After upgrading their zoning map and real estate data with MuniMap & ZoneCheck early last year, the City of Cupertino is now publishing their city ordinance via CodeHUB to deliver a fully integrated experience for their citizens.
For Immediate Release: November 7, 2023
Cupertino, CA — Gridics LLC is proud to announce the expansion of its long-standing technology partnership with the City of Cupertino, CA. Cupertino now provides citizens and staff with access to the full Gridics Zoning Platform, seamlessly integrating parcel level zoning data, rich 3D mapping, and code text into one suite.
Cupertino began its partnership with Gridics by adopting MuniMap to provide citizens with an interactive zoning map powered by the Gridics geo-spatial zoning data engine, which calculates and outputs over 20 parcel-specific zoning & development allowance data points such as setbacks, density, allowed uses, buildable capacity, and more. With the adoption of CodeHUB to publish their city ordinance, Cupertino is delivering a fully integrated zoning information system that connects property details in MuniMap with the relevant areas of the code text in CodeHUB, making zoning much easier for citizens, developers, and staff to understand and interpret.
“The City of Cupertino is firmly committed to harnessing cutting-edge technology for the ongoing enhancement of policy transparency, seamless information access, and an elevated user experience. That’s why we are thrilled to unveil Gridics CodeHUB, an innovative one-stop destination designed to simplify the retrieval of zoning requirements, property particulars, and other municipal code provisions that have a direct impact on our daily lives.”
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.
Municipalities large and small are turning to the Gridics platform to facilitate transparent development regulations, provide click-button, comprehensive real estate data, and help municipal staff serve the community more efficiently through online services.
Orlando, FL — Gridics LLC announced a new partnership with Orange County, FL to adopt the Gridics municipal zoning intelligence platform. The Gridics municipal zoning platform is the first of its kind to combine regulations broadly outlined in the zoning text with property records, parcel shapes, and geo-spatial analytics to output parcel-specific development potential and zoning allowance data such as density, buildable capacity, allowed uses, setbacks, heights, and other dimensional requirements at the parcel specific level. Gridics will deliver to Orange County its MuniMap app which provides an array of search tools and parcel data that integrates directly with the zoning ordinance via its CodeHUB ordinance publishing app to put all the information in one easy to access online location to better serve its citizens.
By upgrading its online zoning information services with Gridics, Orange County aims to reduce common daily questions from citizens and help staff members more quickly respond to service requests. In addition, Orange County will have the ability to leverage the parcel level housing capacity data to conduct data-driven long range planning. Lastly, county staff can leverage the Gridics platform to model the real-time impact of zoning changes to increase transparency for citizens and elected officials.
The combination of the Gridics ability to output parcel-specific zoning records proves to be a natural fit for municipalities like Orange County that are looking for ways to use technology to drive efficiencies, attract new development, and deliver world-class citizen services.
“Orange County is the latest Florida municipality to upgrade their tech and data with the Gridics platform. Since launching a few years ago, we have seen tremendous support from municipalities across the US, and we are proud to add Orange County to our family of municipal partners,” says Jason Doyle, CEO of Gridics.
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.
Municipalities large and small are turning to the Gridics platform to facilitate transparent development regulations, provide click-button, comprehensive real estate data, and help municipal staff serve the community more efficiently through online services.
Marysville, CA — Gridics LLC announced a new partnership with Yuba County, CA to adopt the Gridics municipal zoning intelligence platform. The Gridics municipal zoning platform is the first of its kind to combine regulations broadly outlined in the zoning text with property records, parcel shapes, and geo-spatial analytics to output parcel-specific development potential and zoning allowance data such as density, buildable capacity, allowed uses, setbacks, heights, and other dimensional requirements at the parcel specific level. Gridics will deliver to Yuba County its MuniMap app which provides an array of search tools and parcel data that integrates directly with the zoning ordinance via its CodeHUB ordinance publishing app to put all the information in one easy to access online location to better serve its citizens.
By upgrading its online zoning information services with Gridics, Yuba County aims to reduce common daily questions from citizens and help staff members more quickly respond to service requests. In addition, Yuba County will have the ability to leverage the parcel level housing capacity data to conduct data-driven long range planning. Lastly, county staff can leverage the Gridics platform to model the real-time impact of zoning changes to increase transparency for citizens and elected officials.
The combination of the Gridics ability to output parcel-specific zoning records proves to be a natural fit for municipalities like Yuba County that are looking for ways to use technology to drive efficiencies, attract new development, and deliver world-class citizen services.
