Property Due Diligence: Zoning, Flood & Site Report

Give it a US street address. Get back one JSON report that tells you what the zoning allows, whether the site floods, who lives nearby, what's being built around it, and a BUILD / CAUTION / DON'T BUILD call with the evidence behind it.

Reach for this when you need to answer "can I build here?", "is this in a flood zone?", or "should I buy this site?" without opening ten government portals by hand.

• Input: { "address": "600 Congress Ave, Austin, TX", "tier": "full" }
• Returns: JSON in roughly 10 to 25 seconds.

Coverage (be honest about this)

• Full zoning interpretation: Austin plus 16 DFW-area cities — raw code resolved to allowed uses, overlays, confidence, and a narrative. Across the seventeen, 562 of 688 authored districts resolve to allowed uses (82%). Arlington, Carrollton, Dallas, Denton, Forney, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, Irving, Lewisville, McKinney, Mesquite, Plano, Richardson and Rockwall all resolve at 81% or better.
• Partially authored: Frisco and Garland — the code is returned and many districts resolve, but a substantial share do not yet carry an allowed-use table. Waxahachie returns the zone code only.
• Planned Developments (Rockwall's PD class and similar) return "the district's own adopted ordinance controls" rather than a use list. That is the correct answer for a site-specific district, not a gap.
• Parcel boundaries: 14 Texas counties — Bastrop, Bexar, Caldwell, Collin, Comal, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Hays, Kaufman, Rockwall, Tarrant, Travis, and Williamson.
• Nationwide: flood, demographics, elevation, walkability, and schools work for any US address.
• Permits: Austin, San Antonio, New Braunfels and San Marcos. Elsewhere the permits section is honest-null rather than empty.
• Everywhere else: the zoning section comes back null and the report tells you why, instead of guessing.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
address	string	-	US street address. Required unless lat/lng are given.
lat / lng	number	-	Coordinates. Accepted instead of address; both must be present.
tier	full | data	full	full = structured data plus a BUILD / CAUTION / DON'T BUILD assessment. data = structured data only, cheaper.

Output (schema v0.1)

One JSON report. Every field is always present, null when it can't be resolved, so you never have to guard for missing keys.

• address - input, matched address, lat/lng, FIPS codes.
• coverage - enhanced (deep local data) or national, plus which sections resolved.
• zoning - a category enum (e.g. commercial-core, residential-low, unzoned), the raw jurisdiction code, allowed uses, confidence, and a narrative.
• hazards.flood - flood zone, SFHA flag, risk level.
• context - demographics, walkability, traffic, schools, permits, parcel.
• assessment (tier=full only) - recommendation (GO/CONDITIONAL/NO-GO), reasons, next steps, and a section-by-section narrative.
• meta - timestamps, disclaimer, cache flag.

Zoning answers carry named, linked sources: the jurisdiction and its department (e.g. "City of Round Rock — Planning and Development Services") in zoning.official_sources, and for authored districts the specific ordinance section behind the read (e.g. "Plano CZO Art. 9, Sec. 9.200"). The assessment narrative uses short section labels like [Zoning Records] and [Flood Data].

Pricing (pay-per-event)

Event	Price	When
report-full	$0.75	A full data + assessment report is delivered.
report-data	$0.20	Structured data only (tier=data, or full degraded when the assessment is unavailable).

An address that can't be geocoded returns 404 and is never charged.

Standby mode (HTTP API)

The Actor also runs in standby mode as a real-time API:

• POST /assess body {"address": "...", "tier": "full"} → report JSON
• GET /assess?address=...&tier=... → same
• GET /assess?lat=30.2681&lng=-97.7428&tier=... → same, by coordinates
• GET / → health/usage text (never billed)

Example output (truncated)

{
  "schema_version": "0.1",
  "address": { "matched": "1205 W 6TH ST, AUSTIN, TX, 78703", "lat": 30.27, "lng": -97.76 },
  "coverage": { "level": "enhanced", "jurisdiction": "Austin, TX" },
  "zoning": { "raw_code": "CS-MU-V-CO-NP", "category": "commercial-core",
              "residential_allowed": true, "commercial_allowed": true,
              "rezoning_required_for_commercial": false, "confidence": "high" },
  "hazards": { "flood": { "zone": "X", "in_sfha": false, "risk": "minimal" } },
  "assessment": { "recommendation": "GO",
                  "reasons": ["Zoning permits commercial use by right [Zoning Records]",
                              "Outside the Special Flood Hazard Area [Flood Data]"] }
}

What it does not do

• It is not legal advice or a survey. The zoning read is a strong starting point; confirm anything you're about to spend money on with the jurisdiction.
• Full zoning interpretation is Austin and sixteen DFW-area cities. Frisco and Garland are partially authored and Waxahachie returns the code only. Everywhere else you get the national sections and a null zoning section, not a guess.
• The verdict is a screen, not a substitute for site diligence.

Telemetry

This Actor sends an anonymous coverage signal (county-level only, never the address, the report, or your identity) so we can see where to add coverage next.

Plat links — by need

• Want the full visual report instead of JSON? platreport.com — same data spine, human-readable, free sample.
• Support, data problems, or "cover my market next": platreport.com/contact or support@platreport.com.
• Composing several Plat tools from an agent? platreport.com/AGENTS.md — the whole suite, input shapes, and schema notes in one machine-readable page.

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Want your market covered?

Full zoning interpretation is authored city by city, demand-first. If you need allowed uses and rezoning flags in your market, email support@platreport.com (or reach Will directly: will@platreport.com) with the counties you care about — the most-requested jurisdictions get authored next.