This guide covers subdivision approval and development exactions from application through acceptance of improvements. It distinguishes subdivision regulation from zoning, works through each stage of the approval process, and identifies where discretion actually operates in a process the statutes describe as ministerial. It develops the exaction framework in detail — the essential nexus requirement, the rough proportionality requirement and the government's burden to make an individualized determination, and the unresolved question of how far both reach legislatively adopted impact fees — together with the statutory impact fee acts that resolve those questions in many States. It covers the full takings framework that surrounds exactions, including the ripeness change that now permits federal claims without state exhaustion. It develops improvement guarantees and their administrative failure modes, vesting doctrines and development agreements, the environmental and floodplain permits that run alongside, plat mechanics including dedication and acceptance, and challenge strategy from both sides.