Philadelphia's Open Data Reveals Land Use Trends

A trove of data from the Office of Property Assessment has been released to the public. It's like Christmas day for zoning wonks in the City of Brotherly Love.

1 minute read

September 6, 2015, 9:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell

"The [city of Philadelphia] Office of Innovation and Technology has been upping the city's data visualization game for a while now, and the latest release of Office of Property Assessment data is everything a data dump should be," according to a post by John Geeting.

Geeting notes that the data release goes beyond a dump of raw data—there are visuals and products that helps people access the information, as well as tools to manipulate the data and mine it for more findings.

Among the findings, ready for analysis, "is that RSA-5 (the typical neighborhood rowhouse) is the most common zoning classification by far, accounting for about 42% of all properties." Other kinds of single-use zoning classifications make up the bulk of uses in the city: "Residential-only properties are 79% of the total, and hotels and apartments, stores with dwellings, and commercial properties make up just 12% of properties combined."

There are more analysis and samples of the many other interactive features available on the Office of Property Assessment site.

FULL STORY: Single-use residential properties make up 79% of Philly properties, and other things we learned from the new OPA data

Friday, September 4, 2015 in PlanPhilly

Land Use Urban Development Pennsylvania Philadelphia Zoning Codes Single-Use Mixed-Use Open Data Office of Property Assessment Office of Innovation and Technology View More

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