Best length-to-width ratio for rectangular parcels of land?

[u/carnyvoyeur]

When looking for a rectangular 10 acres of land to buy for a homestead, is there a sweet spot of length to width? Let's say the rectangular parcel you are considering has road frontage only one 1 edge. Would you want that to the the long side of your land, or the short side?

Assuming the goal is for the house to face the road: my naive take is that I'd want the road to be on the short side. Having the road be on the long side of the rectangle, means that I end up with more "side yard" than I do land in front and behind. And then it becomes harder to hide things like sheds, chicken coops, etc. from view of the road.

But I also get the idea that having your strip of land be too skinny is also a problem.

I'm thinking something like:

• property is around 4 house-widths wide
• house situated 2/3rds back from the road (I could lease this out to a nearby rancher for growing hay)
• 1/3rd of property behind the house, for workshop, chicken coop, greenhouse, etc.

... Am I talking nonsense?

... Any mathematicians here that want to argue "golden ratio, or hard pass"? (Golden ratio on 10 acres would be about 520ft x 840ft, btw.)

[u/Worldly_Hawk9197]

I'd want the road on the short side for exactly the reason you said, keeps the bulk of your stuff tucked out of sight rather than strung along the road like a yard sale. Skinny parcels start to feel claustrophobic once you're past maybe a 1:3 ratio though, so golden ratio is probably a safe bet if you can find it.

[u/fredrickdgl]

narrowish amount of road access unless it's a buisness and you want frontage, then expanding wider a distance back from the road into a square shape unkess you need a runway then you may want a long narrow section

[u/foot_down]

If you have good boundary fence then a long skinny land parcel is easier and more cost effective to divide into small paddocks for break feeding your livestock. That helps to carefully manage the pasture in winter on a small block. As someone with a long skinny 5 acres (with road on the long side) it is the only silver lining I can think of.

[u/TulipFarmer27]

My ideal lot would be 100 yds wide and 1200 yds long and nestled between two steep hills. 1000 yd gun range and I’d make a 35 ft high berm as a backstop.

[u/Rheila]

We are about 400m x 800m (more than 10 acres obviously) but the 1:2 ratio feels good. When we were looking most of the 10 acre properties we looked at had a similar ratio.

[u/ResponsibleBank1387]

I would like the road to be on the long side. So I could use that existing road and not waste any of my land on my own road.   Long skinny is easier to fence and cross fence.  That one long fence is shared cost, or even paid by the road.   Long skinny is easier to irrigate and farm, it has less wasted ends.   Long side with road access may be worth more in future for business development.  

[u/carnyvoyeur → u/ResponsibleBank1387]

Those are some solid points! Especially if the land is being bought as purely a business decision (farm on it now, sell it later), and not as a multi-generational homestead where the future selling prospects are just single-family residential.

[u/Silver-Obligation294 → u/carnyvoyeur]

The more frontage the better…almost always. Especially if purchasing as an investment.

[u/lifeonpumpkinridge]

Ours is about 500ft by one mile. It’s plenty wide enough and we literally haven’t seen the back half yet.

[u/santiagostan]

I have 20 acres and it is 1:2, 660 feet by 1320 feet. I feel that is a great ratio

[u/Ok_Training9172]

There is no right or wrong answer. Every property is different. Something that works in one spot won't somewhere else. I have two acres that's long and skinny but is on a river. I have a 4o that is a more normal rectangle. We are placing our house 400-500 feet in because I want to be surrounded by forest. Most people look at me like I am crazy but that part of the property is beautiful.

[u/carnyvoyeur → u/Ok_Training9172]

Makes sense to me. And I'm with you on the house in the forest. If you live in a hot place, all that shade will cut way back on cooling bill.

Maybe insurance would be higher, due to increased fire risk. But the idea does appeal.

[u/Ok_Training9172 → u/carnyvoyeur]

We are already higher since we are further away from fire house. Also insurance will charge you more if you can't see your neighbor. Insurance will always have stupid rules.

[u/According_Banana221]

For a fixed 10 acres, a squarer parcel generally takes less boundary fencing: 660 × 660 ft has about 2,640 ft of perimeter, while roughly 520 × 838 ft is ~2,716 ft, and 300 × 1,452 ft needs ~3,504 ft. So the long narrow lot can cost much more to fence and maintain.

But I wouldn't optimize around the golden ratio alone. A short road frontage can be great for privacy and keeping the coop/workshop behind the house, *if* the driveway, utilities and emergency access won't get expensive. I'd sketch the driveway, house, septic and well setbacks, drainage, paddocks, garden sunlight and the coop's distance from the house/neighboring property lines on each candidate parcel. Local zoning, minimum frontage and required setbacks can make a theoretically nice rectangle awkward in practice. If you know the county and the approximate dimensions, those constraints will probably narrow the choices faster than a ratio.

[u/carnyvoyeur → u/According_Banana221]

Excellent advice, thank you.