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Gridics partners with Greater Salt Lake Municipal Services District (MSD) to upgrade zoning and planning technology

For Immediate Release:  May 26, 2020

Miami, FL — Gridics LLC announced a partnership with Greater Salt Lake County Municipal Services District (MSD) to adopt its industry leading zoning and planning platform. The MSD provides planning and zoning services to five townships, the Town of Brighton and to the unincorporated area of Salt Lake County, all with unique attributes and needs. By partnering with Gridics, MSD gains fully digitized data and 3D view into how zoning regulations apply to every parcel in their managed district. Gridics leading technology drives smarter planning decisions while also improving transparency for citizens, putting deeper property level zoning data at their fingertips.

As a compliment to its technology offering, Gridics urban planners and architects are assisting MSD staff as they conduct zoning code rewrites and model the real-time impact of zoning changes on development potential. The combination of Gridics’ patented zoning engine and tech-enabled professional services proves to be a natural fit for municipalities like the Greater Salt Lake MSD that are looking for ways to drive efficiency and deliver world-class citizen services.

“Greater Salt Lake MSD is committed to being on the forefront of urban planning in the State of Utah. We strive to be a model for other municipalities, and Gridics is helping staff make informed zoning changes across our municipalities and unincorporated land,” says Lupita McClenning, Director of Planning and Development for Greater Salt Lake MSD.

With the release of CodeHUB last year and more recently ZoneCheck, Gridics is providing the most comprehensive zoning code management platform available to municipalities. The Gridics platform is helping cities solve common planning and zoning pain points while making it easier to remotely serve their citizens. These include:

1) Self-service ZoneCheck tool helps to reduce front counter visits and phone calls
2) Combining land use ordinance text with an interactive 3D map, making it easier to interpret zoning rules
3) Allowing municipal staff to quickly access deep zoning details 3D scenarios
4) Gridics team of urban planners provide tech-enabled professional services

Jason Doyle, Gridics CEO, relates, “Our mission continues to be focused on making municipal zoning more efficient, transparent, and development-friendly by using a data and technology driven approach. At Gridics, we’re hyper-focused on reducing the challenges planning and zoning departments face when it comes to servicing citizens zoning questions and making data-driven planning decisions. We couldn’t be more excited by the opportunity to partner with the Greater Salt Lake MSD team.”

About Gridics: Gridics develops real estate data and software applications in the area of zoning analysis and interpretation, scenario planning, site-selection and urban planning professional services. For more information, visit www.gridics.com.

Gridics Recognized as GovTech 100 Company for Second Consecutive Year

Launch of CodeHUB Zoning Platform Propels Gridics to Forefront of Government Technology

MIAMI, Jan. 15, 2020 — Gridics LLC, a real estate tech and data company, today announced its recognition as a GovTech 100 Company for the second consecutive year.  The annual GovTech 100 list is the result of a competitive, in-depth review of companies focused on, making a difference in, and selling to state and local government agencies across the US.

“Year five of the GovTech 100 is one of the strongest we’ve seen, as companies both large and small are tackling more complex problems around state and local government,” said e.Republic Chief Innovation Officer Dustin Haisler.

Gridics’ nomination comes on the heels of a successful year defined by a string of new city adoptions, platform market expansion to new major metros, and the release of the world’s most advanced municipal zoning platform, CodeHUB by Gridics.  Since its launch in February 2019, CodeHUB has become the only data driven zoning publishing platform available to cities, combining the published text with a 3D mapping and citizen self service tools.

“We’re honored to be named a GovTech 100 company for the second year in a row.  This recognition underscores our commitment to making local government more efficient,” explains Gridics CEO, Jason Doyle.  “Municipal zoning has long been too confusing for citizens to interpret.  Our patented technology digitizes a city’s zoning ordinance into parcel-specific data and visualizations.  With that data, we are able to deliver unique citizen service tools and staff software applications which reduce low-value staff time spent answering basic zoning questions and improves overall transparency.  As we look to 2020, we are excited to be leading the way in the world of tech-enabled planning and zoning and look forward to partnering with more cities.”

About Gridics:  Gridics develops real estate software applications, data and professional services with a focus on zoning interpretation and development analysis.  For more information, visit www.gridics.com.

Gridics Adds City of Miami Beach, Bal Harbour Village to Platform

Florida cities on front lines of sea level rise adopt Gridics platform to help visualize zoning changes.

For Immediate Release:  September 25, 2019

Miami, FL – Gridics LLC, a real estate tech and data company, today announced the City of Miami Beach and Bal Harbour Village are the latest Florida cities to adopt the Gridics 3D zoning map, text and property data platform to bring simplicity, transparency, and efficiency to what can otherwise be a very complicated process for city planners and residents trying to understand zoning code changes and potential.

