Checklist
Zoning due diligence checklist
32 items in six groups, ordered the way a land acquisition actually runs — cheapest eliminations first, municipal requests started early because they are slowest, and the things zoning cannot tell you last. Free to use and to copy; you do not need our product for any of it.
1 · Establish the parcel
Everything downstream is wrong if this is wrong. Districts change mid-block, and a street address is not a parcel.
- Resolve the address to a PIN and confirm the parcel boundary matches what you are being sold
- Record lot area, frontage and depth from a survey where one exists — GIS dimensions are approximate and disagree with recorded area more often than people expect
- Confirm the base zoning district against the municipality’s own zoning map, not a third-party mirror
- Check whether the parcel is an assemblage, and whether every constituent lot carries the same district
2 · Read the bulk standards
These produce the ceilings. Take the lowest of them, never the friendliest.
- Minimum lot area per unit → the unit count on density alone
- Floor area ratio → the ceiling on total floor area
- Height limit — and note where the ordinance sets none, in which case planned-development review governs instead
- Front, side and rear setbacks, plus any required rear-yard open space → the buildable footprint
- Parking and loading requirements, including bicycle parking
- Use table: confirm your intended use is permitted by right rather than as a special or conditional use
3 · Check what overrides the base district
Any one of these can supersede everything in step 2, in either direction. Missing one is the classic expensive mistake.
- Planned development — if the parcel sits inside one, that ordinance governs, not the base district
- Transit-served location status and the bonuses and parking reductions that follow
- Overlay and special-character districts
- Landmark designation and National Register districts
- Inclusionary/affordable housing obligations triggered by unit count or zoning relief
- Flood zone, and whether it changes what is insurable or buildable
4 · Pull the public record
Cheap, fast, and it surfaces the history the seller may not volunteer.
- Assessed value and assessor class history
- Building permits for the last ten years — what was built, and what was started and abandoned
- Recorded building violations, noting that violation records often join on address rather than parcel, so match confidence matters
- Prior rezoning case numbers and the ordinances attached to the parcel
5 · Ask the municipality — the seven that need a human
No API answers these. They take weeks, so start them the day a site makes your shortlist, not the week before closing.
- Zoning verification letter from the Zoning Administrator — the City’s own statement, and what a lender accepts
- FOIA: variances and special or conditional-use permits granted on the parcel
- FOIA: open or unresolved fire-code violations
- FOIA: open or unresolved zoning-code violations
- Certificate of Occupancy copies for existing structures
- Site plan approval conditions — binding land conditions do not appear on the zoning map
- Records requests for anything the above surfaces but does not include
6 · Settle the things zoning cannot tell you
A parcel can be perfectly zoned and undevelopable.
- Title commitment: recorded easements, covenants and restrictions
- ALTA survey, and whether it agrees with the GIS parcel
- Environmental — Phase I, and Phase II if the history warrants it
- Utility capacity and where the connections actually are
- Alley access, curb cuts and whether the curb cut you need is permittable
How to use it
Groups 1 to 3 are what eliminate sites, and they cost nothing but time — run them on everything before you spend real diligence money on anything. Group 5 is the long pole: those requests take weeks, so start them the day a site makes the shortlist rather than the week before closing. Group 6 needs specialists and should not start until the zoning answer is settled, because there is no point surveying a site the ordinance was never going to allow.
The part worth repeating
Every standard in group 2 produces a maximum, and what you can build is the smallest of them. The number people quote — floor area ratio — is very often not the binding one. On a standard lot, setbacks and required open space usually are.
Groups 1 to 4 are what a parcel zoning report assembles for you, and every report ends with group 5 as a checklist with the office, address and phone for each request. Group 6 is yours.
Common questions
- What is zoning due diligence?
- The work of establishing what a site legally permits before you commit money to it: confirming the parcel and its district, reading the bulk standards, checking what overrides them, pulling the public record, and asking the municipality the questions no dataset answers. It is distinct from title and environmental diligence, and it usually runs first because it is the cheapest way to eliminate a site.
- What is the most commonly missed item?
- Two compete. Planned developments — a parcel inside one is governed by that ordinance rather than its base district, so every number you read off the zoning map is wrong. And transit-served status, which can materially change density, height and parking, and is resolved per parcel rather than per district.
- When should I request the zoning verification letter?
- The day a site makes your shortlist. Municipal turnaround is measured in weeks and is the item most likely to move a closing date. It is also the cheapest item on this list relative to what it settles.
- How much of this can be automated?
- Steps 1 through 4 largely can — they are the ordinance, the map and open data applied to a parcel. Step 5 cannot: those are human requests to a municipal office. Step 6 needs specialists. Anyone claiming to have automated step 5 is describing something other than what those documents are.