FREE · ULSTER COUNTY, NY · ALL 24 MUNICIPALITIES

Can I build an ADU here?

Type your address. In about a minute you get the five things that decide it for your lot, read straight from the zoning law your town has actually adopted, each one citing its source. Free, and no account.

The check reads the zoning law your municipality has actually adopted, the county mapping layers, and the tax record for your parcel. Ulster County, and every one of its 24 municipalities. That is the whole service area on purpose: Rootd does not take paid work where this check cannot already answer for the parcel, so the county the engine covers is the county Rootd serves.

VENDOR-INDEPENDENT · EVERY FINDING CITES ITS RECORD · KINGSTON, NY
WHAT THE CHECK ACTUALLY READS

Five findings on your parcel, not a generic estimate.

Zoning

Whether your municipality allows an ADU on a lot like yours, and under what kind of approval. Read from the law it has actually adopted, not a summary of it.

Site

What the property records say about your lot: frontage and depth on the tax roll, and the property class on file.

Septic and utilities

Whether you are on municipal sewer and water, or on a system that brings its own rules with it.

Access

How the property is reached, and what the record says about the road and the frontage.

Overlays and environmental

Wetlands, floodplain, historic district, and the other layers that sit on top of zoning.

Each of the five is reported on its own, with the record it came from and how firmly that record supported it. There is deliberately no single overall score, because one number hides which of the five is the constraint that actually binds. You can print the report, save it, or send it to yourself.

Where the answers come from, and where they stop.

The starting point is always the latest zoning law your municipality has adopted. Where a town has passed something its published code has not caught up with yet, the check points at the law rather than the stale page. Around that it fills in the county zoning layer for your district, and county parcel and tax records for what the roll carries.

Every finding carries one of four certainty levels, and certainty describes how firmly the record supported the finding rather than how likely your project is to succeed. Where a record could not be reached, the check says so and names the document that would settle it.

Three questions are out of scope by design and are never answered here. Boundary location belongs to a licensed land surveyor. Septic capacity, design and routing belong to the county health department or a licensed engineer, so the check is a records read and nothing more. Anything subsurface is observed and referred, not judged.

This is a preliminary screening. It is not a survey, an engineering report, a permit, or a zoning approval, and it does not replace a pre-application conversation with your building department. It is the fastest honest read available before you spend money.

SITE FEASIBILITY STUDY · AVAILABLE NOW

When the check leaves questions open, this is what closes them.

The free check reads what the public record says. The study answers what the record left open. Rootd files the records requests, asks the building department the questions the screening flagged, and captures your property in 3D so ADU options are tested against your actual site instead of a tax map.

You get one document with the buildable picture, the constraints that genuinely matter, and the sources behind each one, before anyone spends money on drawings.

$499
starts with a conversation
See what the study covers
FREE · BY INVITATION

Already know your parcel? The Scoping Visit is free.

A two-hour on-site visit with a Matterport Pro3 that leaves you with a measurable 3D model of your house and yard, the same capture the $499 Site Feasibility Study is built on. Two a month, by invitation, usually after a check or a call.

See what it includes
FREE PLANNING WORKSHOP · ONE HOUSEHOLD · BOOKABLE NOW

Then walk through your own report, with me.

An hour on Google Meet, one household at a time, so the whole session is about your parcel instead of somebody else's. Run the address check first and bring what it gave you, because that is what we work from. Bring your partner or whoever else is in on the decision. Nothing to buy on the call.

Free
60 minutes · your household only
Book your session

Not sure what comes next?

Three ways in, all free, all Ulster County. Start wherever you are.