Gridics helps municipalities in three ways.  First, a unified 3D interactive map and zoning code website allows municipal staff and citizens to visualize the buildable capacity of every parcel as allowed by zoning and publish code text changes in real-time.  Second, online property lookup tools deliver deep, parcel-specific zoning data to help citizens get answers to common zoning questions which significantly reduces phone calls and in-person visits to the planning staff.  Third, municipal staff members can easily run 3D scenario analysis of current zoning allowances, visualize proposed zoning changes and more quickly check permit applications and development plans for compliance.

For low-lying coastal communities like Miami Beach and Bal Harbour grappling with sea level rise and the broader impact of climate change on their built environment, zoning changes are a key piece of the solution puzzle.

“Gridics has developed cutting edge technology that facilitates analysis of a city’s zoning ordinance and allows for the visualization of changes in a built environment.  The technology provides transparency to the public as the community and elected officials consider the benefits and impacts of proposed projects.  Additionally, having zoning text and zoning map integrated allows the city to update its zoning ordinance quickly and efficiently.”  Said Carmen Sanchez, Deputy Planning Director Miami Beach.

The Gridics platform aims to make it easier for citizens, investors and developers to do business and interact with municipalities by bridging the communication gap that the existing municipal zoning text publishing and mapping tools perpetuate.  This ranges from large initiatives such as helping citizens and elected officials to visualize proposed zoning changes to more everyday processes like reducing the time staff spends servicing basic zoning questions both in person and via phone.

“We’re thrilled to add Miami Beach and Bal Harbour to the Gridics municipal network” said Jason Doyle CEO of Gridics.  “Our team of urban planners and software engineers are passionate about helping to build better cities and that starts with progressive and innovative municipal partners focused on leveraging the latest technology and tools to make them easier to work with.”

Other Florida jurisdictions that have adopted Gridics include Miami, Fort Lauderdale and North Miami to name a few.

About Gridics:  Gridics develops real estate data and software applications in the area of real estate development analysis and interpretation.  For more information, visit www.gridics.com.

Gridics Expands Market Coverage to Los Angeles, Dallas, Austin, Denver and More

3D development feasibility software and API available in more major cities; opportunity search to follow

For Immediate Release:  June 25, 2019

Miami, FL – Gridics LLC, a Miami-based real estate tech and data company, today announced the expansion of its real estate development analysis platform to include six more major cities.  The Gridics platform allows users to calculate and visualize, in 3D, the development feasibility and capacity of a parcel or assemblage of parcels, inclusive of complex considerations like zoning overlays, use specific allowances and parking requirements.

The Gridics platform is used by real estate developers, investors, brokers and municipalities.  Launched two years ago, Gridics started with Miami before adding New York City and a number of other cities that contract to use the platform in their zoning and planning departments.  With this announcement, Gridics platform users can now analyze parcel-specific zoned development opportunity in Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas, Austin, Orlando and Kansas City.

“Parcel-specific zoning data and attributes are used in numerous areas of the multi-trillion-dollar real estate vertical and is a major driver of development decision making as well as valuation,” says Jason Doyle, CEO of Gridics.  “Yet given the broad written structure of municipal zoning regulations, determining how zoning regulations apply to specific parcel shapes has always been a manual process, resulting in laborious research costs and permit approval delays.  Our technology delivers this important data in real-time.”

In the coming months, Gridics plans to add Chicago, Detroit, Tampa, Jacksonville, San Antonio, El Paso and Washington DC.  In addition to individual application use, enterprise users can utilize the Gridics API to pull real-time property zoning data such as applicable zones and overlays, maximum buildable area, maximum footprint, allowable addition, height, density, setbacks and more.

“After years of development, our engine and data has been pressure tested by many different city zoning departments,” says Doyle.  “We are now aggressively scaling our coverage into all the major markets and in doing so are amassing an ocean of proprietary real estate data that we will leverage to drive smarter development and investment decisions while creating greater efficiencies across the real estate spectrum.”

As Gridics expands the coverage of its calculated development data footprint, it is working with leading commercial brokerage firms and developers to deliver a first-of-its-kind development opportunity and site-selection search.  Users of this new app will be able to search for properties based on the Gridics development potential data and gain unique insights into untapped property values.  It is expecting an alpha launch later this summer.  To gain early access, send an email to info@gridics.com.

About Gridics:  Gridics develops data and software applications in the area of real estate development analysis and interpretation.  For more information, visit www.gridics.com.

