What the use table permits today, and what only a rezone would
Lesson 1 of 6 · Buy the classification
1 · Learn the move · Comparison matrix
The seller's flyer says 'short-term rental friendly' and the parcel card says R-3. Neither tells you what you are buying. The use table does: uses down the side, districts across the top, and a letter in each cell that means permitted, permitted after a hearing, or not at all. A comparison matrix is the right shape, because the question is never one use but the four or five things you might do with the land, read against the district it sits in today. The discipline is in the empty cells. A blank is a no, and the model will want to soften it into 'may be possible with approval'. That softening is how a zoning label turns into a rezone path in your head. The matrix says what the table says, quotes the footnote, and where only a rezone would get you there it says exactly that and stops. Whether a rezone is achievable is a question for the planner and counsel, never for the model.
Build a matrix. Rows: the uses I list. Columns: USE | CELL IN TODAY'S DISTRICT | SECTION AND FOOTNOTE | WHAT THE TABLE SAYS IT TAKES | STILL OPEN. Quote each cell exactly. A blank cell reads NOT PERMITTED IN THIS DISTRICT, never 'may be possible'. Do not say whether a rezone is likely. [use table excerpt] [footnotes] [parcel card]
2 · Your turn. You write the prompt
Two adjoining infill lots in the city of Callowmere are offered together in one deed, and the seller's flyer calls them 'short-term rental friendly'. You buy lots for their classification: this pair only fits your buy box if the district permits a short-term rental that is not owner-occupied, because every lot you hold sits in its own LLC and no owner lives on it. The parcel cards say R-3. You have pasted the residential and mixed-use page of the use table and its footnotes. Write the prompt that reads your four uses against today's district before you make an offer.
Write the prompt for this scenario as given, or swap in a real one from your own work. The score works the same either way.
Remember: the AI sees only your prompt, not this page. If the situation isn't in your prompt, it doesn't exist.
Optional. These shape the output when you run your prompt below, not your score.