Cross-jurisdictional view
City and county projects side-by-side on one map, filterable by jurisdiction, status, and kind.
Who it’s for · Planners & Local Government
The record,
readable.
Your GIS is doing its job. What The Lot is a public-facing reading layer on top of it — for constituents, journalists, and colleagues across the border.
The short version
A friendly companion to your GIS viewer: same authoritative data, laid out like a magazine so residents and applicants can find what they're looking for.
What you’ll actually use
Built around your workflowPublic-facing project cards
A shareable, plain-language card for every active project — with the source record one click away.
Attribution baked in
Every layer and card cites its source jurisdiction on the page and in the sources index.
No account required to read
Residents can look up a parcel or open a project card without signing up for anything.
How it helps day-to-day
Scenario 01
Fielding a constituent call
- Point them to their parcel page with a single URL.
- Show them what's actually filed near them — no interpretation needed.
- Redirect email traffic away from staff for the routine questions.
Scenario 02
Coordinating across the city / county line
- See what's under review on the other side of the boundary on the same map.
- Spot regional patterns — corridors, subdivisions, rezoning clusters — in one view.
- Use permanent URLs when coordinating with the neighboring office.
Scenario 03
Prepping for public meetings
- Every project card shows its scheduled hearing text when the jurisdiction publishes one.
- Give commissioners and council a plain-language link to each agenda item's parcel.
- Share the sources page when someone asks 'where did this come from?'
Common questions
Straight answersIs What The Lot affiliated with a jurisdiction?
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No. It's an independent project that reads and republishes public GIS. It's not an official planning or permitting tool. Anything binding should still route through your office.
How do I correct something that looks wrong?
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If a project card looks off, it usually means the upstream GIS layer was updated. Our ingest reruns on a regular schedule. If something still looks wrong, email hello@whatthelot.com and we'll investigate.
Can we link to it from a city or county page?
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Yes, please do. Every parcel and project has a permanent URL. We ask that you also link to your own GIS as the primary source.
Do you cover jurisdictions outside Harrisonburg–Rockingham?
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Not today. The tool is intentionally deep on one MSA. Neighboring jurisdictions are on the roadmap.
How is this different from our public GIS viewer?
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The data is the same. The interface is different — reading-first, mobile-friendly, with cross-jurisdictional projects on one canvas. Think of it as a companion, not a replacement.
Start here
One address is enough.
Search a parcel, follow it, and get a note when something changes. Everything on What The Lot links back to the public record it came from.