Subject/verb agreement

I am writing a report, and am very confused about subject/verb agreement.

What I want to say is: `The development of A, the development of B and the development of C all precede event D.', but I do not want to use such a long sentence (given that A, B and C all represent phrases).

To avoid repetition, could I write `The development of A, B and C precede event D.'?

My feeling is that I cannot write this, because `development' does not agree with `precede'. Am I correct, or is this sentence acceptable?

To avoid the assumed agreement problem, I have considered the following:

---I cannot change `development' to `developments' as that would not make sense.
---I don't think I can change `precede' to `precedes'---that would imply that A, B and C all developed together, which is not what I want to express. Wouldn't it?

---I could change the text to `The timings of the development of A, B and C precede event D'---is this sentence OK?

I would REALLY appreciate some help with this. Perhaps I am over-thinking the problem?