Gis Intake

• Search by full address including city, state, ZIP
• Visually confirm the pin lands on the correct parcel (not a neighbor)
• Record APN exactly as displayed (with hyphens for San Diego County: 469-690-20-00)
• Record lot area in SF from assessor — NEVER compute from W x D (irregular lots won't match)
• Record lotWidth and lotDepth if shown (drives rectangle mode when no polygon)
• Record legalDescription (tract/lot/block from deed)
• Record yearBuilt (4-digit year, or "" if vacant)

Primary source — Washington: King County Assessor at blue.kingcounty.com/assessor/eRealProperty

• APN format: 10-digit, no hyphens (e.g., 0723049368)

National fallback: Regrid at app.regrid.com — aggregates county data nationwide

2. Coordinates & Geometry

Goal: Get lat/lng centroid and decide rectangle vs polygon mode.

Centroid from Google Maps:

• Search the address, then right-click the visual CENTER of the lot (not the building front door)
• Click the coordinate pair at top of context menu — copies to clipboard
• First number = latitude (positive for US), second = longitude (negative for US)
• Use 6+ decimal places (11cm accuracy)
• Goes into saved.lat and saved.lng

Rectangle vs Polygon decision:

• Look at satellite view — if 4 right-angle corners, use rectangle mode (leave parcelPolygon: [])
• If L-shaped, flag-shaped, pie-shaped, or angled street frontage → need polygon mode

Polygon extraction from GIS portal:

• San Diego: SanDag GIS portal or County parcel viewer — search by APN
• Look for Geometry/Coordinates tab, or download as GeoJSON/KML
• Vertices go into parcelPolygon as [[lat1,lng1], [lat2,lng2], ...]
• Order: counterclockwise, first vertex = front-left corner by convention
• NEVER ingest GIS polygon data without designer approval (feedback rule)

3. Zoning Code Research

Goal: Get zoning designation, setbacks, FAR, height limit, density.

Sources by jurisdiction:

• San Diego: Municipal Code via sandiego.gov/development-services/zoning
• Each zone (RM-2-5, CC-3-7, etc.) has a specific code section with tables
• Record: frontSetback, rearSetback, sideSetback, baseFAR, maxHeight, densityPerSF
• For commercial frontage zones: also record commFAR, commercialDepth

4. Fees & Contacts

Goal: Get DIF rates, NEF rates, affordability %, inspector contacts.

Sources:

• City fee schedules (usually PDFs updated annually)
• Planning department contact pages for inspector names/emails
• Record: nefRatePerSF, difPerUnit, difWaiverSF, affordabilityPct, inspectors[]

5. Write the JSON File

File location: data/sites/{state}-{id}_{name}.json Naming convention: State abbreviation, hyphen, assessor short ID, underscore, street name Example: ca-4335_Euclid.json

Structure:

{
  "site": {
    "address": "...",
    "apn": "...",
    "zoning": "...",
    "lotWidth": 50,
    "lotDepth": 150,
    "lotSF": 7500,
    ... (all 40+ fields)
  },
  "saved": {
    "lat": 32.7556,
    "lng": -117.0919,
    "rotation": 0,
    "buildings": [],
    "setbacks": { "front": 0, "rear": 0, "sideL": 0, "sideR": 0 }
  }
}

TBD format: For any field not yet confirmed: "-- TBD: [what] | Source: [where]"

• TBD is visually distinct in the browser UI
• NEVER use 0 as placeholder — 0 looks like real data and feeds into calculations

6. Register in index.json

Add entry to data/sites/index.json:

{ "id": "CA-4335_EUCLID", "file": "ca-4335_Euclid.json", "address": "...", "status": "skeleton" }

7. Update pointer & build

Set activeSiteId in data/site-data.json, then run py tools/build.py.

8. Verify in browser

Open localhost:3040, confirm:

• Map centers on correct location
• Address/APN show in banner
• Zoning table populated (or shows TBDs)

Status Lifecycle

• skeleton — address + coordinates only, many TBDs
• partial — zoning section confirmed, fees/contacts may have TBDs
• complete — all 8 sections confirmed, zero TBDs, ready for concept design

Rules

• ALWAYS use assessor's published lot area — never compute from W x D
• NEVER move saved.lat/lng without recalculating all dependent offsets
• NEVER ingest GIS polygon data without designer approval
• Use TBD strings for unknown fields — never use 0 or empty string as placeholder
• .site key is NEVER touched at runtime — only manual edits + rebuild