How do you figure out zoning when evaluating a parcel in LA?

Question

Question for LA developers and investors — when you’re evaluating a new parcel, how do you currently figure out the zoning? Do you use ZIMAS, hire a consultant, call the city planning department? Trying to understand how people handle this workflow. Genuinely curious.

Pouyan Broukhim · Answer

local architect is your best source to know what each lot will have the highest and best use

Carlos Altamirano · Answer

I usually start with ZIMAS to check zoning, overlays, FAR, setbacks, and ADU potential. From there, I verify any major restrictions that could impact development.Happy to chat more here in LA

Zhongyuan Luo · Answer

Hello Joseph, I'm a licensed realtor, architect, and contractor in CA. Are you talking about county or city?

Los Angeles City: https://zimas.lacity.org/

Los Angels County: https://rpgis.isd.lacounty.gov/Html5Viewer/index.html?viewer...

Let me know if it helps.

Joseph Commisso · Answer

@Zhongyuan Luo Zhongyuan this is incredibly helpful — genuinely one of the most detailed responses I’ve gotten. You’ve basically described the exact problem I’m trying to solve. You’re right that without a physical survey you can’t get to 100% certainty — but right now most developers can’t even get to a reliable 70% without spending hours piecing together ZIMAS, the zoning ordinance, ADU rules, fire access requirements, and overlay districts manually. The tool I’m building aims to consolidate all of that into one instant report — not to replace the survey, but to replace the 4 hours of research that happens before anyone decides whether a survey is worth ordering.

Zhongyuan Luo · Answer

Hi, each project is a bit different. From years of practice, there's really no reliable tool to consolidate everything and give us a clear answer as what can or cannot be built. Zimas only gives you zoning map, flood map, etc, but building height, setback, you need to find them from city/county's zoning ordinance. Let's say for a property, you want to build an ADU. You figured out the front setback is 20', side and rear are 5', 30' height limit, FAR 45%, and a 1,200 sqft ADU is allowed. Everything looks very promising until you do a survey, and found out the fire access is not wide enough (20' min), or your property doesn't have two means of access to freeway, so either you can't build an ADU if it's in high fire, or it needs to be capped at 800 sqft. I haven't mentioned other variables like zoning variance, etc. Simply put, without an accurate survey/site plan, information from Zimas/zoning ordinance/planner are really more of a guideline. You need to prove that those information are applicable for your property, and this is the hard part. A really useful tool would ideally generate an accurate property survey (which is impossible for now), not plat/plot map, and then analyze the property based on local zoning ordinance. Hope it helps.

Joseph Commisso · Answer

@Zhongyuan Luo Really appreciate that Zhongyuan — yes I’m familiar with both ZIMAS and the county GIS. The issue I keep hearing from developers is that those tools show the raw zoning data but don’t actually tell you what you can build there in plain English — especially when you factor in overlays, FAR calculations, and state ADU laws all at once. As someone who’s a realtor, architect, and contractor — is that a pain point you run into with clients?

Zhongyuan Luo · Answer

100% accurate.

Joseph Commisso · Answer

@Pouyan Broukhim That’s really helpful — so even with ZIMAS available, most developers still end up needing an architect or consultant to interpret it properly? That gap is exactly what I’m focused on. Would love to hear more about your experience with this.

Curtis Peck · Answer

I'm not a zoning expert myself. I build automation and research systems for real estate developers/agents, so zoning research comes up a lot as one of  the messier things people deal with.

From the developers I've talked to, most start with ZIMAS, then either call  a consultant for the tricky parcels or piece together info from a few  different sources. The bigger pattern I keep seeing is people end up building  their own little checklist or tracker over time because no single tool covers  all of it. Same story with permit tracking, comps, all of it.

If you want to chat about how we automate research workflows like this on  the back end, shoot me a message. Happy to share what I've seen work.

How do you figure out zoning when evaluating a parcel in LA?

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