Shovels Becomes Early Demand Sensor

This turns Shovels from a record keeper into an early demand sensor for the built world. Permit data tells a roofer, lender, insurer, or materials supplier what is already moving. ReZone and Decisions shift that view months earlier, into the meetings where density changes, site plans, demolitions, and environmental reviews are debated, so customers can spot a project while budget, vendors, and financing are still being shaped.

• The product change is concrete. Decisions structures agendas, minutes, and transcripts from local governments into searchable records for rezoning applications, planning commission actions, variances, demolition approvals, and development agreements, then puts that data in the same API customers already use for permits and contractors.
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• The time advantage is the point. By June 2026, Decisions covered 600 plus cities and nearly 200,000 records, versus about 100 cities and 20,000 decisions when ReZone was acquired in January 2026. That gives customers a way to find likely projects before architects are selected and capital stacks are finalized.
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• The strategic pattern is repeatable. Shovels already sells subscriptions, API access, usage credits, and warehouse deliveries around messy municipal records. That same normalization engine can absorb adjacent public datasets like inspections, occupancy certificates, code enforcement, utility queues, and capital plans, then link them back to the same parcel and address graph.
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The next step is a broader municipal intelligence graph, where permits become only one layer. As Decisions reaches permit coverage parity and more pre permit datasets are added, Shovels can become the default system for finding, scoring, and routing development opportunities before construction starts, which supports both higher value workflows and a larger enterprise footprint.