California Coverage · Marin County
Marin County base maps & site data for designers
The existing-conditions base map and pre-design site analysis that normally takes a half-day across county GIS portals and hand-tracing into CAD — for any Marin address, in about a minute.
What Lekua resolves in Marin County
Every layer below is pulled at export time from county, state and national GIS sources the moment you enter an address — no manual tracing, no generic insets, and the sheet cites which source drew each layer.
Parcel boundary with APN, site address, lot area and land use, from the county’s parcel map. Approximate, not a survey.
2-foot contour lines cut from the county’s 2019 lidar, straight from MarinMap’s own basemap and in frame with its parcel lines — five times finer than the USGS 10-ft data most tools fall back to. Essential on Marin’s hillside lots; spot elevations included.
Marin County’s own building outlines, ground bases traced in stereo from orthophotos, 2004, with additions from 2014 imagery: each follows the building’s ground base, close to the wall, not the roof edge. The map shifts them onto the satellite image; the DXF and the PDF keep them in the county’s frame, with the parcel lines. Where the county layer has no building, national outlines fill in (Overture Maps’ mixed mapped and machine-learned outlines where a county cut is imported, otherwise FEMA USA Structures with Microsoft machine-learned outlines where FEMA has none) for structures of 400 sq ft and up, or 120 sq ft and up with a measured height.
Front / side / rear setback tables encoded from each of the 12 jurisdictions’ adopted municipal codes, cited on every export. All 12 have passed partial (YELLOW) review, so the envelope is drawn with its citation and the reviewer’s caveat; a full-panel (GREEN) pass is still pending everywhere, and where a rule is a prevailing average or discretionary the export says so instead of drawing a line.
CAL FIRE FHSZ severity (2024–25 remap) with Zone 0 / 1 / 2 defensible-space perimeters drawn around structures.
Easements the county maps, fault zones, geologic hazards, and coastal / riparian boundaries where mapped by the county.
USDA SSURGO soil profile, historical rainfall, and modeled seasonal sun-hour heat maps for the parcel.
California natives matched to the site’s soil and microclimate, plus the serving water supplier’s lawn-replacement rebate, shown only while it was verified on the supplier’s own page within 60 days.
MarinMap’s 2019 lidar surfaces — first-return minus bare-earth, both in feet — give every structure a measured height and its true grade; no published height column is involved. Where a record carries no height, the structure is labeled as having none rather than drawn at a confident wrong number.
Built for Marin’s wildland-urban interface
Nearly all of Marin sits in a mapped fire-hazard severity zone, and defensible-space planting rules are now part of every residential project. Lekua draws the CAL FIRE Zone 0 / 1 / 2 perimeters on the plan and filters the plant palette to what each zone allows — so a fire-wise, code-aware design comes out of the first pass instead of a redline later.
- Zone 0 (0–5 ft ember-resistant), Zone 1 (5–30 ft), and Zone 2 (30–100 ft) perimeters drawn around the structures.
- Every recommended plant carries a defensible-space zone rating, so you place the right species in the right zone.
- Flammability ratings draw on Las Pilitas burn-time data, UCANR / county fire-safe lists, and FIRESafe Marin zone guidance.
Zoning setbacks, by jurisdiction
Setbacks in Marin are set per town, not countywide. Lekua resolves the parcel’s jurisdiction and zone code and encodes each jurisdiction’s adopted setback table, citation and all. Setback rings are drawn only after a table passes independent panel review — until then the export carries the code-cited values with an explicit “unverified” advisory instead of lines we can’t stand behind.
A native palette, enriched beyond the plant list
Start from the Calscape native plant database — then get the research-backed traits Calscape alone doesn’t put at your fingertips, matched to the parcel’s mapped soil, sun, rainfall, and microclimate. Hand a client a list checked against the code, climate-appropriate, and built to perform.
Flammability and defensible-space zone suitability from Las Pilitas burn-time research, UCANR / county fire-safe lists, and FIRESafe Marin guidance — not just a name on a list.
Slow / moderate / fast growth plus mature height and spread, so spacing and time-to-fill are realistic from day one.
Calscape cultivation and longevity guidance, so the palette reads for how it performs over 10–20 years, not just at install.
WUCOLS-aligned water-use ratings (for the MWELO budget) and pollinator / bird support scores on every species.
Plant data: Calscape / CNPS, enriched with Las Pilitas burn-time research, UCANR & CAL FIRE-aligned fire-safe lists, and WUCOLS water-use ratings.
Water suppliers
Main water suppliers in Marin County: Marin Municipal Water District (MMWD) · North Marin Water District (NMWD).
Marin County base map FAQ
Are the building heights on a Marin County base map measured or assumed?
Measured, wherever the county record carries one. MarinMap’s 2019 lidar surfaces — first-return minus bare-earth, both in feet — give every structure a measured height and its true grade; no published height column is involved. A structure whose record has no height is labeled as having none — the sheet prints an explicit no-data note instead of a plausible number, because a wrong ridge height is worse on a shade study than an admitted gap.
Can I get a CAD base map for a Marin County parcel?
Yes. Enter any Marin address and export a layered DXF (AutoCAD-compatible) with county parcel lines, building footprints, 2-ft native contours, spot elevations, easements, and zoning with code-cited setbacks on AIA/NCS-style layers — plus a designed PDF site report for the client.
What contour interval is available in Marin County?
Marin publishes 2-foot contours from its 2019 countywide lidar through MarinMap, which Lekua draws directly, registered to the same parcel lines. That’s five times finer than the USGS 10-foot national data most parcels fall back to — which matters on Marin’s steep hillside lots for grading and drainage.
Does it include zoning setbacks for Marin towns?
Setback tables are encoded from the adopted municipal codes of 11 Marin towns plus unincorporated county land, each with a citation. All 12 have passed partial (YELLOW) panel review, so the envelope is drawn with its citation and the reviewer’s caveat printed on the sheet; a full (GREEN) pass is still pending everywhere. Where a setback is a prevailing-average or discretionary rule, the export says so instead of drawing a misleading line.
How does it handle defensible space and fire-safe planting?
Lekua draws CAL FIRE Zone 0 / 1 / 2 defensible-space perimeters around the structures and tags every recommended native with the zones it’s suited to — using flammability data from Las Pilitas, UCANR / county fire-safe lists, and FIRESafe Marin guidance.
Is the data current and reliable enough for submittals?
Layers are pulled live from county GIS and CAL FIRE at export time; setback tables are curated from each jurisdiction’s code with a dated source note. Everything is labeled “for planning reference — not for construction.” Verify against the current code and a stamped survey before submittal.
Start with a Marin address
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