Minor subdivision & ADU feasibility

Type an address. See every lot it could become.

Anywhere in the country, LotVision pulls the parcel with its ownership and transaction record, lays a georeferenced aerial underneath it, detects the buildings already standing, tests a 1–4 lot split against real setbacks, and hands you a CAD-ready site plan and a written feasibility report. In California it also checks the plan against the ADU and lot-split statutes.

Beta Nationwide coverage 14 CA counties deeply integrated No credit card to start
lotvision.io
A real 0.83-acre parcel, split four ways with setbacks applied — about ninety seconds of work.
Nationwide
Parcel & imagery coverage
14
CA counties with deep GIS integration
13
ADU & lot-split statutes · California
6
Export formats incl. DXF & KML
The problem

Most parcels get judged on a hunch

"Can this be split?" is the most expensive question in residential development — because the honest answer usually costs a site visit, a civil engineer and three weeks. So people guess, and either walk away from good dirt or buy bad dirt.

The old way

  • Pull the parcel map, squint at the county GIS viewer, retype the dimensions.
  • Trace a lot line in CAD from an aerial that isn't to scale.
  • Read the zoning code for setbacks, then read it again for the ADU exceptions.
  • Try to remember whether SB 9 or SB 684 is the one that applies here.
  • Pay for a feasibility study to find out the answer was no.
  • Three weeks and $2–5K later, one parcel is answered.

With LotVision

  • Type the address. The boundary, APN, acreage and use code arrive from county GIS.
  • A georeferenced aerial lands underneath it, already aligned.
  • Zoning setbacks auto-fetch — or type them once and they draw themselves.
  • Every relevant California statute is checked against the parcel's own data.
  • Export DXF, KML, PDF and a written feasibility report.
  • Minutes. Then screen the next twenty parcels the same afternoon.
How it works

Five steps, one screen

Every screenshot below is the real application — no mockups.

01Parcel

Start with an address. Everything else arrives on its own.

Type an address or an APN anywhere in the United States and hit Locate. LotVision fetches the parcel boundary along with its ownership and transaction record, use code, acreage and computed dimensions — then pulls a matching georeferenced aerial and lands it pre-aligned to the lot. Fourteen California counties are wired directly into their own GIS for the deepest attribute detail. If the boundary is off, nudge it, or trace your own straight through the imagery.

Nationwide parcelsOwner & transactions MapboxUSGS NAIP County orthoEsri EagleViewYour own drone image
Located from an address in one action — boundary, aerial and attributes together.
02Subdivision & road

Test the split. It tells you whether the geometry actually works.

Pick 1, 2, 3 or 4 lots and choose side-by-side or front-to-back. LotVision fits them and explains what it did — "4 lots fit the 183′ frontage at ~45.8′ each — no internal road." When a layout does need access, choose the road pattern: frontage, flag, spine or cul-de-sac. Each lot gets labelled with its own area and dimensions.

Side by sideFront to back Flag lotSpine roadCul-de-sac
Four lots, each labelled with area and dimensions, with proposed and ADU setbacks drawn.
03Zoning & setbacks

The rules become geometry you can see.

Auto-fetch the zoning record on locate, or enter the standards yourself: front, side and rear setbacks, maximum coverage, FAR, height and minimum lot size. Existing, proposed and ADU setbacks each draw as their own overlay so you can read them apart. ADU setbacks default to California's 4′ side and rear under Gov. Code §66323.

Auto-fetch zoningCoverage & FAR Height limitMin lot size §66323 ADU default
BUILDABLE FRONT · STREET 5′ 20′
Parcel boundary — from county GIS, or traced by you.
Setback line — front, side, rear, and a separate ADU line.
Buildable envelope — what's actually left to build in. This is the number that decides the deal.
04Program & AI Designer

Put buildings on it — by hand, or let the AI place them.

Set house size, beds, baths, stories and footprint, attached or detached garages, parking stalls, detached ADUs and JADUs inside the main home. Import a real floor plan as DXF, PDF or a scanned drawing and save it to your library for reuse. Or hand the whole thing to the AI Designer, which reviews every lot together, positions each footprint inside the buildable envelope and flags the lots that don't work — then lays out driveways, walkways and planting.

Auto-size footprintImport DXF / PDF / scan Plan libraryADU + JADU AI footprint placementAuto landscape
The full workspace — guided steps down the left, live plan on the right.
05Look & export

See it in 3D, then send it to whoever needs it next.

