NYC Gov 101map the city's data landscape

Playbooks — a guided experience

Track a new development near you.

Something's getting built — or proposed — near you, and you want to follow it the way it actually moves: from what's allowed, through community-board review and the public hearings, to the Council vote and the infrastructure around it. Here's the ULURP path, using public sources, in the order you'd actually use them.

The path: What & where → who decides first → what's being said → track the vote → related infrastructure.

The path through the sources, in order
  1. ZoLa / NYC Planning What & where
  3. CB site + Block Party Who decides first
  5. citymeetings.nyc What's being said
  7. intro.nyc + Legistar Track the vote
  9. Capital Projects Related infrastructure
Block Party joins at step 2 to surface what the board actually discussed, and Legistar joins at step 4 as the official record behind the vote. Tap any node to jump to that step.
  1. The question

    What's allowed here, and what's the neighborhood context?

    The source to reach for

    nyc.gov/site/planning

    NYC Planning (ZoLa & tools)

    Official Bulk download

    City Planning's hub and tools: ZoLa (the zoning & land-use map), Community District Profiles, Population FactFinder, and the Capital Planning / Projects portal.

    Open ZoLa and look up the site to see its zoning district, land use, and any active land-use action, then check the Community District Profiles for neighborhood context (population, land use, capital priorities). Know which tool answers which question.
    Directory entry Open ZoLa ↗

    What you'll find

    From ZoLa: the parcel's zoning district, permitted uses, and overlays, plus any active land-use or rezoning action attached to it. From Community District Profiles: the surrounding context — land use, population, and the district's stated capital and planning priorities.

    Honest limit, straight from the source: several distinct tools live under one department — know which one answers your question rather than assuming one map shows everything.

    Handoff: you know what's allowed and the context around it. Next, find who reviews it first — the community board — and what's already been said.

  2. The question

    Who reviews this first — and what has the board said?

    The source to reach for

    nyc.gov/site/<your-board>

    Community Board websites

    Official Web only

    Per-board calendars, agendas and minutes, committee structure, district needs statements and budget requests, ULURP reviews, and local permits.

    Find the board for the site and check its land-use / ULURP committee agenda and minutes for this action. Note the committee that reviews it, the hearing date, and how to testify — the board's recommendation is the first formal step in ULURP.
    Directory entry Find your board ↗

    Then search what was actually discussed

    blockparty.studio

    Block Party

    Independent Bulk download

    A public archive of community-board meeting transcripts from YouTube captions (roughly 2015 onward), topic-tagged using a taxonomy from DCP Community District Profiles, with highlights, an address→district lookup, and a per-board weekly email.

    Use the address→district lookup to confirm the board, then search transcripts for the project, address, or "rezoning / ULURP" to hear how it was discussed and who raised concerns. Subscribe to the per-board weekly email to catch the next mention.
    Directory entry Open Block Party ↗

    What you'll find

    • From the board's own site: the committee that owns the review, the hearing schedule, the agenda and minutes, and how to sign up to testify.
    • From Block Party: searchable transcript moments where the project came up, with dates and links to the video — a fast way to find the right meeting and the concerns raised.

    Both have caveats worth knowing: board websites vary widely in quality and freshness, and Block Party's accuracy is bounded by caption quality. Treat them as leads, then confirm dates on the official site.

    Handoff: you know who reviews it first and what's been said locally. As it moves up, follow the City Planning Commission and Council hearings.

  3. The question

    What's being said at the CPC and Council hearings?

    The source to reach for

    citymeetings.nyc

    citymeetings.nyc

    Independent Web only

    Same-day, AI-with-human-oversight transcription of Council and Charter Revision Commission meetings, broken into skimmable, citable chapters linked to the video and transcript. Free, with a newsletter.

    Search Council land-use hearings for the project and skim the chapters where it's discussed to hear testimony and the members' questions. Grab the citable chapter links for your notes or to share.
    Directory entry Open citymeetings.nyc ↗

    What you'll find

    • Skimmable chapters of long land-use hearings, each linked to the exact moment in the video and transcript.
    • Testimony from the applicant, the community, and agencies — and the questions members ask.
    • Citable references that tell you where sentiment is heading before any vote.