Gridics Expands to Bay Area, Cupertino Latest City

CUPERTINO, CA – The City of Cupertino has partnered with software applications company Gridics to bring simplicity, transparency, and efficiency to what can otherwise be a confusing and time-consuming development design process.

Residents who visit City Hall to discuss the redevelopment of their homes can now view their properties’ full building potential in an easily interpreted 3-D environment. The Gridics software tool takes into account the zoning codes for every property in Cupertino and creates a 3-D model of buildings using permitted property size, heights, and setbacks.

“While this tool isn’t capable of designing a home for our residents, it does allow our residents to walk away with a better visualization of what they can do with their property based on our City’s zoning code,” Mayor Steven Scharf said. “The City continues to try and simplify its processes, and this is a great step forward.”

The tool also benefits the City’s planning staff, who can instantaneously change the property’s building mass based on heights, setbacks, and inquiries from the property owner. Each step in the workflow has been minimized to seconds to create a more efficient plan review. Once the property has been evaluated, the City planner will be able to provide a report that summarizes the development while providing applicable code sections, visuals, and other pertinent information that they can then give to their architect.

“Taking the design process from pencil and paper to a 3-D world significantly improves communication and understanding between residents and staff,” said Associate Planner Erick Serrano.

The City worked with Gridics for months, integrating Cupertino’s GIS data, property records, and zoning code to ensure the best tool possible for residents.

“We’re excited to have partnered with Cupertino and assist them with building a more integrated Cupertino for the future,” said Jason Doyle CEO of Gridics. “Our team of software engineers, urban planners, and architects have been working side-by-side with the City of Cupertino to help them bridge the gap between text, map, and City staff in a single software platform; the first of its kind in the world.”

For original article, please visit:  https://www.cupertino.org/Home/Components/News/News/3403/26?backlist=%2f

Gridics Expands Municipal Zoning Platform with the Launch of CodeHUB

Miami, FLGridics LLC, recently recognized as a GovTech100 company, today announced the expansion of its municipal zoning and planning platform with the addition of the first ever unified code text publishing and 3D zoning map product called CodeHUB.

Cities adopting CodeHUB will, for the first time ever, be able to self-publish their zoning code changes in real-time and deliver to citizens an easy to use zoning map with property lookup, and 3D visualization capabilities.  The combination of the two within a single public website application allows for the delivery of a more contextual end user experience at the property specific level while improving public transparency.  With the addition of the CodeHUB product, Gridics now delivers the only true comprehensive zoning management platform for cities.

Gridics launched its municipal zoning platform in 2017 with the unveiling of the first ever 3D planning and zoning software, ZoneIQ.  Targeted to city planners, ZoneIQ allows city staff to generate 3D massing visualizations, as regulated by zoning, of selected parcels with a few clicks.  They quickly saw adoption by cities large and small including Miami, FL and Cupertino, CA and more recently secured a pilot with the planning department of the nation’s largest city, New York.

“As we began to help city planning staff visualize and interpret their ordinance for tasks like testing zoning changes and checking plans for compliance, we observed staff spending a lot of time fielding zoning questions from citizens,” explained Jason Doyle, CEO of Gridics.  “We determined that nearly every city is spending valuable staff resources reacting to questions from citizens either because their current method of publishing their code text is outdated or because the zoning map doesn’t tell them how the written rules apply to their specific parcel.  This makes it harder for citizens and businesses to work with cities and creates a costly domino effect on city resources.  It quickly became clear we were uniquely positioned to solve this problem by extending our site-specific zoning calculation capabilities to citizens by creating the first ever 3D zoning map and code text publication website that cities can update in real-time.  By adding CodeHUB to ZoneIQ, cities now have a truly unified digitized zoning platform that improves staff productivity, helps commissioners make more informed decisions and significantly improves citizen transparency.”

After announcing CodeHUB in late 2018 to select cities, Gridics secured adoption by four Florida cities and is now opening up the service nationwide.  According to a recent survey of 602 cities by leading Planning website Planetizen, of the 85% of cities are publishing their text online, 33% publish a PDF document of the code while 42% use a third party online publishing service and just 58% provide an online property lookup map.

“None of the current solutions in use by cities bridge the gap between text, map and city staff on a single platform,” says Doyle.  “We are aiming to push innovation into zoning on all levels and it starts with simplifying processes by unifying disparate information sources.”

To learn about the Gridics Municipal Planning and Zoning Platform, please visit www.gridics.com

About Gridics:  Headquartered in Miami, FL, Gridics develops targeted software applications for municipalities and real estate professionals in the areas of data, planning, zoning and permitting.

