LightBox Rolls Out National Zoning Data Product
The new product follows last year’s acquisition of zoning data provider PZR.
Real estate information and technology firm LightBox announced a new national zoning data product.
“The national zoning data provides customers with a single, centralized, and standardized source for parcel-level zoning data across the country,” a release explained. “Detailed information on zoning requirements, setbacks, density, building height, and more, are available and standardized across jurisdictions, enabling customers to streamline acquisition searches across geographies and ultimately make better informed investments and decisions around land use.”
The product is built on LightBox’s acquisition last year of zoning data provider PZR (The Planning & Zoning Resource Company) and its “library of more than 223,000 digitized reports on file.”
The zoning data connects to LightBox’s SmartFabric, which integrates the company’s geospatial and non-geospatial data and is the basic dataset for the company’s LightBox Data Platform. It includes “parcels, building footprints, property data, residential and business usage, and business counts for all 50 states, all built on millions of data points.”
“This transformational solution addresses a significant pain point for our customers, which has been an inability to easily search, filter, and analyze properties across geographies with respect to zoning information,” the release quoted A.J. Dunklau, General Manager of Location Intelligence at LightBox. “Previously, the data was difficult to access and non-standardized across jurisdictions, creating hurdles for customers who need reliable zoning information.”
Local and state zoning can play havoc with development plans. Regulations can pressure developers for more affordable housing even as construction prices drive more moves toward upscale consumers. Zoning challenges also loom for cannabis companies.
Entitlement is a critical step in any CRE development work and zoning clearance is a necessary localized and ongoing part of the process. The planning, entitlement, and construction process can take years. In the meantime, a local government could make changes to its zoning regulations, rendering a structure in process or newly built out of compliance. Getting detailed, accurate, and timely information is vital.
LightBox claims that its national zoning product includes the largest coverage universe available, with more than 50 MSAs, which collectively represent over 90% of real estate activity. They also said that the zoning product will be continually updated and expanded throughout the year to include full nationwide coverage.