One map, every public dataset that matters for raw land. Click
anywhere and the panel on the right fills in; switch layers on the left.
Getting around
- Click the map — drops a pin and looks up elevation, FEMA flood zone
and (when the Soil layer is on) the USDA soil unit for that exact spot. The detail
panel slides in from the right.
- Search — street address, city, ZIP, or paste
lat, lon.
Recent searches are remembered.
- Share link (in the panel) copies a URL that reopens the map at this spot,
with the same layers and basemap and the same point selected.
- Now viewing shows the map centre, zoom and scale. Your last view
and basemap are restored next visit; Reset view in the footer clears them.
- On phones the sidebar is a bottom sheet — drag the handle up for the full list.
- Install as an app — LandCheck works as a home-screen app. Chrome,
Edge and Android show an Install button in the header when they offer it;
on iPhone/iPad use Safari's Share menu → Add to Home Screen. The map shell
opens offline; live data still needs a connection.
Parcels
- Turn on Parcels. In open country they start loading from zoom 11
(the app first checks how many parcels are in view and loads them when there are
fewer than about 1,500); in towns you need zoom 14. The layer row always shows your
current zoom and what it is waiting for. Property lines load from
each state or county's own GIS server — statewide where a state publishes one,
otherwise the largest metro counties. Coverage… lists every source.
- Click a parcel for its ID, owner, acreage and assessed value — each
only where that county exposes it. Acreage falls back to a geometry estimate when the
county field is empty or zero.
- Parcel IDs are shown the way the county's own lookup expects them (Maryland account
numbers omit the two-digit county code, as on listing sites).
- Road access — on every parcel click the app checks OpenStreetMap
road centrelines around the boundary: public road frontage, a public road nearby,
only a private lane, or no road at all. It is a desktop heuristic — recorded
easements live in the deed, so "no public road found" means verify legal access,
never "landlocked". The Deed records row links the official recorder search
for the point where one is known (34 portals so far), because that is where recorded
easements and covenants live.
- Zoning — where a county offers a property page, View on county
site → opens that parcel's record for zoning and assessment detail.
- Boundaries are county GIS renderings, not surveys. Anything you would sign for
needs a licensed surveyor and a title search.
Data layers
- FEMA Flood Zones — special flood hazard areas (the "100-year"
zones) and 0.2 % areas. Click a point to read the zone code with a plain-language
explanation.
- NWI Wetlands — USFWS wetland polygons (zoom 11+).
- USGS Contours — topographic contour lines over any basemap.
- USDA Soil — SSURGO soil units coloured green / amber / red for
drainage, hydric rating and farmland class. Red means wetland-leaning soil, not
"bad" land. Click a polygon for the raw values. Every click also shows the soil
survey's septic suitability rating for a conventional drain field
with its limiting features — the closest a desktop gets to "will it perc?"
- Protected Lands — USGS PAD-US parks, forests, BLM land and
conservation easements (zoom 10+); click for manager and designation.
- HOA Boundaries — association boundaries from the counties and
cities that publish them (zoom 11+). The panel's HOA row reads
inside <name>, None mapped (that county publishes boundaries
and none cover the point — covenants can still exist) or Unknown (no public
HOA map for the area, which is most of the country). There is no free nationwide HOA
dataset, so LandCheck cannot hide HOA parcels; Coverage lists the jurisdictions.
- Zoning districts — district polygons from the jurisdictions with an
official zoning GIS layer (zoom 12+). Every click fills the panel's Zoning
district row: the code and name (R-1 · Residential), None mapped
(a layer covers the area and no district contains the point — often a town that
zones separately) or Unknown (no public layer). Zoning is municipal and
usually published only as a PDF, so coverage is partial; Coverage lists it.
- Some layers only draw above a minimum zoom — a message tells you when.
Admin boundaries
State, county, city and street outlines, each with its own minimum zoom. The gear
icon lets you change those thresholds. Boundaries are cached in your browser for a
week so panning stays fast.
Light or dark
The header's Light / Dark button switches the whole interface; the choice is remembered
in this browser. The map imagery is unaffected.
Basemaps
Satellite (default — free USGS imagery with place labels, sharpest at zoom 16),
HD Satellite (Pro — Esri imagery to zoom 19), USGS Topo, Street and Terrain. Switching
keeps your zoom level — lower-resolution tiles are simply enlarged.
Measure & draw
- Draw Parcel — click corners to outline an area. The panel shows
acreage, perimeter and Terrain change (elevation range sampled around the
outline).
- Measure Distance — click points along a route for feet or miles.
- Finish with a right-click, double-click, Enter, or the
bar above the map. Esc cancels. Backspace removes the last
point. Clicking the tool button again also cancels. Clear All wipes drawings.
Save, compare, export
- Save this place keeps a point or parcel (with a label and notes)
under My Places — 25 places on the free plan. Tick two or three to compare
them side by side (Pro: unlimited places, tags, six-way compare, CSV export).
- Export PDF builds a two-page report with a map snapshot and every
readout — handy for a lender, partner or contractor.
- Everything is stored in this browser only. Nothing is uploaded and there is no
account; clearing site data removes your saved places. Pro can sync places between
devices under the license key (see the Pro screen).
Search & demographics
- Address search uses OpenStreetMap (Nominatim), restricted to the US.
- The Demographics section of the panel loads census-tract figures
(population, income, age, education, employment, ownership) on demand.
- Nearby (incl. the nearest mapped power line and substation) (Pro) lists the closest hospital, grocery, big-box and
home-improvement stores, gas, school, fire station, highway exit, airport and state or
national park with straight-line miles. Expand it before exporting to include it in the PDF.
Privacy & limits
No cookies, no account. Map clicks and searches go straight to the public data
providers (county GIS servers, USGS, FEMA, USDA, US Census, OpenStreetMap), which may
log the request. Page views are counted with cookieless analytics only. Data sources
change without notice; if a layer stops loading, it is usually the provider — check
again later or drop me a line.