Civic Data Works · Public Land Inventory
The public land database federal law now requires — built for you, live in a week
Every CDBG grantee must publish a searchable online database of the undeveloped land it owns, starting October 1, 2026. We build yours from county records, host it, refresh it quarterly, and hand you a memo for your CDBG file. You confirm the parcels; we do everything else.
The requirement
Public Law 119-101 (H.R. 6644, 119th Congress (21st Century ROAD to Housing Act)) became law on July 11, 2026. Effective October 1, 2026, CDBG grants may be made only if:
“…the grantee maintains, on a publicly accessible website, a searchable database that identifies all parcels of undeveloped land owned by the grantee.”
Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 §104(b)(7), 42 U.S.C. 5304(b), as added by Public Law 119-101 · enrolled bill text
And the law makes paying for it easy: “the creation and maintenance of a database of land as required under section 104(b)(7)” is now an eligible CDBG activity (HCDA §105(a)(27), 42 U.S.C. 5305(a)). The obligation and the budget arrive together.
How it works
1. We start from records that already exist
For most cities we've already assembled a draft before we ever talk: every parcel the county assessor records under your city's name, filtered to likely-undeveloped land, mapped and counted. Your part is a review, not a data project.
2. You confirm — we never decide what counts
Federal law doesn't define “undeveloped,” so your staff confirms the draft line-by-line. Parcels you remove, we remove. Your database, our plumbing.
3. Live, searchable, and maintained
Your inventory gets its own public site: searchable table, map view, per-parcel pages, CSV download, and a visible statute box — linked from your city site or served on your own domain. We refresh it quarterly from the county source and it never goes silently stale.
4. Paper for your CDBG file
You receive a compliance memo documenting what was published, where, when, from which source, and on what update schedule — the artifact your HUD monitoring visit wants to see.
Pricing
$1,950 one-time setup + $3,600/year to maintain it · year one all-in $5,550, renews at $3,600/year
Setup covers the build, the line-by-line review with your staff, publishing the database, and the compliance memo for your CDBG file. The annual keeps it compliant: hosting, a quarterly refresh from the source, memo updates, and monitoring so it never silently goes stale on you.
The same law makes this an eligible CDBG activity (HCDA §105(a)(27)) — so it can be paid from the grant, not the general fund — and both charges sit under the $10,000 federal micro-purchase threshold, so there's no RFP to run. The alternative is a $10,000-plus consultant who builds it once and hands you a file that goes out of date. Card, ACH, purchase order, or annual invoice all work.
See your city's draft first
Give us your work email and city. If we have already assembled a county-record draft, we send it immediately; otherwise we confirm the source before proposing a build. No commitment and no public claim about your city's current compliance status.
Built inventories
Preview inventories we've already assembled from county records — browse any of them. Each becomes the city's official database after your staff confirms it line by line:
| Grantee | Type | FY26 CDBG | Preview parcels | Acres | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Temple, Texas | Principal City | $757,065 | 698 | 2,701 | preview — yours to adopt |
| City of Middletown, Ohio | Metro City | $690,786 | 1,093 | 357.3 | preview — yours to adopt |
| City of Ocala, Florida | Principal City | $514,897 | 499 | 868.2 | preview — yours to adopt |
| City of Fort Pierce, Florida | Metro City | $575,020 | 227 | 892.5 | draft — awaiting city |
| Cook County, Illinois | Urban County | $9,707,444 | 3,212 | 4.7 | draft — awaiting city |
| City of Garland, Texas | Metro City | $2,089,794 | 486 | 3,079.9 | draft — awaiting city |
| Collier County, Florida | Urban County | $2,616,281 | 1,110 | 11,573.9 | preview — yours to adopt |
Who this is for
The 1,047 entitlement cities and 198 urban counties that receive CDBG directly — especially small cities where one community-development person wears every hat. If you're a state CDBG administrator thinking about your non-entitlement jurisdictions, talk to us — we do multi-jurisdiction programs too.