Gridics Fort Lauderdale 3D zoning map
Gridics CodeHUB zoning code text platform
Gridics Fort Lauderdale zoning map search

Gridics Recognized as a GovTech 100 Company Making a Difference in Municipal Planning & Zoning

Government Technology Magazine, a leading publication covering information technology’s role in state and local government, recently named Gridics as a GovTech 100 company for 2019.

Each year, GovTech.com analyzes the top software companies based on investment capital, sales, industry niche, and impact across all levels of government.

“Four years in, the GovTech 100 continues to provide a glimpse at the most innovative companies partnering with government to solve mission-critical problems,” said e.Republic Chief Innovation Officer Dustin Haisler, who was heavily involved in the list’s creation.

Gridics is featured in this year’s report alongside transformative companies such as OpenGov, Tyler Technologies, and the Boring Company, Elon Musk’s project to help cities combat crippling traffic gridlock.  As the only intelligent zoning company on the list, Gridics stands in a category of its own.

“It is an honor to be highlighted among the 2019 GovTech 100 companies,” says Jason Doyle, CEO of Gridics.  “From day #1, our team has been on a mission to change the way municipal governments solve zoning and planning challenges.  The GovTech 100 recognition is validation that Gridics is creating technology to help build better cities and underscores just how important visualizing development capacity, driving economic development, and increasing zoning transparency are to the future of cities.”

Numerous municipal governments including New York, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Cupertino are already using Gridics, the world’s first 3D zoning management engine.  From managing zoning code text online to understanding future development in 3D, Gridics brings never-before-seen transparency to city zoning.

Curious to learn how the Gridics technology platform can help you build a better city?  For more information, please visit www.gridics.com or contact us at info@gridics.com.

City of North Miami Launches 3D Zoning & Development Technology Platform by Gridics

NORTH MIAMI, FL, Dec. 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — The City of North Miami today announced a new partnership with Gridics, a South Florida based real estate technology company, to adopt its next generation municipal zoning technology platform. The Gridics platform will help the City attract new developers while driving transparency by making it easier for regular citizens to visualize and interpret how the zoning requirements in the Land Development Regulation (LDR) applies to their specific property. City planning staff will also have access to the pro version of the Gridics 3D zoning software to visually test proposed zoning changes to the LDR and expedite permit requests before final adoption.

The Gridics 3D zoning platform utilizes the requirements in the zoning text with property records, parcel shapes and modern mapping technology to allow cities to visualize and calculate development potential such as setbacks, allowable heights and other dimensional requirements at the parcel specific level. With this first-of-its-kind capability, Gridics with deliver North Miami a new and improved 3D zoning map, a platform to directly update and publish their LDR text in real time and a robust software for staff to streamline processes and better service citizens.

“Our partnership with Gridics is an example of the investments we are making to leverage innovative new technologies that improve services and increase efficiencies for our neighbors while driving more efficient and transparent processes,” said North Miami City Manager Larry M. Spring, Jr., CPA. “We are excited to partner with the Gridics team and to leverage their platform to drive smart development practices in support of making North Miami a better community.”

“We are excited to add the City of North Miami to our platform but more importantly we look forward to partnering with City staff to help create a stronger North Miami for all,” says Jason Doyle, CEO of Gridics. “At Gridics, our core mission is to do our part to make cities and communities better places to live, work and play. Zoning plays a foundational role in achieving that mission so we set out to make zoning easier to visualize and understand.”

About Gridics: Headquartered in Miami, FL, Gridics is a real estate technology company developing targeted software applications in the areas of real estate development, zoning and market analysis. For more information, visit www.gridics.com.

About North Miami, Florida: North Miami, Florida (pop. 60,000+) is a diverse community, located midway between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. As the sixth largest city in Miami-Dade County, North Miami is committed to growth in its business community, while also focusing on issues such as education, the arts, leisure activities, and sustainability to provide a viable future for its residents and to preserve the City’s rich history since incorporating in 1926. For more information, visit www.northmiamifl.gov.

Gridics Secures Pilot with New York City’s Department of Planning for its 3D Zoning Platform

Miami, FL – Gridics LLC announced an agreement with New York City’s Department of Planning to pilot its 3D zoning and planning software platform.  Under the terms of the pilot, the department’s urban design and technical review teams will use Gridics’ proprietary zoning engine to more quickly test and visualize both site-specific development allowances and proposed ordinance changes.

