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SCANTHEBLOCK

Scan the Block · for developer or builder

The parcel's constraints, before the architect bills.

Zoning as each permit records it, the assessment and the prior year, and the state of every permit issued against the lot, read across every year the District publishes. The District issues an EXCAVATION ONLY permit before a foundation and files scaffolding and tower cranes as their own category, so ground being opened is visible before anything stands.

The questions it answers

The sections that earn their keep

Zoning and heightThe district, the limit, and the historic status that decides what review an alteration needs.
Mapped hazardsThe FEMA flood zone and the panel it came off, the federal wetland inventory, and every regulated site the EPA holds a record for nearby — the layers that shape foundations and insurance.
The building's permitsEvery filing on the parcel back to the earliest on record, with open items flagged.
What is coming nearbyWho else is already entitled within a radius — your comps for what gets approved here.
Streetscape and excavationMoratorium streets and planned digs, which decide when your utility work can happen.
Mapped wetlandsWhether the federal inventory maps a wetland where the parcel stands. Filling or building on one engages the Clean Water Act, and it is the gate that decides a schedule before an architect has drawn anything.
Work permitted in the street outsideEvery street-use permit in force around the parcel, grouped by job rather than by block face, with the window each runs for — what the street is already committed to before you apply for your own.
The EPA's compliance recordWhat the agency holds a record for on the surrounding blocks, and how much of it is out of compliance — the neighbours a phase one will ask about.

Written for you

How to read a Washington reportWho keeps which record in the District, why an address here needs a quadrant, and the pair of numbers this city publishes that most cities do not.Why the District asks which quadrant1st Street exists four times over. The quadrant is not decoration on a Washington address, it is part of it, and a report cannot be run without one.This year's assessment, and last year's beside itThe District publishes the current assessment and the prior one on the same row. That pair answers a question a single number cannot.What Washington files, and under what nameThe permit type column does not say what the permit is for. The subtype does, and knowing that is the difference between finding a demolition and finding nothing.

See it on a real address

Run any Washington, D.C. address and the report reads that city's portal live, at the moment you ask. Plans start at $49 a month, billed monthly or annually, and re-reading a report you have run is always free.

See the plans Try an address

Also written for: buying a home · renting · owner or landlord · agent or broker · investor · lender or underwriter · insurance · hoa or property management · attorney or other professional · contractor or trade