The importance of personally getting to know your site is imperative to any successful development project. There are many great sites underwhelmed because not enough care was taken to plan proper locations of improvements. Conversely, there are many mediocre sites that can become incredible experiences with careful attention to the land and its features.

A large portion of the main road that circles Isla Palenque was staked by surveyors about two weeks ago. Machete in hand (a machete in the hand of a foreigner will never be as useful as a machete in the hand of a local), Ben and I spent last weekend walking its path, trying to determine the appropriateness of its alignment. There are several factors when considering road alignment that we had in mind as we traipsed through the jungle:

• Topography – A road that is steeper than about eight percent slope can be difficult to navigate and can quickly become impossible in inclement weather conditions. Additionally, if the path travels along a steep slope and not up it, significant expense and environmental impact may be required to retain the hillside that is cut.
• Vegetation – A road will inevitably destroy vegetation. It is important to minimize the impact by placing the path so that it respects significant specimens that are rare, important to the greater ecosystem, or mature. Vegetation also creates an opportunity to celebrate nature: navigating around a large tree or through an orchid garden can be an enriching experience.
• Lot Size/Access – The purpose of a road is to provide access. There must be comfortable points of access to reach each building site and each of those lots must have enough land to allow for a comfortable building envelope.
• Views – The journey itself is frequently the most important part of a trip. Places with expansive vistas are attractive, as are narrower foci, such as a burst of color from a stand of flowering plants. Terminating views at a point of focus has been a planning strategy for centuries (driving down a street in Paris and seeing the Arc de Triomphe at the end).
• Adjacency – Neighboring uses must be considered. Roads should be a respectable distance from homes so that passing vehicles don’t interrupt views and noise doesn’t penetrate living spaces. Also, the traveler on the road must be respected. Undesirable sites must be shielded or avoided.

The task sounds uncomplicated until you consider that at Palenque, we are trying to consider all of these factors in the middle of extensive topical vegetation. The stakes placed by the surveyors were only 50 feet apart, but it was frequently difficult to discern where the next one was through the thick of the jungle. Most of the road seemed perfectly placed, to the credit of our Land Planners, Design Workshop. There were a few sections where drainages, large trees, and topography demand some slight tweaking. Fortunately, the task was made easier by the fact that we have gotten approvals to build a narrow road because motorized transportation on the island will be limited to small, electric vehicles.

As stewards of this amazing place, we hope that this attention to detail will enhance the natural environment and allow our visitors and residents the opportunities to experience Palenque’s wonders in the most natural manner possible.

One of more than 100 stakes marking phase 1's main road on Palenque.