ZBA decisions

The ZBA Decisions dashboard is a cross-jurisdiction search surface over Locus's normalized Zoning Board of Appeals catalog. Use it to find variance and special-permit outcomes by jurisdiction, case number, address, decision date, or outcome — and to pull a filtered set as CSV for entitlement, due-diligence, or land-use research.

The page lives at /zba-decisions inside the Locus app and is backed by GET /api/zba-decisions/search.

Coverage

The catalog covers four ZBA jurisdictions, ingested from a mix of structured open-data portals and PDF-based agendas.

NYC and Philadelphia run on dedicated upstream API collectors so refresh cadence matches the underlying portals — typically daily for NYC Socrata and several times per week for Philly Carto. Chicago and Boston are sourced from a mix of structured feeds and PDF-decision parsers, so cadence varies by hearing schedule.

When to use it

Reach for this dashboard when you need to:

• Triage entitlement risk for a target site by reviewing recent variances on adjacent parcels.
• Track outcome rates (Approved / Denied / Granted with Conditions) for a specific variance type or jurisdiction.
• Pull a date-bounded set of decisions into a CSV for diligence binders or model training.
• Click through to the original decision document on the source jurisdiction's portal.

Filters

Every filter narrows the result set on the server side and resets pagination to the first page.

A Reset filters link clears every active filter; it appears only when at least one is set.

Sorting and pagination

Click any column header to sort by it; click again to flip direction. Results paginate at 50 per page.

Result columns

Each row corresponds to one ZBA decision:

• Case # — the upstream case or docket number.
• Jurisdiction — normalized jurisdiction slug.
• Address — subject-property address as reported.
• Variance type — truncated to 40 characters in the table; full text available via the API.
• Outcome — color-coded badge (green for Approved / Granted, red for Denied, amber for Granted with Conditions, blue for Pending).
• Decision Date — locale-formatted.
• External-link icon — opens the decision's source_url (the original portal record or PDF) in a new tab. Shown only when a source URL is present.

Export

Click Export CSV to download the currently visible page as zba-decisions.csv. The export honors active filters and sort, and includes: Case Number, Jurisdiction, Address, Variance Type, Outcome, Decision Date, Conditions (conditions truncated to 200 characters).

API

GET /api/zba-decisions/search

Returns a page of normalized ZBA decisions, plus the total count for the active filter set.

Query parameters

Response shape

{
  "decisions": [
    {
      "source_key": "nyc:2024-0123",
      "jurisdiction_slug": "nyc",
      "source": "nyc-socrata",
      "source_url": "https://data.cityofnewyork.us/...",
      "case_number": "2024-0123-BZ",
      "decision_date": "2026-04-12",
      "variance_type": "Use variance — eating and drinking establishment",
      "outcome": "Granted with Conditions",
      "conditions_text": "Subject to operating hours of 7 AM–11 PM…",
      "address": "123 W 14TH ST",
      "decision_text": "The Board grants the application…",
      "occurred_at": "2026-04-12T00:00:00Z",
      "ingested_at": "2026-04-13T05:00:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "total": 312,
  "limit": 50,
  "offset": 0
}

Example

curl 'https://app.axiomlocus.io/api/zba-decisions/search?jurisdictions=nyc,philly&outcome=Denied&date_from=2026-01-01&limit=100' \
  -H 'Cookie: <your session cookie>'

The endpoint requires an authenticated Locus session; unauthenticated calls return 401 Unauthorized.

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