Not an expert in infrastructure construction – except SimCity – but I visited Florida in the wake of the great recession and saw an interesting half built sub division that had stopped being built due to the GR.
The houses continued for a bit then stopped. The sidewalks and electrical infrastructure continued a bit more then just stopped. Then the streetlights ended. Finally the street just stopped.
Speaking from the U.S. perspective, how a typical suburban developement works is that a developer well buy a farm and then build the roads, sewers, electrical. You need roads to get to the home site and power to build the house and the sewer has to be ready when the first house is and goes under the road that’s needed to get to the house sites. The developer will sell individual lots to spec builder. When all the lots are sold the developer turns the streets over to the city or the homeowner’s association.
Schools are another matter. Voters need to approve taxes to build schools, so they generally lag behind. If a new school is needed they generally put the kids on the bus and shove them into an old school for a while before a new one is built.
It’s the reverse of cleaning. You build from the bottom, up.
So you build the trenches for underground stuff – sewerage, water, electricity, fibre-optics, rainwater etc. first. Then you build the foundations, then the walls, then the roof and pylons (if electricity and telecoms are going above ground).
As for public services, zone them, and they will come.
This is as ELI5 as I can get.
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