Drop into a 3D oblique view with real satellite imagery and Mapbox buildings, with the parcel boundary picked out. Then export: SVG and PDF for the deck, DXF with proper CAD layers for the engineer, KML to open the plan over live imagery in Google Earth, an editable plan file to hand another LotVision user — and a written feasibility report that states the zoning standards, the takeoffs and the compliance check.

3D viewMeasure Google Street ViewPresentation style
3D view (beta) — real imagery, parcel boundary in yellow, tilt and rotate freely.
Data layers

The parcel arrives with everything attached to it

You're not just getting a boundary. Locate a property and LotVision brings the ownership record, the transaction history, the terrain, the flood exposure and the buildings already standing on it — then draws them.

Nationwide parcel & imagery coverage 14 California counties integrated directly with county GIS
One click on Auto-detect buildings from map data — three existing structures pulled from Mapbox's building layer, drawn to scale, and auto-assigned to whichever proposed lot each one falls in.

Ownership

Nationwide

Owner of record for the parcel, so you know who to approach before you spend anything else.

Transactions

Nationwide

The sale history behind the property — what it last traded for, and when.

Parcel attributes

Nationwide

APN, use code, acreage, year built, computed frontage and depth, and lot area.

Building footprints

Nationwide

Mapbox's building layer, detected in one click and assigned to the lot each structure sits on.

USGS elevation

Nationwide

Ground elevation from the USGS 3D Elevation Program — the first hint of a grading problem.

FEMA flood zones

Nationwide

The flood zone the parcel sits in, before it turns up in a lender's conditions.

Zoning standards

Nationwide

Setbacks, coverage, FAR, height and minimum lot size retrieved for the parcel via Zoneomics.

ADU statute review

California only

Thirteen ADU, JADU and lot-split laws checked against the parcel — see below.

Public utility layers — water service district, sewer boundary and fire hydrants — are live for Napa County today, with more counties being added.

Watch it work

Ninety seconds beats a thousand words

Short walkthroughs for each stage — the same "How do I?" clips that sit inside the app next to every step.

Locate a parcelAddress → boundary → aerial · 1:10
▸ drop file: /video/locate.mp4
Split a lot four waysLot count, orientation, road patterns · 2:05
▸ drop file: /video/split.mp4
Export & reportDXF, KML, PDF, feasibility report · 1:40
▸ drop file: /video/export.mp4
What's in it

Everything between "what if" and "here's the plan"

Nationwide parcel data

Boundary, APN, acreage, use code and computed dimensions pulled live anywhere in the US — with fourteen California counties wired straight into their own GIS.

Ownership & transactions

Who owns the parcel and what it last traded for — the two facts that decide whether a promising lot is worth a phone call.

USGS elevation & FEMA flood

Ground elevation from USGS 3DEP and the parcel's FEMA flood zone — grading and insurance problems surface before you're committed.

Mapbox building footprints

Detect every structure already standing in one click, drawn to scale and auto-assigned to whichever proposed lot it falls in.

Georeferenced aerials

Five imagery sources including free USGS NAIP and county orthos, EagleView when you need sharper, or upload your own drone orthomosaic.

1–4 lot subdivision

Side-by-side or front-to-back, with automatic road patterns — frontage, flag, spine or cul-de-sac — and per-lot area and dimensions.

Setback overlays

Existing, proposed and ADU setbacks drawn as separate layers, so the buildable envelope is something you look at rather than calculate.

Zoning auto-fetch

Setbacks, coverage, FAR, height and minimum lot size retrieved for the parcel via Zoneomics — with every field editable when local rules differ.

California statute engine

California only
Thirteen ADU, JADU and lot-split laws checked against the parcel's own data — each marked pass, fail or needs-verification.

Buildings & floor plans

Size, beds, baths, stories, garages, stalls, ADUs and JADUs. Import a real plan as DXF, PDF or scan and save it to a reusable library.

AI Designer

Reviews every lot together, places each footprint inside the buildable envelope, flags lots that don't work, and lays out driveways and planting.

Utilities & easements

Water, sewer, storm, gas and electric traced, offset from a property line, or generated from a metes-and-bounds description, with standard fittings.

Landscape & hardscape

Twenty-one driveway and planting materials, path tools, tree symbols, patios, pools and fire pits — enough to make a plan a seller understands.

CAD-grade exports

DXF with proper layers, KML for Google Earth, SVG, multi-size PDF, an editable plan file to share, and a written feasibility report.

Presentation output

A softer coloured rendering for client-facing work, plus 3D oblique views and Google Street View for context in the same file.

