Use cases · Planning

A tax deed from 1941, its book and page still legible, under a lot a town meant to build housing on; the town had never finished taking the lot, so the old owner’s right to buy it back still stood, and the deed had been waiting in the registry the whole time.

What have owners built inside our 3A district, and what has compliance cost us?

The State Auditor found that the cost of 3A, the state’s multifamily zoning law, “cannot be determined without further data collection,” and the data in question is a town’s own permits laid over its own district lines. ArtifexAI connects the two, tries a proposed project on each lot before anyone applies, and returns the title chain on any lot the town is planning around.

The planner tries one proposed building on three lots, and one fits.

A house coming down on Queen’s Road, Ryde

To carry upstairs

One sentence for the manager, three for the planning board

Manager’s sentenceArtifexAI lays our permits over our zoning districts and returns the title chain on any lot, and the board can show what owners have built inside the 3A district and plan around land whose ownership is clear.

Board’s three sentencesThe cost of 3A compliance has no number yet, because the number lives in our own permits inside our own district lines, and no plan has asked for the two to be laid over each other. ArtifexAI connects those records in a copy the town owns and, in one coastal Massachusetts town, returns the deeds, mortgages, easements and takings on an address with their book and page and a link to the registry. The first step is small enough for the board to see before anything is signed; a copy of our permits and deeds, one public session, and a first answer in about a week.

Office of the State Auditor, Division of Local Mandates, decision on the Town of Wrentham, February 2025 · Massachusetts Division of Local Services, Bulletin 2024-6 on tax-title reform

In one town

Every deed on an address, with its book and page

In one coastal Massachusetts town, Deed Lookup, the search ArtifexAI runs on the county registry, returns every deed, mortgage, easement and taking on an address or a name, with its book and page and a link to the registry’s own page. The board sees who owns the land it is planning around and whether an old taking still clouds the title, and how far back the search reaches depends on the county registry. A treasurer who handles tax title can work from the same chain, since tax-title reform, the new law on tax-title lots, puts dated steps on each lot the town takes for taxes.

Every deedmortgage, easement and taking on an address or a name

Book and pageon every link, with a link to the registry’s own page

Older homeswhich homes an owner may tear down and rebuild, ranked from the records, with the study that tests that ranking against what then happened, limits included, on the research page

One lot’s deeds from 1941 to today, each link carrying its book and page.

Open the test, a ranking of older homes scored against what then happened.

The research page is this office’s proof; a ranking built from what one town’s records held on one day was scored against what happened afterward, and the page says where it held and where the same test on home sales did no better than a rule of thumb.

The test against what happened A question for ArtifexAI