For Journalists and Researchers
Cite the zoning record, not a press release
ZoneWire reads public land-use hearings across 139 counties and turns each one into a structured record: what the board decided, the vote, and the conditions, every item traceable to the official meeting. Here is how it is built, how often it updates, and how to cite it.
What we cover
We monitor city council, county commission, and planning and zoning hearings across 139 counties. For each meeting we publish the rezonings, variances, site plans, special-use permits, moratoriums, and major developments the body acted on, with the outcome and the vote where it was recorded. Coverage and depth vary by jurisdiction, and every county page shows what has been monitored.
How the record is built
Official sources only
We start from the official meeting audio, video, and published agendas that each city and county posts. Nothing is sourced from rumor or secondhand summaries.
Transcription and structured extraction
Each recording is transcribed, then a decision, outcome, vote split, and any conditions are extracted into a structured record. Vote tallies and conditions come straight from the hearing.
Every decision links back
Each decision on the site links to the meeting page it was decided on, which carries the source agenda and recording. You can always trace a fact to the official record.
How often it updates
We check monitored bodies for new meetings on a daily schedule. Once a recording is posted, most meetings are transcribed and published within a day, and often within hours. County feeds and the approval-rate tables refresh hourly, so what you cite reflects the latest processed hearings.
Pull the data
County feeds
Every county has an RSS and JSON feed of its recent decisions, each a dated sentence linking to the meeting record.
Feed directoryCSV downloads
Approval, denial, and continuance rates by county over a stated date window, downloadable as CSV for your own analysis.
Approval ratesEmbed and digest
Put a live decisions widget on your site, or generate a copy-paste newsletter digest for a county with inline links on each fact.
Embed and digest toolsHow to cite ZoneWire
Cite the decision and link to the meeting record you used. A simple credit works well:
Source: ZoneWire, https://www.zonewire.co/meetings/<county>/<meeting-id>When you reference a single decision, link to that decision on the meeting page using its copy-link button so readers land on the exact item. For an aggregate figure, link to the approval-rate table and state the date window it covers.
Working on a zoning story?
We are glad to help reporters and researchers verify a decision, pull data for a market, or explain how a record was built. Email support@zonewire.co.