The part nobody else does

California's ADU and lot-split law, checked against your parcel

California only — the rest of LotVision is nationwide

California rewrote residential zoning through a decade of statutes, and the rules that decide whether a plan is even legal are scattered across thirteen of them. LotVision keeps the list, marks each one against the parcel's own data, and is honest about which ones it can't verify on its own.

✓ verified from parcel data · ? needs your confirmation · ✕ does not apply.
California ADU & JADU statutes
AB 68 (2019)Ministerial approval timelines; permits an ADU + JADU combo on single-family lots.
SB 13 (2019)60-day permit deadline; impact-fee exemption below 750 sq ft.
AB 881 (2019)Caps local side and rear setback requirements at 4 feet.
AB 2221 (2022)Streamlines approvals; clarifies height and configuration rules.
SB 897 (2022)Raises height allowances to 18 feet on transit or multistory criteria.
AB 976 (2023)Permanently bars local owner-occupancy requirements for standard ADUs.
AB 1033 (2023)Lets jurisdictions allow ADUs to be sold separately as condominiums.
?
SB 543 (2025/26)15-day completeness review and "deemed-approved" status if agencies miss it.
?
AB 1154 (2025/26)Removes owner-occupancy rules for JADUs with independent sanitation.
Lot split & small subdivision statutes
SB 9 (2021)The Homeowner Innovation Act — ministerial duplexes and two-lot urban splits.
SB 10 (2021)Voluntary local tool to zone parcels for up to 10-unit residential.
SB 684 (2023)Ministerial tract map splits for infill up to 10 parcels.
?
SB 1123 (2024/25)Extends SB 684 to ministerial 10-lot starter-home subdivisions on vacant land.
Honest by design.
A "?" is not a bug. It means the law has an eligibility condition LotVision has no data for — transit proximity, historic district status, fire hazard zone, whether the local ordinance has been adopted, whether the lot is vacant. The app says so rather than guessing, and so does the report. This is reference material to speed up your analysis, not legal advice.
Exports

Work that leaves the building

A feasibility study is only useful if the engineer, the lender and the seller can all open it. LotVision writes six formats, and the vector and PDF outputs render LotVision's own drawing — lots, buildings, setbacks — never third-party aerial imagery, so there's no licensing question about where the plan ends up.

DXF
CAD layersParcel, lots, setbacks and traced buildings as separate layers, straight into the engineer's file.
KML
Google EarthOpens the plan over live imagery — the version a client will actually understand.
PDF
Letter · Legal · TabloidLandscape or portrait, ready to print or drop into a package.
SVG
Vector artworkScales cleanly into a deck, a brochure or a listing sheet.
JSON
Shareable planA complete editable copy another LotVision user opens with Import.
RPT
Feasibility reportA written summary — zoning standards, takeoffs, and the compliance check.
Who it's for

One tool, four very different Mondays

Screen deal flow instead of chasing it

The parcels worth buying are the ones nobody else has run the numbers on. LotVision turns a maybe-list into an answered list — you find out which addresses carry a second, third or fourth lot before you've paid anyone to tell you.

  • Kill a bad parcel in two minutes instead of two weeks.
  • Compare split scenarios side by side before committing to one.
  • Hand the engineer a DXF that already has the lot lines in it.
  • Take a feasibility report to a lender or an equity partner the same day.
"Can this be split?" stops being a three-week question and becomes something you answer between showings — which changes how many parcels you're willing to look at. The screening problem

Win the listing by showing the seller what a builder sees

Most listing presentations show comps. Very few show the owner that their lot carries a second home, or that the deep back yard is a parcel. Walking into a listing appointment with a drawn site plan of what the property could become is a different conversation entirely.

  • Turn a tired 1950s house on a big lot into a development story.
  • Price land on what it can carry, not only on what's standing.
  • Bring builders a plan instead of an address.
  • Presentation-style rendering and PDF built for the listing package.
A seller who has been told their house is worth $900,000 hears something very different when you show them the drawing of four lots. The listing conversation

Find out what your own back yard is worth

California spent a decade making it legal to add a home to a lot that already has one. Whether that applies to your property depends on setbacks, lot size, and which statute you fall under — which is exactly the sort of thing that's hard to look up and easy to be told wrong about.

  • See whether an ADU or a JADU fits, and where it would go.
  • Test a lot split before you talk to anyone who bills by the hour.
  • Understand the rules that apply to your parcel specifically.
  • Take a real drawing to your architect or your city's planning counter.
The most valuable thing on the property may be the part of it that's currently lawn. The homeowner question

Get the feasibility question out of the way before drawings start

Early-stage massing is unbillable work that has to happen anyway. LotVision does the parcel research, the setback geometry and the code check first, so the time you spend is spent on design rather than on establishing what the site will allow.