    Worth knowing: occasional AI transcription errors, and it covers the Council and the Charter Revision Commission only — so the City Planning Commission's own proceedings may not all appear here. Confirm a decisive quote against the video.

    Handoff: you've heard the testimony. Now track the legislative action itself — the Council vote that decides it.

  4. The question

    How do I track the Council vote?

    The source to reach for

    intro.nyc

    intro.nyc

    Independent API

    A fast, readable front-end for Council legislation built on the Council's public Legislative API, with clean shareable URLs (e.g. intro.nyc/0139-2026), status, sponsors, and reports.

    Find the land-use application or related legislation and read its status, sponsors, and reports in plain terms. Save the clean intro.nyc/<file-number> link so you and your neighbors can watch the same item.
    Directory entry Open intro.nyc ↗

    Then confirm against the official record

    legistar.council.nyc.gov

    Legistar

    Official Web only

    The Council's system of record: bills (“Intros”), resolutions, the hearing calendar, committee agendas, minutes, votes, and webcasts.

    Confirm the official status, the committee agenda, and the recorded vote in Legistar. Use it as the authoritative source for anything decisive — intro.nyc is the reading layer, Legistar is the record.
    Directory entry Open Legistar ↗

    What you'll find

    • From intro.nyc: a readable view of the item — what it does, where it is, who's sponsoring, with a shareable URL.
    • From Legistar: the authoritative status, the committee agenda, and the recorded vote.
    • Together: an early signal you can share, confirmed against the official record before you rely on it.

    Worth knowing: intro.nyc is a reading layer over the official data — confirm anything decisive against Legistar, whose UI is dense and dated.

    Handoff: you can follow the vote. One more layer: the public infrastructure being built around the site.

  5. The question

    What public infrastructure is happening nearby?

    The source to reach for

    nyc.gov/site/capitalprojects

    NYC Capital Projects Dashboard

    Official Web only

    Citywide construction projects (bridges, sewers, sanitation, buildings) with total cost, phase, and projected completion; budget pulled from FMS and agency schedules.

    Look up capital projects in and around the same area — sewers, streets, parks, or buildings — and note each one's phase, total cost, and projected completion. This shows the infrastructure context the development sits inside.
    Directory entry Open the Capital Projects Dashboard ↗

    What this gets you

    • The nearby public projects — what's funded, what phase it's in, and when it's expected to finish.
    • Context for the development: the streets, sewers, and facilities that will (or won't) support it.
    • A fuller picture to bring to a hearing or a Council office — private development plus public investment together.

    Worth knowing: the dashboard is refreshed roughly three times a year — not real-time — so treat dates and phases as recent rather than live.

    That's the trail. You moved from "what's allowed here?" to a tracked land-use action with the testimony, the vote, and the infrastructure context all in hand.

You now have…

  • The land-use picture — zoning, allowed uses, and neighborhood context, from ZoLa and Community District Profiles.
  • The first review — the community board's role and what was said, from the board's site and Block Party.
  • The testimony — what's being said at the hearings, from citymeetings.nyc.
  • The vote, tracked — readable status on intro.nyc, confirmed against Legistar's official record.
  • The infrastructure context — nearby capital projects, from the Capital Projects Dashboard.

Keep going

← All playbooksThe other guided experiences — agency prep, asylum-seeker services, and more. The Directory →Every source used here, annotated, with full data-access notes. What is ULURP? →The Uniform Land Use Review Procedure — the path from community board to Council. What is a Community Board? →The hyper-local, advisory layer — and its role in land-use review. The Borough President →Where the borough president fits in the land-use process.

Conservative by design: source descriptions are quoted from the verified Directory, program and agency names are checked, and no figures are invented. Tools are read for what they are, and decisive items are confirmed against the official record.