“Yuba County is the latest California municipality to upgrade their tech and data with the Gridics platform. Since launching a few years ago, we have seen tremendous support from municipalities across the US, and we are proud to add Yuba County to our family of municipal partners,” says Jason Doyle, CEO of Gridics.
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.
Municipalities large and small are turning to the Gridics platform to facilitate transparent development regulations, provide click-button, comprehensive real estate data, and help municipal staff serve the community more efficiently through online services.
Homestead, FL — Gridics LLC announced a partnership with the City of Homestead, FL to adopt its next-generation municipal zoning technology platform. By partnering with Gridics to deliver detailed parcel-level zoning and development allowance data via its public-facing tools, Homestead will empower its citizens and developers by making it easier to access and interpret zoning knowledge for every parcel in the city.
The Gridics municipal zoning platform is the first of its kind to utilize combined regulations broadly outlined in the zoning text with property records, parcel shapes, and geo-spatial analytics to output parcel-specific development potential and zoning allowance data such as density, buildable capacity, uses, setbacks, heights, and other dimensional requirements at the parcel specific level. Gridics will deliver to Homestead its MuniMap app which provides an array of search tools and parcel data that integrates directly with the zoning ordinance via its CodeHUB publishing app to put all the information in one easy to access online location to better serve its citizens.
As City staff conduct zoning amendments, they will utilize Gridics to model the real-time impact of zoning changes on development potential. The combination of the Gridics ability to output a parcel zoning record for every parcel in Homestead proves to be a natural fit for municipalities like Homestead that are looking for ways to use technology to drive efficiencies, attract new development, and deliver world-class citizen services.
“The City of Homestead is the latest Florida municipality to upgrade their tech and data with the Gridics platform. Since launching a few years ago, we have seen tremendous support from FL cities and are proud to add Homestead to our family of municipal partners,” says Jason Doyle, CEO of Gridics.
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.
Since its recent release, ChatGPT, the AI tool developed by OpenAI, has taken social media by storm with its responses to various popular topics/questions and its ability to output full essays that are nearly indecipherable from human-written content.
ChatGPT is a powerful tool no doubt… But can it handle complex zoning regulations in unstructured legal format documents? We set out to answer that question in today’s blog post.
Zoning documents are historically complex, vary city to city, and underpin the development patterns and outcomes that mold our communities. Not to mention zoning also plays a key role in increasing housing availability, improving sustainability initiatives, and even tackling climate change.
Our team at Gridics is focused on making zoning more accessible. Gridics technology is empowering municipalities and developers to quickly understand and interpret how zoning regulations outlined in complex legal documents apply to individual parcels.
Given our focus on zoning, we wondered what ChatGPT’s take would be… So we had a little chat and wanted to share the conversation here as it turned out to be eye-opening and fun!
1) What does ChatGPT know about zoning?
To test ChatGPT’s uncanny writing ability, our first question was…
We found this response to be quite impressive and reassuring given that we at Gridics have been asked many times over the years if there is a way to standardize and/or normalize zoning… And we’ve found there really isn’t. That said, there certainly are zoning best practices, which is why our ZoneIQ 3D Scenario App allows a city on our platform to change the zoning rules of a local parcel with just a few clicks and compare how the changes affect by-right development potential.
2) Can ChatGPT analyze parcel-specific zoning information?
We continued to get more specific and have a little fun by seeing what ChatGPT thought in terms of analyzing the zoning of a specific property, a capability Gridics has revolutionized…
To be fair, this is the traditional approach that we have always felt was backwards, and quite frankly, just broken. Citizens, developers, and municipal staff should not have to obtain a document that is often hundreds of pages (thousands in the case of New York City), then find a map somewhere else to identify which zone a property is in, and finally dig into the document to extrapolate (hopefully without missing a key detail) how the zoning applies to that specific parcel… Say nothing about then calculating development allowances such as housing density given the geometry of the parcel in question.
Instead, one should be able to simply type in the address and see all the zoning data attributes, allowed uses, and development capacity points specific to the property of interest. That’s what our Gridics technology does and why cities and counties, large and small, are turning to Gridics to upgrade their zoning information services to make it more transparent and easier to interpret while laying a data foundation for every parcel in the municipality to help tackle today’s challenges such as affordable housing, sustainability, and climate change.
3) What happens when we ask ChatGPT to write a story about zoning?
Lastly, we ended with some serious fun! We asked ChatGPT about zoning and its thoughts on Gridics… Then we added how it would describe the two if zoning was considered a villain.
Here’s the story directly from ChatGPT…
“Once upon a time, in a city plagued by confusing and outdated zoning regulations, Zoning emerged as a powerful super villain. With its unwavering rules and strict enforcement, Zoning caused chaos and frustration among the citizens and developers alike. People struggled to understand the labyrinthine regulations and often faced lengthy delays and obstacles in their efforts to build and grow.
