Create YOUR Atlas

MAP is seeking to partner with counties and regions who are ready to create a brand new resource to support housing development that offers more choice and affordability to its current and future residents.

What will happen?

Who will do the work?

How much will it cost?

What are the deliverables?

How will the data be updated?

There are two parts to the Zoning Atlas: spatial data, and a housing-focused code analysis. Additional analysis will also be conducted at the conclusion of the project to produce area-wide findings.

Spatial data

GIS-based spatial data for zoning district boundaries will be collected (or, in rare cases, created) for each jurisdiction in the county or region. This information will be reviewed for accuracy, and then it will be joined to the National Zoning Atlas spatial infrastructure.

Housing-focused code analysis

Each zoning code in the county or region will be collected and analyzed according to the National Zoning Atlas methodology. For each district, code analysts will enter and review over 100 data points to determine what kind of housing can be built and how, including constraints like setbacks, parking requirements, and infrastructure connectivity. These data points are recorded directly in the National Zoning Atlas database.

Each county or region will partner with MAP to develop a project scope that reflects its individual needs. In all cases, MAP will manage the project, including required weekly meetings of analysts; the University of Michigan will train the analysts; and the county or region will designate a participant liaison/manager.

There are two basic ways to complete the spatial and analytical work.

Community-Led

In this approach, the county or region takes on this responsibility with oversight from the MZA team. This option may be preferred where there are existing housing efforts that anticipate using the findings of the Atlas. A key benefit to this approach is that deep knowledge of the zoning codes in the region or county will be developed and retained inside the region or county. The participant may consider developing a steering committee or working group to connect the effort to next steps, such as coordinated planning and zoning reform.

State-Team-Led

The second approach is for the county or region to raise funds for the MZA team to complete the work for a specific geography. This option may be preferred where simplicity and efficiency are critical, or local capacity is limited.

It cannot be overstated that, as with almost anything, the cost of the Atlas will depend on a series of variables and that the information here represents a high-level estimate for placeholder, ballpark, and starting-point purposes.

That said, our preliminary work with the pilot counties and a few early adopters suggests that $25,000 is a reasonable starting estimate for a county-level Atlas. Factors that most significantly affect the final budget estimate include:

  • The number of jurisdictions to be analyzed

  • Whether up-to-date, consolidated, accessible spatial data already exists

  • The number of hours each week that will be devoted to the project

The key deliverable is that the county or region will become a part of the National Zoning Atlas, and all of the functionality of the Atlas will be available to the newly-analyzed area.

A short report will also be produced that summarizes major findings. These will likely include the percentage of land area that only permits housing development in the single-family format; the percentage of land area that permits small-lot development, duplexes, accessory dwelling units, and multi-family housing; and the characteristics of parking requirements in residential zones.

We include this question here because it is almost universally asked. The short answer is that the Zoning Atlas is still in the building phase, both nationally and statewide, so it has not yet been fully addressed. But both teams are working on it.

In the short term, communities which have completed updates to their zoning codes that affect housing should reach out directly to the MZA team, and we will facilitate the process of reflecting those updates in the Atlas.

We are organizing projects and cohorts now!

We are happy to answer your questions, think through your plans, and help you connect with partners and resources. Use the Contact Us page to reach out to MAP and start down the road to your Atlas today.