Today’s announcement is another example of how the Gridics suite of products is changing the way users acquire and interact with zoning data.  The platform’s patent-pending GIS and zoning rules engine uniquely unlocks the measurable data trapped within traditional text-based zoning codes and its solutions offer users breakthrough functionality.  For example, for the first time, users in NYC can now calculate and visualize, in 3D and in real time, how zoning regulations apply to a specific neighborhood, block, lot, or assemblage of lots.  Accounting for all zoning parameters and permutations (including competing and overriding layers), Gridics helps users better understand what is currently described in text form at an area level.

“Written zoning regulations play such a crucial role in how our physical communities are developed; yet trying to explain to citizens and elected officials what those words tangibly represent has never been possible in a real-time, point and click manner,” says Max Zabala, Urban Planner and Co-Founder of Gridics.  “From an urban design standpoint, city planners armed with our 3D zoning platform are now able to test whether their written code will drive the intended development patterns and outcomes.”

After years of development, Gridics is starting to roll out commercial products that take advantage of its digital zoning code engine.  By combining measurable zoning regulations with geo-spatial attributes and property records, Gridics is able to help city staff and real estate professionals calculate and visualize actual site-specific development potential as allowed by zoning.  Use-based development analysis has traditionally been a manual and cumbersome process that took an inordinate amount of time and cost thousands of dollars.  The Gridics engine turns written zoning values into math allowing for the real-time calculation and visualization of every property’s development potential on a map based interface.  The result is a bridge between the public sector and the private development community, communicating in a more efficient processes, with smarter regulations and developing better cities.

Founded in Miami, FL, Gridics secured early adoption of its platform by the Cities of Miami and Fort Lauderdale before announcing the integration of New York City’s zoning code this summer.  “New York City has one of the most complex codes out there, so we knew if our technology could account for all its attributes we would be strongly positioned to bring our zoning engine to any city in the world, large or small,” says Jason Doyle, Gridics CEO.  “We are thrilled that our platform has been embraced by the NYC Planning Dept and believe this is an early step towards truly improving how cities are planned, understood, and analyzed.”

To learn about the Gridics platform, please visit www.gridics.com  or www.zonar.city.

About Gridics: Headquartered in Miami, FL, Gridics is a real estate technology company developing targeted data, analytics and software applications for municipalities and real estate professionals in the areas of planning, zoning, development and commercial real estate.

The One Thing Your Smart City (Probably) Doesn’t Have

There’s been a lot of talk lately about “Smart Cities”.  So what is a Smart City?  According to Techopedia:

“A smart city is a designation given to a city that incorporates information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance the quality and performance of urban services such as energy, transportation, and utilities in order to reduce resource consumption, wastage and overall costs.  The overarching aim of a smart city is to enhance the quality of living for its citizens through smart technology.”

The Smart City movement seems to be predicated on the embedding of computerized sensors into the urban fabric.  This means that car and bike shares, parking, lamp posts, traffic lights, home appliances such as internet fridges and remote-controlled HVAC systems, all become part of the so-called “internet of things”.

One of the latest companies to launch a Smart City project is Sidewalk Labs, a Google company, which will attempt to build a “Smart Neighborhood” in Toronto.  Last year Sidewalk Labs partnered with Waterfront Toronto to bring planning, process, community, and technology together in order to develop more than 800 acres of vacant land that sits just southeast of Downtown Toronto.

We should applaud Sidewalks Labs, a holistic approach to urban planning, development, and construction.  This type of out-of-the-box thinking is what drives innovation.  However, technology alone won’t considerably improve the quality of life in our cities.

Technology and data collection are powerful and can help us better plan our cities as well as increase efficiencies.  However, if we truly want to build cities that have an excellent quality of life we need to get zoning right.  If your city’s zoning code promotes sprawl and automobile dependency Smart City technologies won’t save your city.

The invisible hand that guides a city’s development and future growth is zoning.  Zoning builds the foundation of your city.  If your city’s zoning code doesn’t encourage density, mixed-uses, walkability, transit/mobility options and reduced parking requirements there is probably little or no hope for your city.  If the end goal is to build a city that is walkable, transit-friendly and less reliant on the automobile, start with smarter zoning or you’ll end up like Tucson, Arizona or Houston, TX.

When thinking of “Great Cities” Toronto, London, Vancouver, Seattle, Paris, Tokyo, Vienna, and Curitiba all come to mind.  What makes the quality of life so great in these cities?

Great cities:

  • Are walkable
  • Encourage density
  • Provide mobility options (transit, biking, walking)
  • Are less reliant on motor-vehicles
  • Have reduced or eliminated minimum parking requirements

So if you want a want a Smart City, start with smarter zoning.