But then, a new hero appeared on the scene: Gridics. With its cutting-edge technology and innovative approach, Gridics challenged Zoning’s hold on the city. Gridics offered a clear and intuitive platform that allowed citizens and developers to quickly and easily navigate the complex regulations and find creative solutions to their land use challenges.
As Gridics gained popularity, Zoning grew increasingly threatened. The super villain tried to resist the hero’s progress, but Gridics was relentless in its mission to promote sustainable and equitable land use. With its powerful software, Gridics helped citizens and developers unlock the full potential of their city, creating vibrant and livable communities for all.
In the end, Zoning was defeated, and Gridics emerged as the city’s true hero. The city flourished as a result of Gridics’ efforts, and the people lived happily ever after, free from the tyranny of confusing and outdated zoning regulations.
And so, Gridics’ legend spread far and wide. As more and more cities were plagued by the same issues faced by the original city, Gridics was called upon to save the day. Each time, the hero arrived with its cutting-edge technology and innovative approach, offering a solution to the problems caused by Zoning.
As Gridics traveled from city to city, it encountered new challenges and obstacles, but the hero remained steadfast in its mission to promote sustainable and equitable land use. Whether it was facing down a powerful real estate conglomerate, or navigating the complex regulations of a sprawling metropolis, Gridics always found a way to overcome the obstacles and emerge victorious.
Despite Zoning’s efforts to resist Gridics’ progress, the hero’s reputation continued to grow, and the people hailed Gridics as their savior. With each victory, Gridics became stronger and more determined, and the hero’s resolve never wavered.
In the end, Gridics became a symbol of hope for cities everywhere, a shining example of the power of technology to promote progress and create a better world for all. And so, the legend of Gridics lives on, inspiring future generations to continue the hero’s mission and fight for a brighter, more equitable future.”
So while we are certainly on a new frontier of AI technology, for the time being super heroes like Gridics are still needed to tackle the pain associated with traditional zoning information.
Municipalities large and small are turning to the Gridics platform to facilitate transparent development regulations, provide click-button, comprehensive real estate data, and help municipal staff serve the community more efficiently through online services.
Boynton Beach, FL — Gridics LLC announced a partnership with the City of Boynton Beach, FL to adopt its next generation municipal zoning technology platform. By partnering with Gridics to deliver detailed parcel-level zoning and development allowance data via its public-facing tools, Boynton Beach will empower its citizens and developers by making it easier to access and interpret zoning knowledge for every parcel in the city.
The Gridics municipal zoning platform is the first of its kind to utilize combined regulations broadly outlined in the zoning text with property records, parcel shapes and geo-spatial analytics to output parcel-specific development potential and zoning allowance data such as density, buildable capacity, uses, setbacks, heights and other dimensional requirements at the parcel specific level. Gridics will deliver to Boynton Beach its MuniMap app which provides an array of search tools and parcel data that integrates directly with the zoning ordinance via its CodeHUB publishing app to put all the information in one easy to access online location to better serve its citizens.
In addition, Boynton Beach is adopting the Gridics 3D Projects Module, which allows neighbors, real estate developers, and other concerned citizens to view detailed, 3D models of proposed and approved development projects or are currently under construction. City wide projects are presented within the 3D zoning map, giving the viewer an understanding of how the city landscape will change with the addition of new developments.
“Gridics will bring a new level of transparency and ease of use to our zoning code, allowing anyone the ability to access the precise information they need specific to their parcel in an easy-to-use format. We are excited to bring this enhanced service to the City’s residents and property owners,” says Amanda Radigan, Director of Planning and Zoning for the City of Boynton Beach.
As City staff conduct zoning amendments, they will utilize Gridics to model the real-time impact of zoning changes on development potential. The combination of the Gridics ability to output a parcel zoning record for every parcel in Boynton Beach proves to be a natural fit for municipalities like Boynton Beach that are looking for ways to use technology to drive efficiencies, attract new development and deliver world-class citizen services.
“The City of Boynton Beach is the latest Florida municipality to upgrade their tech and data with the Gridics platform. Since launching a few years ago, we have seen tremendous support from FL cities and are proud to add Boynton Beach to our family of municipal partners,” says Jason Doyle, CEO of Gridics.
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.
Municipalities large and small are turning to the Gridics platform to facilitate transparent development regulations, provide click-button, comprehensive real estate data, and help municipal staff conduct business safely through online services.
