Soft Site Analysis
A soft site is a parcel that is underused for what could be built on it, relative to its physical, neighborhood, market, environmental, and regulatory attributes. This tool helps planners, advocates, developers, and residents analyze opportunities for new housing development along a specific set of criteria.
This wizard will guide you through filtering 1.43 million parcels in the Puget Sound region based on standard urban planning parameters.
Pick a county to analyze
Jurisdiction
Optionally narrow the analysis to specific cities or unincorporated county areas. Leave all unselected to include every jurisdiction. Pick a county above to focus this list.
Common Exclusions
Most parcels are excluded by default in soft-site analyses. These include parcels like parks, natural resource lands, and places outside the Urban Growth Area. Unselect any of these if you would like to include them in the analysis.
Land Ownership
By default this tool looks at all land. Select public only or public + nonprofit owned (based on property tax status) to filter further.
Zoning Designations
Current WAZA (Washington Zoning Atlas) general zones. Deselect the zones you don't want in the analysis — rural & natural-resource, tribal, open space, and military are off by default.
Attributes
All parcels have a set of attributes — features of a parcel that help us filter or rank sites further. For example, a site's lot-width attribute may exclude certain types of development.
4 Categories
Site & Physical
Lot geometry and the land itself — size, shape, and buildable terrain.
Zoning & Regulatory
What the code allows and the policy geographies a parcel sits in.
Environment
Natural hazards and contamination that constrain development.
Market Demand & Amenities
Proximity to transit and daily needs, and current use intensity.
Filter vs. Score
Filter attributes
A hard screen — sites that fail the threshold are removed from the set. Filters move the count.
Sites that fail the threshold are removed.
Scoring attributes
A soft rank — surviving sites are weighted and ordered best-first. Scoring re-ranks; it doesn't change the count.
Sites are re-ranked by score (best-first).
Start from a preset
Presets pre-configure filters and scorers for common analysis scenarios. Select one to populate your screen with a recommended starting point.
Build Your Screen
Site & Physical
Lot size
Total parcel area
Lot width
Buildable width of the lot
Mean slope
Average terrain steepness
Steep-slope share
Share of the lot on steep grade
Existing building
Whether a building already stands here
Building coverage
How much of the lot is built on
Engine Configured
You have built a screen for 0 filters and 0 scorers. The tool will currently return all surviving parcels.
© 2026 Puget Sound Regional Council · Soft Site Finder.