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SCANTHEBLOCK

Scan the Block · for developer or builder

The parcel's constraints, before the architect bills.

Zoning and the combining zones laid over it, what the county records the parcel as, six hazard layers read at the address, and what the parcels around it actually sold for — the feasibility questions that decide whether a deal is a deal, answered from the city's and the county's own layers. Oakland publishes no permits, so the state of every permit on the parcel is not among them, and this page does not pretend otherwise.

The questions it answers

The sections that earn their keep

Zoning and combining zonesThe base zone at the point of the address with the ordinance that set it, and every combining zone laid over it. Oakland publishes the code and no plain name for it, so the code is what this shows.
The ground under it, and the fire above itLiquefaction and landslide susceptibility, the state's fire hazard severity zone, the wildland urban interface, the NEHRP soil class and mapped serpentine — six of the city's own layers, read at the address. A layer that maps no zone here says so, and one that did not answer is marked unread rather than counted as clear.
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.
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

What Oakland files every dayEleven lists from two feeds, because two feeds is what this city publishes with a date and a place on it. What each is, and what none of them is.How to read an Oakland reportWhat the city publishes, what the county publishes instead, and the one section every other city has that this one cannot.Why there are no permits in an Oakland reportThe city runs its permits through a portal that answers one typed address at a time and publishes no dataset. Where to look instead, and what the report gives you in place of it.What seven roll years show that one does notAlameda County publishes its secured roll one fiscal year at a time, back to 2019-20. Read together they are the staircase Proposition 13 builds, and the step where the building sold.

See it on a real address

Run any Oakland 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