Cupertino, CA — Gridics LLC announced a partnership with the City of Cupertino, CA which has adopted its next generation municipal zoning platform. By partnering with Gridics, Cupertino will drive transparency for both regular citizens and developers by making it easier to visualize and interpret how zoning requirements apply to specific properties.
The Gridics zoning knowledge platform combines the requirements in the recently amended zoning text with property records, parcel shapes, and the Gridics geo-spatial zoning data engine to calculate and output over 20 parcel-specific zoning & development allowance data points such as setbacks, density, allowed uses, buildable capacity, and more. The unified data and zoning information platform makes it easier for citizens to find answers to common questions while giving developers and investors tools to identify opportunities. With this first-of-its-kind capability, Gridics will deliver Cupertino a new and improved zoning map with in-depth parcel-level data combined with the ability to directly update and publish zoning code text in real time, all in one place.
Cupertino strives to provide transparent and intuitive solutions that enhance the ability of Cupertino community and staff to make data-driven decisions based on real-time data. Partnering with Gridics is another step forward in this effort,” says Bill Mitchell, Cupertino’s Chief Technology Officer.
As a complement to its technology offering, Gridics urban planners and architects will assist Cupertino staff as they conduct zoning code amendments and model the real-time impact of zoning changes on development potential. The combination of Gridics’ patented 3D scenario analysis engine and tech-enabled professional services proves to be a natural fit for municipalities like Cupertino that are looking for ways to drive efficiency and deliver world-class citizen services.
“We are excited to add the City of Cupertino to the growing list of municipalities upgrading their citizen services and technology by adopting our platform, but more importantly, we look forward to partnering with City staff to help create a stronger Cupertino for the future,” says Jason Doyle, CEO of Gridics. “Zoning plays a foundational role in how our communities are molded over time. By delivering cities & counties tools and data that make zoning easier to understand, we are doing our part to make cities and communities better places to live, work, and play.”
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.
Municipalities large and small are turning to the Gridics platform to facilitate transparent development regulations, provide click-button, comprehensive real estate data, and help municipal staff conduct business safely through online services.
Carmel, IN — Gridics LLC announced a partnership with the City of Carmel, Indiana, the fourth largest city in the state, to adopt its next generation municipal zoning technology platform. By partnering with Gridics, Carmel will drive transparency for both regular citizens and developers by making it easier to access and interpret zoning knowledge for every parcel in the city.
The Gridics municipal zoning platform is the first of its kind to combine regulations broadly outlined in the zoning text with property records, parcel shapes and geo-spatial analytics to output parcel-specific development potential and zoning allowance data such as density, buildable capacity, uses, setbacks, heights and other dimensional requirements at the parcel specific level. Gridics will deliver Carmel a new zoning map with an array of tools and parcel data with an integrated zoning text publishing website to help staff streamline processes and better service citizens.
“By adopting Gridics, the City of Carmel was instantly able to bring to life our static PDF ordinance material in combination with our GIS zoning layers, making both more accessible and convenient to use. Carmel residents and investors in our community will benefit from the user-friendly Gridics web interface and ease of access to zoning and other GIS data,” says Mike Hollibaugh, Director of Community Services for the City of Carmel.
As a complement to its technology offering, Gridics urban planners and architects will assist Carmel staff as they conduct zoning code amendments and model the real-time impact of zoning changes on development potential. The combination of Gridics’ patented 3D scenario analysis technology and urban planning professional services proves to be a natural fit for municipalities like Carmel that are looking for ways to drive efficiency and deliver world-class citizen services.
“We are thrilled to add the City of Carmel to the Gridics platform and family of municipal customers. As the first city in Indiana to adopt our platform, the Gridics platform has now been adopted by municipalities in more than 10 states since launching a few years ago,” says Jason Doyle, CEO of Gridics. “More importantly, we look forward to arming the Carmel staff and local developers with deep parcel-level data to make it easier to do their jobs and understand how zoning applies to each parcel throughout the city.”
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.
As part of its municipal expansion plan across the US and beyond, Gridics has partnered with City Possible™, an initiative pioneered by Mastercard, to provide City Network Members with access to its virtual zoning platform.
Miami, FL — Gridics LLC today announced the launch of its app on the City Insights Marketplace through a long-term partnership with Mastercard City Possible™.
“City Possible™ is a new model for urban innovation in which a global network of cities, businesses, academics, and communities work together to make the world’s cities more inclusive and sustainable.”
“With over 300 City Network Members, City Possible™ is the perfect conduit through which to bring our virtual zoning technology to more municipalities large and small,” says Jason Doyle, Gridics CEO. “The City Possible™ network provides a wide array of tools, apps, and services for city governments, but to date, no partner application has delivered the level of zoning data we provide. The Gridics engine calculates the most advanced parcel-level zoning data available.”
