Answering a zoning question should take seconds, not an afternoon.
Plain-language answers from a city’s adopted code, fee schedule, plans and parcel records - with the section or table they came from.
Example questions about zoning: What is the front setback in an R-15 district? Can I build a duplex in a multifamily district? How tall can a building be in the downtown core? Is a restaurant allowed in a neighborhood commercial zone?
Yes, a duplex is permitted with conditions in the MD-17 district.
| Standard | MD-17 |
|---|---|
| Max density | 17 units / acre |
Site-plan review runs $250 + $20 per 1,000 sq ft of floor area.
Start searching today
Cross-reference adopted code, fees, plans and parcel records.
What is the front setback for a single-family lot in R-15?
{
"answer": "25 feet from the front property line",
"source": "Sec. 18-235, Table 18-235.1",
"current_through": "Supplement No. 10"
}See how a city works, not just what its code allows
Six citywide maps read a city the way an urban designer would, from its zoning to its streets, each figure drawn from public data.
Cities are felt at street level. Corridors with density, mixed uses and transit carry growth so neighborhoods keep their character, and street trees clean the air and support mental health.
DataThe city’s zoning and use tables, its historic districts, parks, rail and airports from OpenStreetMap, and the federal list of navigation facilities for ports.
Built for planning and development professionals.
One index per city: code, fees, plans and parcel records, so every question gets a cited answer in seconds.
Every answer, cited. Ask about a property and get the district, the standards, the fee and the plan guidance together, each with its section and the date it took effect.
Try it free for 30 days. Up to 5 users and no card, then room for your whole team.
Up and running in days, not a quarter
We index the city's adopted code, fees and plans for you. Sign up, and start asking.
Request a trial
Tell us your city and we send your invite: 30 days free for up to 5 users, then an annual plan.
We build the city's library
Every adopted code, fee schedule, plan and parcel record, indexed into a private, jurisdiction-scoped library. Nothing to install.
Ask, and get the citation
Plain-language answers with the section, table or plan they came from, kept current as the code changes.
Nothing confidential to breach
Everything Spoonbill indexes is already a public record. The only private data we hold is your own questions.
- Data
Public records only.
Adopted codes, fees, plans and parcel records: public documents, indexed and kept current. No private dataset to leak.
- Privacy
Your conversations stay private.
Your questions, the properties you look at, and your account info are never sold and never used to train shared or third-party models.
- Security
Encrypted and US-hosted.
Encrypted in transit and at rest with AES-256, passwordless sign-in, and US-based hosting. SOC 2 on the roadmap.
- Accessibility
Accessible (WCAG / 508).
Built to WCAG 2.1 AA and Section 508. Every public page scores 100 in Google Lighthouse’s accessibility audit (read the report), and our Accessibility Conformance Report (VPAT) covers the whole product.
Frequently
asked questions
Everything you need to know about Spoonbill.
Who is Spoonbill for?
Planning and development professionals: planners, permit technicians and anyone who needs a defensible answer about what can be built where. Spoonbill answers their questions in seconds, each cited to the adopted code, fee schedule, plan or parcel record and the date it took effect.
Is my city covered?
Request a trial and type your city. A city we have not indexed yet we index on request, from its adopted code, fees and plans, and we email your invite when it is ready.
How is this different from searching the code online?
Keyword search finds documents that contain a word and leaves you to read them. Spoonbill answers the actual question across all of them at once, following cross-references, pulling the right number out of a fee table, and citing the specific section. You get the answer and its source, not a stack of PDFs to comb through.
Why Spoonbill instead of a general AI assistant?
Spoonbill is built for one job: planning answers you can defend. It reads the adopted code together with the fee schedule, the comprehensive and area plans and the parcel record, so a question about a lot gets the district, the standards, the fee and the plan guidance in one answer. Every answer cites the section or table and the date it took effect, and you can confirm it in a click.
How do I know the answers are accurate?
Every answer is built only from the city's adopted documents, and each one links straight to the source: the exact section, and the effective date of the document it comes from, so you can confirm it in a click. Spoonbill doesn't draw on the open web or outside knowledge; if the answer isn't in the documents, it tells you rather than filling the gap. You're never taking its word for it, because you're taken to the passage it came from.
Can I rely on its answers?
It gets you to the right section and citation faster. It does not replace professional judgment. The adopted document is always the authority, so check the citation, shown right in the answer, before it goes into a determination, an application, a staff report or a public response.
How do you keep me from citing a superseded ordinance?
Automated watchers monitor each city's published sources for changes. When an ordinance, fee, or plan is updated, Spoonbill re-reads it from the current documents and retires the superseded text, so what you search always mirrors what's actually adopted. The refresh runs on its own; there's nothing to re-upload or maintain.
Do I have to upload documents or set anything up?
No. A city's code, fees and plans are public records, so we index them for you. There is nothing to send us and no IT project to schedule, and newly adopted documents are picked up as they take effect.
Is my data used to train AI models?
No. Your questions, the properties you look at, and your account information are never sold and never used to train shared or third-party models. Spoonbill only searches the adopted public documents to answer your questions.
How do I pay?
The trial is free, so nothing is paid until you decide to buy. Plans are billed once a year in advance; for a public agency, the first term is prorated so renewals fall on its fiscal year. A W-9 is available on request, and our security and privacy overview and accessibility report (VPAT) are on the quote page.
How many people can use it?
Each plan has a user limit set well above what teams of its size need: 10 on Small, 25 on Mid, 75 on Large and 150 on Metro. A user is anyone on your team with their own sign-in. The free trial covers up to 5. Once you buy a plan, your team adds colleagues itself up to the limit; if you need more, tell us.