ZoLa Permalinks to Save & Share

Planning Labs recently redesigned ZoLa (NYC’s Zoning & Land Use map), collaborating with a working group of representatives from various City Planning divisions. Early design sessions with the working group determined that it was important that users of the new ZoLa be able to save and share their work. We also wanted to avoid user accounts and authentication. These requirements fueled many of our design decisions throughout the build.

#ReimagineZoLa Design Session

Sharing is fundamental.

Since the primary function of the application is to look up details for a particular tax lot, new ZoLa uses the following URL structure:

zola.planning.nyc.gov/lot/[boro number]/[block number]/[lot number]/

Every single tax lot in the City now has a unique permalink. This allows you to bookmark, share, and navigate directly to the zoning and land use information for any tax lot!

For example, here’s the link to the Empire State Building:
https://zola.planning.nyc.gov/lot/1/835/41

What else can you share?

Permalinks aren’t just for tax lots. You can also link directly to…

• Zoning Districts:
  /zola.planning.nyc.gov/zoning-district/[type]
• Special Purpose Districts (& Subdistricts):
  /zola.planning.nyc.gov/special-purpose-district/[id]
• Commercial Overlays:
  /zola.planning.nyc.gov/comercial-overlay/[type]
• Zoning Map Amendments:
  /zola.planning.nyc.gov/zma/[id]

But there’s more.

When you toggle layers on/off, zoom, or pan the map, query parameters are updated in your browser’s address bar. So when you share a permalink, you can be confident that whoever views that link will see the exact same view that you’re seeing.

For more on how query parameters work in ZoLa, read Matt Gardner’s post:

Global Query Params for Deeply Stateful Ember Apps

What if I’m interested in multiple places?

“How do I view multiple tax lots?” was a question that came up while we were building ZoLa. Planners are often concerned with more that one place and need to look up details for several lots in a study area. With ZoLa’s new permalinks, it’s possible to bookmark a particular view of the application in your browser and view it again later. But that’s not good enough. So we took it a step further.

The “Saved” button in the main menu opens your bookmarks.

Saving Tax Lots

To simplify the process of bookmarking, at the top-right of every tax lot is bookmark button that let’s you save it.

All of your saved tax lots (and Zoning Map Amendments, etc.) are now one click away.

Note: To avoid user accounts, saved bookmarks are cached in your web browser’s localStorage, so they’re only available if you visit ZoLa again using the same device & browser.

I want to see multiple tax lots on the map.

“Searched Locations” were highlighted on the map in the previous ZoLa.

The previous version of ZoLa allowed users to add to a list of “Searched Locations” as they interacted with the map. It was useful to see these locations on the map. But this list wasn’t persistent. Refreshing your browser would reset the app to its default state, and clear the list of locations.

In the new ZoLa, another benefit of permalinks (and statefulness) is that you can’t lose your work. The new saved bookmarks feature is meant to serve the same function as “Searched Locations” in the old ZoLa. It gives you quick access to multiple places. Unfortunately, you just can’t see them on the map.

Yet… 💡

Planning Labs will continue to improve ZoLa. And we’re interested to hear from you. How do you use it? What features would you like to see? Tweet #ReimagineZoLa us to NYCPlanningLabs (or create a GitHub issue) and let us know!