Entitlement

Entitlement is the umbrella term for everything a municipality must approve before a project can be built or a use can legally operate: confirming or rezoning the base zoning district, site plan review, any required conditional use or special land use permit, variances from dimensional standards, and often utility and stormwater approvals. "Entitled" land or a "fully entitled" project means those approvals are in hand, which materially changes both value and marketing time compared to raw land.

Entitlement risk is one of the largest sources of timeline and cost uncertainty in land and development deals, because approvals are discretionary and subject to public hearings, and because a municipality's political composition or ordinance can change mid-process. A purchase agreement contingent on entitlement should specify who controls the application, who bears the carrying cost during the process, and what happens if approval comes with conditions that change the project economics.

In Michigan cannabis real estate, entitlement is compounded by the two-layer approval structure: municipal approval (opt-in ordinance compliance, zoning, special land use, buffer distance) must be secured before or alongside a state CRA license application, and a site can be fully zoning-compliant and still be blocked at the license stage if the municipality's licensing cap is full.