Find Commercial Development Projects at Zoning Stage

Overview

Every commercial development leaves a paper trail before it breaks ground — a zoning application, a planning-commission agenda item, a site-plan review. Months before there's a building, there's a filing that names the developer and the project. Whoever reaches the developer at that stage — brokers, lenders, materials suppliers, PropTech, service providers — gets in before the vendor list exists.

This Hound watches zoning and planning filings across your markets, filters for the projects that fit what you offer, finds the developer or owner's rep behind each one, and opens the conversation while the project is still on paper.

How to set it up

Four things to brief your Hound. This is the exact configuration behind this play.

A · Describe the opportunity

This is the brief every source is filtered against. You describe what you're looking for in plain language, add keywords to sharpen it, then set the structured criteria.

Tell Forest what you're looking for:

"I'm looking for commercial real estate developments entering the pipeline in my market — retail, office, multifamily, industrial, and mixed-use projects at the zoning, planning, or entitlement stage. I want the early paper trail: rezoning requests, land acquisitions, new project proposals, and planning-commission filings that name the developer. Match to my development type and market. Skip single-family residential and projects already under construction."

Keywords to watch for: rezoning · land acquisition · entitlement · proposed development · site plan review · mixed-use · multifamily · master plan · breaks ground · [your development type] · [your metro area]

Fields to extract: project_name · development_type · parcel_location · developer · filing_type · estimated_units_or_sqft · filed_date · hearing_date

Match criteria:

• ✓ Development type matches your buyer (retail, multifamily, office, industrial, mixed-use)

• ✓ Location within your market

• ✓ Size above your minimum

• ✗ Exclude filings already past entitlement / under construction

B · Choose the sources to monitor

The entitlement paper trail is all public — you point Forest at your region's zoning and planning pages, and it watches them continuously, filtered against the brief above.

Public planning & zoning feeds (bring your own regional link) 🔵 free — public government pages

How to find yours:

• Planning commission agendas & minutes — Search "[your city] planning commission agenda". Projects appear on agendas before they're broadly known; paste the agenda index page.

• Zoning / entitlement portals — Search "[your city or county] zoning application search" or "[your city] current planning projects". Many cities publish a live list of applications under review.

• Site-plan & building permit portals — Add your local permit portal (see the New Building Permits use case) to catch the earliest site-work filings.

Examples:

• Los Angeles, CA — planning.lacity.gov (case search)

• Seattle, WA — seattle.gov/sdci (Seattle Services Portal — land use)

• Austin, TX — austintexas.gov/department/planning (development applications)

• Phoenix, AZ — phoenix.gov/pdd (Planning & Development)

Tip: Many jurisdictions run planning/permitting on Accela or OpenGov — once you've added one region, the URL pattern often repeats for neighbors.

News & Press 🟡 default source, always on — reads the CRE and local development press against your brief for land deals and rezoning news that surface before a formal filing.

C · Define the ICP to reach

Which people to find and reach on the development, in priority order, with fallbacks.

1. Developer / Development Principal — Primary — owns the project and vendor decisions — PRIMARY

2. Owner's Rep / Project Manager — Owns execution and procurement

3. Land-Use Attorney or Entitlement Consultant — Fallback for a warm intro to the developer — FALLBACK

D · Email & LinkedIn sequence

The play the Hound runs for each match. Fields from the filing drop in as variables.

Email · Day 0 Saw the filing for {{project_name}} in {{parcel_location}} — exciting to see it moving through {{filing_type}}. We work with developers on {{development_type}} projects at exactly this stage with {{your_offering}}. Worth a quick call before the {{hearing_date}} hearing?

↓ Wait 2 days · no reply

LinkedIn · connection request · Day 2 Hi {{first_name}} — reaching out about the {{project_name}} development. Would love to connect.

↓ Wait 4 days · no reply

Email · Day 6 · follow-up Following up on {{project_name}} — happy to share how we've supported comparable {{development_type}} projects. Even if it's early, worth being a name you know as the project advances.

⏸ Any reply on either channel pauses the whole sequence — the conversation is yours.