Zoning Analysis Reports

[W3 Planning and Research]

Lets talk about zoning analysis reports for a bit. These are the least known and quite frankly one of the biggest benefits in planning in your community.

These are comprehensive reviews of applicable zoning laws, building permits, C of O's, and code violations to determine if a property is still compliant with local regulations or if it has earned a legal non-conforming status. These are used heavily in due diligence for commercial properties such as multi-family, industrial, medical facilities and much more. Personally, my company and I have done over 100 of them in the past year alone all across the country, from small towns to the biggest jurisdiction in the country. Some of these reports are over a few hundred pages long because of the amount of research and documentation that we put together.

Who needs them? These are used by lenders to back loans, developers doing due diligence on new projects, title companies to assist with title insurance requirements. From a banking poinit of view, these are done on a new construction, refinance or just a new purchase of a property. They provide assurances to the legal status of a property and to ensure that they new buyer (and by extension the banks and title companies) aren't buying a property with unknown conditions that could impact their use and enjoyment of the property into the future.

**Planners** While these are typically viewed as menial tasks in the planning offices to do some research, this is actually one of the most vital pieces of planning in your community. These reports keep the money flowing in and out of businesses by banks and encourage new development. They help owners refianance or sell their properties and move on to other projects. Filling out these requests bring millions of dollars instantly into your community. When I was a development services director, I prefered that senior staff handle these request for this exact reason. I wanted them to take them seriously, and provide the excellent customer service to encourage investment in the community. This is how we grow as a community and maintain vibrance and re-investment!

I'd be happy to answer questions if anyone has any on these. I have seen some amazing examples of best practices out there, and some extremely poor ones. If anyone needs a zoning analysis report, please let me know!

 

[Chris_Sows_32]

In my department there are lots of reports asked for and it sometimes becomes a bit hectic at times but my department usually handles it pretty well. This is very interesting to note thank you

 

[W3 Planning and Research]

No problem! I'll tell you, I am dealing with one right now, and I won't name the jurisdiction, and they publish 1 month turn around times, and they hold to that. They won't do it quicker, it is 1 month, period. They are costing their citizens in this case likely hundreds of thousands of dollars in delays in financing, not to mention possibly ending up with an unfavorable rate if the rate unlocks. Time really is critical, and while many planners view these as insignificant, the hard costs to the property owners or new investments in the community is quite large!

 

[Zak]

Lets talk about zoning analysis reports for a bit. These are the least known and quite frankly one of the biggest benefits in planning in your community.

These are comprehensive reviews of applicable zoning laws, building permits, C of O's, and code violations to determine if a property is still compliant with local regulations or if it has earned a legal non-conforming status. These are used heavily in due diligence for commercial properties such as multi-family, industrial, medical facilities and much more. Personally, my company and I have done over 100 of them in the past year alone all across the country, from small towns to the biggest jurisdiction in the country. Some of these reports are over a few hundred pages long because of the amount of research and documentation that we put together.

Who needs them? These are used by lenders to back loans, developers doing due diligence on new projects, title companies to assist with title insurance requirements. From a banking poinit of view, these are done on a new construction, refinance or just a new purchase of a property. They provide assurances to the legal status of a property and to ensure that they new buyer (and by extension the banks and title companies) aren't buying a property with unknown conditions that could impact their use and enjoyment of the property into the future.

**Planners** While these are typically viewed as menial tasks in the planning offices to do some research, this is actually one of the most vital pieces of planning in your community. These reports keep the money flowing in and out of businesses by banks and encourage new development. They help owners refianance or sell their properties and move on to other projects. Filling out these requests bring millions of dollars instantly into your community. When I was a development services director, I prefered that senior staff handle these request for this exact reason. I wanted them to take them seriously, and provide the excellent customer service to encourage investment in the community. This is how we grow as a community and maintain vibrance and re-investment!

I'd be happy to answer questions if anyone has any on these. I have seen some amazing examples of best practices out there, and some extremely poor ones. If anyone needs a zoning analysis report, please let me know!

I’d like to see an example of one of these reports. On first read, I thought you were referring to what I’d describe as a comprehensive zoning verification letter or report. However when you mentioned 2-300 page reports, I can’t imagine what analysis would be that robust for a single parcel. Additionally, do you charge a fee for these? Thanks.

