How current is the parcel data?
Each parcel has a unique recording date, which is available in the data downloads under the RECDATE field. Its format is YYYYMMDD, and it represents the date this information was recorded with the county assessor's office. The parcel data set as a whole was purchased in June of 2004, so any new listings or adjustments since then are not included here.

How were the non-vacant parcels selected?
Such parcels are selected based on what is known as an improvement-value-to-land-value (IL) ratio. In California, county assessors separately calculate the value of the building and the land on which it is located, and simply dividing the two creates the IL ratio. Urban parcels for which improvement values are less than land values are widely considered to be economically under-utilized. For most occupied properties in good condition, structure values exceed underlying land values by 100% or more. For the purposes of the Statewide Infill Study, the IL threshold was set at 1 for commercial and multi-family residential parcels, and 0.5 for single-family residential parcels. These are not always perfect measures, but IL ratios do have a theoretical and practical background for being used to target potential refill parcels.

My property is included here, but I don’t want to sell or redevelop it.
The Infill Parcel Locator simply provides data about potential opportunities. Any on-the-ground changes will be led by local residents, planners, developers, and most importantly, the property owners themselves.

How are 'mixed use' parcels labeled?
The Statewide Infill Study's source data is county assessor listings, which currently do not deal with mixed use in a consistent way. In the Parcel Locator, such parcels are usually listed under their primary use, or under the 'Other' heading.

Can these parcels definitely be developed for housing?
Any redevelopment of these sites must adhere to local zoning and general plan designations. These regulations may currently preclude housing, particularly for parcels not already in residential use. Contact the city or county planning office for more information.

Nothing happens when I click on the Zoom In or Zoom Out buttons.
These tools are dynamic- click on the map to recenter and zoom in/out, or draw a 'bounding box' to zoom into a specific area.

My city/county is not listed in the drop-down boxes under Step 1.
Only locations that had qualifying infill parcels are included. If your city/county is missing, that means the study did not locate any parcels there.

When I try to identify a particular parcel, I get multiple listings.
Many estimated parcel locations are quite close. Use the Zoom In tool to get a closer view, and then use the Identify Parcels tool.

When I click the BACK button on my browser, nothing seems to happen.
The Parcel Locator is a dynamic, multi-frame application, so it may not behave like a traditional web page. However, most any action you would want to do with the BACK button should already be possible: if you want to search in another geographic area, just click "change search area" under Step 1; if you're not satisfied with your parcel query, simply return to Step 2, edit the search, and click "Find Parcels" again.

The download for my city included some parcels that have a postal address in an adjacent city.
The 'address matching' process, by which text addresses are given spatial locations, is not a perfect one. Where city boundaries meet along a common street, some parcels can appear to fall within another municipality. This is not common, but if you find it to be a particular problem for your area, download the full County Data Set for your county, and sort by both CITY and PLACENAME.

The boundaries of my city don't appear accurate.
The city geography file dates from 2000, so cities that have been incorporated since then, such as Elk Grove or Rancho Cordova, may have incorrect boundaries. Unfortunately, this is a limitation of the source data. This information can be approximated by aggregating the ZIP codes of these cities.

Why don't certain, newer streets appear?
Every effort was made to obtain the most current streets file, but some may be missing in areas where recent development has occurred. Please note: this also results in potential infill parcels along those streets being omitted from this database.