At the heart of the Gridics platform is its patented zoning engine that combines measurable zoning regulations as outlined in the code with GIS parcel analysis to calculate over 30 data points about every parcel in the city. Once calculated, the city has a foundational zoning property record data set that heretofore has never existed at scale.
Sitting on top of this data is the Gridics zoning information platform which integrates citizen self service tools, realtime code publishing, site analysis, and 3D mapping technology that makes it easy for cities to better service citizens and make smarter planning decisions.
To learn more about Mastercard City Possible™ or the City Insights Marketplace, please visit https://citypossible.com/
For more information about Gridics, please register for one of our upcoming webinars or click the “Request Demo” button in the top right corner of our website to speak with our team.
How Gridics & the City of Miami, FL Revolutionized Zoning Transparency
Project Description: Zoning regulations are difficult for staff, citizens, and developers to understand and interpret at the individual property level. This leads to bottlenecks in development approvals, increases staff time to service daily questions from citizens, and causes a lack of transparency around solving housing, resiliency, and sustainability challenges.
Together with the City of Miami’s Planning and Zoning Departments, Gridics developed a comprehensive zoning management platform that has been in use across the City since 2016. At the heart of the Gridics platform is its patented zoning calculation engine that combines measurable zoning regulations as outlined in the code with GIS parcel analysis to calculate over 30 data points about every parcel in the city. Once calculated, the city has a foundational zoning property record data set that heretofore has never existed at scale.
Sitting on top of this data is the Gridics zoning information platform which integrates citizen self service tools, realtime code publishing, site analysis, and 3D mapping technology that makes it easy for cities to better service citizens and make smarter planning decisions.
City Challenge: The City of Miami and Gridics have been focused on the overarching goal of translating zoning regulations to the parcel level to make it easier for all to interpret, analyze, and understand. Zoning is too complicated and should promote — not impede — sustainable, equitable development. Addressing these challenges has defined the Gridics partnership from day one.
Additional pain points the Gridics platform solves for the City of Miami include:
Front counter inquiries: Providing virtual citizen self service tools to look up parcel specific zoning attributes
Outdated online code: Real-time staff editing allows code text updates in seconds, not weeks
Development backlogs: Streamlining the plan review process
Affordable Housing: Visualizing the effect of zoning and housing capacity based on policy levers in a 3D map
Long Range Planning: Visualizing proposed zoning changes to make data driven decisions
Impact: Use of the Gridics platform delivers value to 6 different divisions within the City of Miami (Planning, Zoning, Building & Permitting, GIS, Information Technology and Economic Development) and drives thousands of dollars in cost savings each month.
The following are just a few of the many concrete process improvements:
60% decrease in citizen calls, emails, & visits to the planning/zoning front counter
Up to 9 hours of staff time saved PER plan review
Over 5,000 visits per month to online Gridics zoning resources
Real-time code updates across text, maps, and self-service tools as soon as zoning changes are approved by City Commission compared to 6+ months delay prior
In addition to these efficiency improvements, Gridics delivers an intangible impact that is arguably the most important of all: making zoning accessible for everyone.
How-To: The Gridics zoning management platform was developed in close collaboration with City of Miami staff starting in 2016. The partnership began with questions… What aspect of zoning management is most cumbersome for staff? How could we make zoning easier for the public to understand? Which tools might encourage equitable real estate development in the private sector?
From there, the focus then turned towards building technology tools to address these challenges:
Creating a mathematical rules engine to digitize the City of Miami’s zoning code
Applying those rules to the 3D built environment
Testing the code calibration with City staff and developers
Developing a plan review application to interact with the digital zoning code
Molding the Gridics platform into three integrated applications (ZoneCheck, CodeHUB, and MuniMap)
Promoting the platform for widespread use among the private sector
From conception to implementation, the project took approximately 12 months. Over the following 4 years, the Gridics platform has grown to encompass millions of real estate data points across the City of Miami and handle thousands of web visits per month to its 3 applications.
General Tips: The beauty of the Gridics zoning platform lies in its scalability and flexibility. While building the rules engine for the City of Miami, the platform was engineered to handle both form-based and Euclidean zoning codes (metric and imperial conversions) for dense urban cities and suburban environments alike.
Miami proved to be the perfect development partner thanks to its new form-based code and unprecedented growth, however, Gridics can be leveraged just as easily in smaller municipalities. Cities large and small can now take advantage of a modern cloud based app and data platform that would cost millions for any city to develop on their own.
Budget: $60,000 Per Year for platform license, support & maintenance