 

[W3 Planning and Research]

I’d like to see an example of one of these reports. On first read, I thought you were referring to what I’d describe as a comprehensive zoning verification letter or report. However when you mentioned 2-300 page reports, I can’t imagine what analysis would be that robust for a single parcel. Additionally, do you charge a fee for these? Thanks.

Our reports are proprietary, so I can't share. But I can tell you that they provide a factual and legal basis for decision making. Outside of the analysis, it includes all of the legal conditions in place at the time of the report such as applicable ordinance sections, survey's, all permits, code violations, marketing materials, C of O's as well as the simple zoning verification letters from the jurisdiction which affirms the zoning in writing legally. The analysis portion is confirming all of those hundreds of pages and verifying current compliance for all aspects as well as right to rebuild provisions and providing legally backed assurances for everything. Most reports run in the 150-200 page range because you have to establish the applicable codes and legal basis at the time it was written (codes change, so it becomes the legally defensible document). I am working on some for cases in New York right now that will likely be 1,000 pages each.

What we do is VERY different from the ones that most other companies do which is just a regurgitation of simple facts by people with no planning experience. Everyone of us working on these have 10+ years in Planning at leadership levels.

 

[permittech2]

 

[alishna]

Zoning analysis reports are one of the most underrated but essential tools in planning and development.
They review zoning laws, permits, Certificates of Occupancy, and code violations to confirm if a property is compliant or legally non-conforming. My team has completed over 100 of these nationwide in the past year, some hundreds of pages long, due to the deep research involved. Lenders, developers, and title companies rely on them for everything from new construction to refinancing. These reports help prevent costly surprises and ensure properties can be used as intended.
To planners: zoning research may seem tedious, but it's crucial. These reports unlock financing, drive development, and attract investment. When I was a development services director, I made sure senior staff handled them—they're that important.

 

[W3 Planning and Research]

So I wanted to follow up on this with some experiences lately. I am seeing a trend, and I won't get too political here, but it is in the blue states. Refusal to deliver public records, delays in getting zoning verification letters turned around, and quite frankly obstinate staff believing we are inconvienencing them. We have even had jurisdictions (New Jersey), where we were flat out told in a meeting, "we know it is zoned industrial, and your proposal meets all requirements, but we don't want that use (simple industrial warehouse for a national company) to be in this location."

These reports unlock TENS of MILLIONS of investment into communities. Without it, many lenders won't close on a deal. That jurisdiction in New Jersey still has a vacant 400,000 sf warehouse and an extremely upset property owner, because "they didn't want it", despite it meeting ALL adopted codes. The owney built this facility as a new build, for exactly this reason, WITH the blessing and encouragement of the jurisdiction, only to have them push back because they had a different vision as staff compared to what the owner wanted, and their codes allowed.

I have personally done over 200 of them over the last year, but in the past 3-4 months I have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of pushback and delays we have seen in blue states. Red even with very limited planning staff often has zoning verification letters and research turned around within a few days or in many cases hours! They recognize the benefit from these.

None of my clients are controversial by the way. These are national and international fortune 500 companies, so there truly isn't any reason to push back...

Jurisdiction that don't want to die by killing their economic engines know what these reports mean to the community. Others, let ego and personal agendas get in the way.

Just my two cents.

 

[GrayCollar]

Are there not processes in place where you can take this in front of a judge and get them to comply with what they originally told you? I'm under the assumption that you received prior approvals on paper? What you described should be illegal.

 

[W3 Planning and Research]

Are there not processes in place where you can take this in front of a judge and get them to comply with what they originally told you? I'm under the assumption that you received prior approvals on paper? What you described should be illegal.

There absolutely are processes to do that. The bigger question comes in to time versus money for my clients. In this case, we walked away from the deal. If the jurisdiction can't do simple requests, it sends a very loud clear message to people investing money that this isn't the place for them. The other side is that this is New Jersey, and the courts are notoriously slow, and rarely find on the side of the developers in cases like this. They have no problem stonewalling peeople. New Jersey requires attorneys to finish real estate deals, not Realtors, and ANY dealings with the government for a public hearing, the applications and hearings must be handled by an attorney. The laws back there were created to keep the attorneys fully employed and raise the cost of everything!