What can you actually do with a piece of DC?

What this shows that the zoning map does not

A short-term rental answer from the lot's records. Missing parcel records leave permission unresolved. The District licenses a short-term rental only in a home its host owns and lives in, so a whole home rented by someone who lives elsewhere is not allowed anywhere in DC, and neither is a rental building of more than five homes, which cannot be anyone's homestead. Click a spot and we read the Office of Tax and Revenue's record for that lot: a house, flat, condo or co-op an owner can live in is a yes for that owner, including up to 90 nights a year away; a vacant lot, a shop, an apartment building or a PDR zone is a no.

What the lot can hold. Houses with an accessory apartment in the R zones, two homes in a flat zone and more by conversion at 900 sq ft of land each, six homes by right in RA-1 since July 2026, and floor area for apartments and mixed use from the zone's own table, worked out for the lot you click.

The tax on this lot. We start from the Office of Tax and Revenue's current assessment for the lot and its tax class, with or without the homestead deduction.

How to use it

• Pick a ready-made view, or type what you want, for example "flats out of the floodplain in Petworth".
• Click anywhere, or type a street address with its quadrant, to see the rules for that spot.
• Share a view by copying the link. It opens with the same view selected.

Limits, plainly

• This is a screening tool. It is not a survey, a zoning determination, a flood determination or a tax bill.
• Zone lines are simplified for speed. Near a boundary, check the Office of Zoning's map.
• Special purpose zones, downtown zones and geographic modifiers (such as /GT or /CAP) carry rules in their own chapters, which we name but do not read for you. The regulations set floor area, not a count of homes, outside the house and flat zones.
• The short-term rental screen uses the lot's public records, not the person's eligibility. A license needs proof that you own the home and live there, and a condo, co-op or HOA can ban rentals on its own; the District's records do not show those. Two bills would let renters host and change other rules: B26-0647 and B26-0368 are pending, not law.
• Tax estimates use tax year 2026 rates. Tax year 2027 began October 1, 2026; its indexed amounts were not published when we checked. The 10% assessment cap and senior and disability relief are not included.
• Flood: FEMA's maps as the District publishes them. The District also regulates the 500-year floodplain and land removed from the map by fill.

Sources

Retrieved October 3, 2026 from the District of Columbia's open data services (DC GIS), with the lot's records read at your click from the Office of Tax and Revenue's lot layer. Provided as is. MapLedger is not affiliated with or approved by the District of Columbia government.

• Zoning Boundaries (Zoning Regulations of 2016), DC GIS
• Owner Polygons (tax lots: size, use, class, assessment; owner fields never read)
• Residential CAMA (units per building)
• Master Address Repository address points (address lookup)
• Basic Business Licenses, short-term and vacation rentals (counts only)
• Floodplains (FEMA), DC GIS
• Historic Districts, DC GIS
• 11 DCMR, Zoning Regulations of 2016 (with Z.C. Orders 25-12 and 25-08)
• D.C. Code 30-201.01 and following, Short-Term Rental Act
• 14 DCMR Chapter 99, short-term rental rules
• Office of Tax and Revenue, real property tax rates
• 20 DCMR Chapter 31, flood hazard rules

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