In real estate, entitlements are the legal approvals that let a particular project be built on a particular piece of land. A site is entitled when the approvals it needs are in hand; until then, its value rests on the chance of getting them. That is why developers and lenders treat entitlement as one of the main risks of a project.
The approvals depend on the project and the place. A project that fits the existing zoning may need only site plan review and building permits. One that does not may need a rezoning or a planned development, a variance or a special exception, a subdivision plat to create lots, and approvals for roads, utilities, stormwater, trees, wetlands or historic districts, some from agencies other than the city or county.
Each approval has its own body, hearing, notice and calendar, and some must come in order: a rezoning before the site plan, a preliminary plat before the final one. The time it takes is set less by any single step than by the sequence, the meeting calendars, and how many rounds of comments the plans go through before they are accepted.
Good entitlement work starts before the land is bought: reading the zoning and the comprehensive plan, the constraints on the site, and how the same boards decided similar requests. In South Carolina, for example, the steps are set by the state's planning enabling act and each local code, so the path for the same project differs between a city and its county.