Removing vegetation adds significantly to the expense. Picking lightly wooded areas or cleared areas avoids or limits this expense.
Sloping land also increases the expense. The earth movers cut out of the high corner of the site and fill the lower corner. The more they have to move the greater the cost.
Drainage is critical. Water seeping under an indoor quickly destroys the arena sub surface so make sure there is adequate drainage around the indoor.
Access & Working Space
During the building phase it is critical to consider that lots of heavy machinery will be required on the site, a place to store the materials while the building is being built and working space all the way around the building. So at least 3 and possibly 5 meters of cleared area around the actual building.
Planing permission
Your local council, neighbours and government departments will all have input on where and whether you are allowed to build. Remember as these are big buildings they have a large visual impact so you will need to check up on the regulations an allow many months of negotiating with council, council workers and departmental representatives before you can start clearing or building.
Some hints about points of difficulty:
- Hills: It is unlikely that you can build on the top of a ridge line; the visual impact is too great
- Clearing: Current regulations relating to clearing are intended to discourage it, planting offsets (no matter how large) can be required, but in itself is not grounds to be allowed to clear. Common sense may be applied by councils, but regulations make it hard to remove any vegetation; so get to know the council and your neighbours and prepare for a long process.
- Zoning: If you add stables to project the project can shift from being "extensive agriculture" to being "intensive agriculture" this changes the rules that apply to you in certain zones.
Preparing some alternative locations, building finishes and design changes can help in the negotiating process. By having the alternatives available to you before meeting a concern helps you end up with a project that you and those around you are happy with.