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The Decisions tab in Shovels Online lets you search zoning and land use decisions from city councils and planning boards without writing code. It sits alongside the Contractors, Permits, and Properties tabs and is included on every plan. Decisions often come months before a permit is filed, so this tab is where to look for projects that haven’t reached construction yet. See What are Shovels Decisions? for background on the dataset.

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Location and Dates

Every Decisions search needs a location and a decision date range.
  • Location: an address, city, county, state, or jurisdiction.
  • Decision dates: the date of the final vote or action on the decision. A new search starts with the last 12 months, and the calendar offers shortcuts for the last 1, 3, 6, or 12 months and all time.
ZIP codes are not supported on the Decisions tab. Search by city, county, or jurisdiction instead.
On the Free plan, Decisions searches cover the last 12 months. If a search starts earlier, Shovels Online moves the start date forward and says so above the results. Paid plans can search the full history.

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Filters

Each filter you add narrows the results further. The asset class, category, and subcategory lists suggest values from the decisions you have loaded, so they are not a complete list. You can type any value from a decision record to filter on it. See Decision categories for the categories Shovels uses.

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Results and Decision Records

Results appear as a table, with a map view available from the same toggle as the other tabs. Expand a row to see the full record, or open the decision on its own page. Each decision page has its own link, so you can bookmark it or send it to a teammate who has a Shovels account. A decision record includes:
  • Decision: date, category, subcategory, and asset class
  • Description and a short Why it matters summary
  • Location: the address, shown on a map where coordinates are available
  • Project: property type, project value, lot size, previous and new zoning, and allowed uses
  • People: applicant, owner, representative, and developer
  • Source: a link to the official meeting record the decision came from
Not every decision includes every field. A value appears only when the source meeting record contains it. The Decisions tab uses the same browsing limits as the other tabs.

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Exporting Decisions to CSV

Select Download CSV above the results to export a Decisions search. Export is available on every plan, including Free.
  • Each download includes up to 1,000 decisions. If more match, the file contains the first 1,000.
  • Each exported row spends one credit from the monthly balance you share with the API.
  • If a search matches more than 10,000 decisions, narrow the location or date range before exporting.
  • The Free plan’s 12-month limit applies to exports too.
For larger pulls, use the Search Decisions endpoint in the API.

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Asking Charlie About Decisions

Charlie can set up a Decisions search for you. Ask something like “Show me rezoning decisions in Austin from the last six months”, and Charlie replies with a button that opens the Decisions tab with the location, dates, and filters already applied. Charlie prepares the search; the records themselves appear on the Decisions tab.

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Coverage

Decisions coverage is smaller than permit coverage, so a location with permit data may not have decisions yet. Shovels collects new decisions daily and adds them to the dataset twice a month. Check the Coverage Dashboard before you build a search around a specific area.