to accomplish and doing the hard work for you, saving time and money for realtors and their clients, non-commercial land owners, builders, and DIYers alike.

About Idaho Conscious Design

Colt and Chelsi, both born and raised in the Treasure Valley, chose to settle in Middleton, building a small farmstead to raise their family on after Colt retired from the Marine Corps as an Environmental Engineering Management Officer. What seemed like a straightforward project turned into navigating floodplain engineering, undisclosed, and implicit, easements, boundary disputes, administrative split process, etc. The project quickly revealed a complex, confusing, and often frustrating land development process.

As they navigated that journey, Colt realized their experience wasn’t unique. Many aspiring landowners wanting to build their dream in Idaho face similar hurdles — unclear processes, inconsistent permitting requirements, and at times, limited guidance.

While serving as the Environmental & Community Health Director at Southwest District Health, Colt worked to simplify and streamline internal development processes, collaborating across county agencies to make the system more intuitive. Yet even after moving into a new role, he continued meeting people whose dream projects were stalled by not understanding the process fully.

So he started Idaho Conscious Design

ICD is a side business for Colt, but he will grow it into a full-time business.

ICD helps clients take control of their land development journey — whether it’s a single-family custom home or a long-term vision involving shops, barns, ADUs, pools, or future land splits. Colt’s approach is simple: get involved early, understand the client’s long-term values, and build a site plan that serves them today and 20 years from now.

Too often, homeowners work with a contractor, or a patchwork of contractors and professionals, none of whom are looking at the big picture beyond the current project. ICD connects the dots — creating a plan that not only avoids costly mistakes but helps subcontractors work in alignment with the client’s goals.

Want to save time, money, and frustration on your next land project?
Let’s start with the big picture — and build it right from day one.

Why would I hire ICD?

Colt's "why" is based on learning from challenges and making the process better for those who come after him. He wants to make the development process easier to understand, more efficient, more transparent, etc., to achieve more positive outcomes, at a lower cost, with less rework, over time.

Here are some examples of why you might hire ICD:

Buying the right lot:

For many, building a home, either in a subdivision or on your land, is not a common occurrence. It is exciting, and emotions can cause people to overlook things that may cost them more later.

You might not have caught the detail on the sales contract, which limits the orientation of your home on the lot, which means the sun will beat down into your beautiful living room with the floor-to-ceiling windows, all summer long.

You might have missed restrictions on the parcel you purchased, which prevent you from building. Other restrictions might prevent you from splitting the land to build homes for your children in 10-15 years without a costly subdivision application.

You would hire ICD to objectively weigh your values and vision against each lot or parcel you are looking at. A bit of due diligence up front can save years of frustration and costs.

Long-term Planning & Cost Savings:

By taking a deliberate approach to thinking through all of the things you may want to do with your property, you allow ICD to build a comprehensive site plan, which puts all of these options on a single plan. This deconflicts the intended uses to ensure that they all legally fit, gives all subcontractors the grand vision, enabling them to be on the same page, and saves time, and money from rework later.

Let's say you want to build a shop with an ADU, but you need to build it after your house. Making sure that you set up your septic system to support both structures can save you tens of thousands of dollars.

Along the same line of thought, pre-burying conduit to dedicated structures like shops, gazebos, hot tubs, sheds, etc. can save thousands of dollars of rework if you have to dig it up later and replace it.

ICD tries to capture all of this on the plans so that you can measure twice and cut once, saving considerable sums of money over the life of the project.

Where do I start?:

Building a custom home on bare land is exciting, and it is a complex, expensive process. You may feel overwhelmed by the requirements and not know where to start.

• How do I know if I can build a home on this parcel?

• How do I find a builder?

• Does the builder also take care of the home design?

• I want a shop and a barn, where do I put those?

• My title report says I have an easement on my property, what does that mean for my development plans?

• Will I have sewer or a septic system?

• Is the water in my well safe to drink?

• What goes into the permit process and where do I start?

ICD can help get you started or stay by your side for the entire process. ICD is here to make the process as easy and fun as possible.

How Does the Process Work?

No two development projects are alike, so the first step is a quick conversation (usually 30-60 minutes) to get a basic understanding of the project and to give the client my analysis on how I can help them.

Once the client feels confident that ICD can enhance their project, we can discuss our approach to the project:

• Purchase a universal DIY Checklist

• Purchase consultation or design services as they need it (hourly rate)

• Purchase consultation & design package (set price)

• Purchase a representation package (hired on retainer)

ICD then develops a scope of work to determine common expectations, and we sign appropriate contracts to ensure both parties understand the objectives and are protected in our relationship.

How I help most clients:

Realtors: Conducting due diligence for realtors or their clients to help them understand the limitations (easements/Rights Of Ways ROWs, land use limitations, ability to obtain septic permit, water quality, past uses/environmental concerns) on the land before they purchase it.

Builders: Advising them on ideas to best support their client's objectives. Building site plans focusing on this project and future projects (like a shop or ADU) to deconflict regulatory offsets like wells, septic, easements, etc., and to make the most efficient use of space and time, as in joint utilities trenching, and excavation sequencing.

Land Owners: All the above and more. Most often, clients use ICD's full range of knowledge to learn about the development process. They allow ICD to set up their development plan (comprehensive site plan), engage with regulatory bodies to obtain permits and approvals for aspects of their plan, and coordinate other professionals (surveyors, engineers, drillers, excavators, etc.) to ensure their work best supports the values and objectives of the client.