  • Buildable envelope resolved before the first sketch.
  • Import your own footprint as DXF and place it to scale.
  • Utilities and easements laid in from a metes-and-bounds description.
  • Export DXF layers straight into your drawing set.
The fastest way to lose money on a small project is to design it before checking what the lot allows. The feasibility problem
Pricing

Start free. Pay for what you analyse.

LotVision runs on credits — an analysis draws down a balance, so a slow month costs you less than a busy one.

Placeholder pricing
The tiers below are structured and ready — the numbers are stand-ins. Send me your real credit cost and plan prices and they're a one-line change each. Everything else on this page is accurate to the live application.
Trial
Free
Enough credits to run a handful of real parcels end to end.
  • Full workspace, nothing locked
  • Nationwide parcel data & free imagery
  • All six export formats
  • Ownership, USGS, FEMA & footprints
  • No credit card
Start free
Professional
$XX / month
For agents, homeowners and anyone working a parcel at a time.
  • Monthly credit allowance
  • Saved plans & floor-plan library
  • AI Designer placement
  • Feasibility report PDF
  • Shareable plan files
Start free trial
Team
$XXX / month
For developers and firms screening parcels continuously.
  • Higher credit allowance
  • Multiple seats
  • EagleView imagery supported
  • Shared plan library
  • Priority support
Talk to us
Questions

Before you start

What's the coverage — is this California-only?

No. LotVision works nationwide. Parcels, ownership and transaction records, aerial imagery, USGS 3DEP elevation, FEMA flood zones and Mapbox building footprints are available across the United States, and the drawing, subdivision, program and export tools work on any parcel you can locate.

Two things are narrower. Fourteen California counties are integrated directly with their own county GIS for the deepest attribute detail — Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Marin, Contra Costa, Alameda, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Yolo, Placer, El Dorado, Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange — and more are being added. And the ADU and lot-split statute review is California only, because it's built around California's specific body of law. Everywhere else you get the same parcel data, the same geometry and the same exports, without the statute checklist.

What ownership and transaction data do I get?

The owner of record for the parcel and the transaction history behind it — what the property last sold for and when. For a developer that's the difference between a list of addresses and a list of people to call; for an agent it's the basis of a conversation with an owner who may not know what their lot can carry.

Depth varies with what each jurisdiction publishes. Where a county exposes less, LotVision shows what it has rather than filling gaps with guesses.

Is this a substitute for a civil engineer or a land-use attorney?

No, and it doesn't pretend to be. LotVision is a feasibility and screening tool — it tells you quickly and cheaply whether a parcel is worth the cost of real professional work, and gives that professional a head start when you engage them. The statute checker is reference material, not legal advice, and the app marks what it cannot verify.

What can I actually do during the free trial?

All of it. The trial isn't a feature-limited demo — you get the full workspace, real county parcel data, the statute checker and every export format. What's limited is the credit balance, so the constraint is how many parcels you analyse, not what you can do with them.

Can I use my own aerial imagery?

Yes. Alongside Mapbox, USGS NAIP, county orthos and Esri — all free — you can upload a high-resolution photo or a drone orthomosaic and use the align, rotate and scale controls to fit it to the parcel boundary. EagleView is supported as a paid source. You can also import a site plan as an image or a DXF, which carries true geometry and lands to scale.

Will the exports work in my CAD software?

The DXF export writes parcel, lots, setbacks and traced buildings as separate CAD layers, which imports into standard drafting packages. The PDF and SVG exports render LotVision's own drawing rather than third-party aerial imagery — which keeps the imagery licensing question out of anything you distribute. For aerial context, export KML and open the plan over live imagery in Google Earth.

How do the building footprints work?

One click on Auto-detect buildings from map data pulls the existing structures from Mapbox's building layer, draws them to scale on the parcel, and assigns each one to whichever proposed lot it falls inside. You then review what came back — set each building's kind and status, keep it, mark it for demolition, or delete it if the data is wrong — and the takeoff updates as you go.

It's the fastest way to answer the question that follows every split: what's already standing, and which of it is in the way?

It's in beta. What does that mean in practice?

It means the core workflow — locate, split, set back, program, export — is working and in daily use, while some pieces are newer than others. 3D view is explicitly marked beta and doesn't yet overlay proposed structures. Being early is also the point: what gets built next is shaped by the people using it now.

There's a parcel you've been wondering about.

Go type its address. You'll know in about ninety seconds whether it's worth a second thought — and it costs nothing to find out.

Start your free trial
No credit card · Full workspace during the trial · Beta