Data and Collaboration Solutions for the Future of Cities
The built form of cities is a reflection of the societies that build them. And cities are not built by single individuals but by countless contributors, each bringing a unique perspective, vision and skill set. Over time, our increased professional specialization makes it harder for any of us to understand the complexity of urban systems. But in order to solve the biggest urban challenges we face today - we need creative and innovative solutions. I believe that we need to consider how data and collaboration tools can support all city builders in the private, public and non-profit sectors. .
Current planning processes and policies are complicated and constantly changing. Even for highly trained professionals like urban planners, real estate developers, and architects - data is hard to access and fragmented. Land use professionals in both the public and private sector spend a lot of time looking for and organizing the information they need. They are trying to answer critical questions about the future of our cities:
Where can we build?
What can we build?
Our goals
We want to connect various city building professionals working together to solve our current housing supply problem to the data they need and to each other. Our ultimate goal is to accelerate and optimize the early stage processes required to bring housing to market.
Our hypotheses is that if both public and private sector professionals get instant access to the data they need, for the location they are interested in, they can focus on developing solutions and making decisions, not tracking down or managing data. By providing a common set of data and analysis tools, we can get alignment between applicants and municipalities earlier in the process. If everyone at the table is starting with the same information, expectations can be managed at the outset of the project - reducing risk for everyone and leading to better outcomes. And by helping the private sector to identify housing opportunities that align with the visions that municipalities want to achieve - we all win.
Value for Municipalities
Our easy to use tools put the power of GIS in the hands of non-technical staff and our intuitive 3d visualizations are an effective communication and presentation tool. We support municipal planning staff by reducing the amount of time required to prepare for pre-applications consultations, community presentations, and the review of planning applications, all while supporting more informed and consistent decision making.
Discover how Ratio.City is helping cities and municipalities to take more informed decisions, faster.
We also provide strategic benefits to Municipalities and government agencies managing real estate assets by helping to identify underutilized land and evaluate building and economic scenarios. For Policy groups, we provide the ability to intersect disparate data sets to see the outcomes and evaluate new policy initiatives.
Municipalities also benefit when the private sector uses these tools. With a ‘one stop data shop’ - planning departments can reduce inbound inquiry correspondence and get more complete and thorough planning applications because of increased data accessibility.
And there is also an Economic Development benefit. By making the data available and searchable - your city becomes more attractive to investment, bringing more housing supply to market.
Conclusion
The current housing affordability crisis is one of the most complex issues we are dealing with today and there are many parts that need to be solved. We are looking to support city builders in both the private and public sectors to find appropriate and economically feasible sites to build on and to optimize the land entitlements process to get shovels in the ground, faster.