California Coverage · San Mateo County
San Mateo 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 Peninsula address, from estate lots in Atherton to hillside parcels in Woodside, in about a minute.
What Lekua resolves in San Mateo County
Every layer below is pulled live from San Mateo’s own GIS and authoritative state sources the moment you enter an address — no manual tracing, no generic insets, every source cited.
Active Parcels boundary with APN, site address, and lot area — drawn to the recorded line from the county’s own parcel service.
San Mateo publishes no public vector contours, so Lekua generates fine 1–2 ft contours on-demand from the 1-meter USGS 3DEP elevation model — far finer than the USGS 10-ft fallback, and valuable on the Peninsula’s hillside lots.
The county’s own countywide footprint layer — 229,298 structures, verified at both ends of the county, from bayside San Mateo to Half Moon Bay — gap-filled with FEMA national structures where the county layer has holes.
Each county footprint carries its own above-grade height and base elevation, so structures extrude from real grade instead of a nominal 15-ft box. Heights run bimodal at one storey and two, with a tail into the downtown office stock — a measured building population, not a default. Footprints the county leaves blank stay labelled as having no height rather than being guessed at.
Zone code resolved for 20+ Peninsula jurisdictions. The City of San Mateo (MC Title 27) and unincorporated San Mateo County (Title 8, captured from the adopted ordinance text including the Midcoast and named neighborhood chapters) have passed review, so their setback envelopes are drawn. Atherton, Menlo Park, and Redwood City are captured and cited on the export but not yet drawn — until a table passes independent review it ships as code-cited values with an explicit “unverified” advisory rather than lines we can’t stand behind.
CAL FIRE FHSZ severity with Zone 0 / 1 / 2 defensible-space perimeters drawn around structures — pointed where it counts on the wooded western Peninsula (Woodside, Portola Valley, the coastal hills).
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 lawn-replacement rebate estimates from the serving water provider.
Tuned for the Peninsula’s wooded fire interface
Woodside, Portola Valley, and the western and coastal hills sit in mapped fire-hazard severity zones, and defensible-space planting rules now shape those projects. 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.
- 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 research and UCANR / CAL FIRE-aligned fire-safe lists.
Zoning setbacks, by jurisdiction
Setbacks in San Mateoare 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.
Example — City of San Mateo residential setback table, as encoded from the adopted code
| Zone | Front | Side | Rear |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-1-A | 25′ | 7′ | 15′ |
| R-1-B | 15′ | 5′ | 15′ |
| R-1-C | 15′ | 5′ | 15′ |
| R-2 | 15′ | 5′ | 15′ |
Captured from MC Title 27 and confirmed against a real parcel — 480 Virginia Ave resolves R-1-B off the city’s own zoning GIS and draws 15/5/15, corroborated by the assessor record. This table has passed review, so these envelopes are drawn on the export. Atherton is also encoded — its side yards scale with lot width per §17.38 Table 17.38.010-1 (10–50 ft), computed from the parcel geometry — but ships as cited text with an advisory until its own review clears. Lots of record and overlays carry exceptions; verify with the city before submittal.
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 exact soil, sun, rainfall, and microclimate. Hand a client a list that’s code-compliant, climate-appropriate, and built to perform.
Flammability and defensible-space zone suitability from Las Pilitas burn-time research and UCANR / CAL FIRE-aligned fire-safe lists — 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 districts & rebates
Lawn-replacement rebate estimates are matched to the serving district: BAWSCA “Lawn Be Gone!” regional rebate · California Water Service (Cal Water).
San Mateo County base map FAQ
Can I get a CAD base map for a San Mateo County parcel?
Yes. Enter any San Mateo / Peninsula address and export a layered DXF (DXF 2000, read natively by AutoCAD, Vectorworks, and SketchUp Pro) with property lines, county building footprints with measured heights, on-demand 1–2 ft contours, spot elevations, CAL FIRE defensible-space zones, and zoning where resolved — plus a designed PDF site report for the client.
Are the building heights on a San Mateo base map measured or assumed?
Measured, for any structure the county’s footprint layer carries. San Mateo publishes an above-grade height and a base elevation on all 229,298 footprints, so the structure extrudes from its real grade rather than a nominal 15-ft box — and the base elevation tracks terrain, about 71 ft at Half Moon Bay against 517–537 ft inland. Where the county leaves the height blank, the sheet says the height is unknown instead of printing a guess.
What contour interval is available in San Mateo County?
San Mateo doesn’t publish public vector contours, so Lekua generates fine 1–2 ft contours on-demand from the 1-meter USGS 3DEP elevation model — far finer than the USGS 10-ft national fallback, which matters on the Peninsula’s hillside lots for grading and drainage.
Does it include zoning setbacks for Peninsula towns?
Lekua resolves the zone code for 20+ San Mateo jurisdictions. Two have passed review and draw setback envelopes on the plan: the City of San Mateo (MC Title 27) and unincorporated San Mateo County (Title 8 Development Code, captured from the adopted ordinance text). Atherton — including its lot-width-scaled side yards computed from the parcel geometry — plus Menlo Park and Redwood City are encoded and cited on the export, but ship as code-cited values with an explicit “unverified” advisory until their own review clears. The zone is always labeled either way.
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 burn-time research and UCANR / CAL FIRE-aligned fire-safe lists.
Is the data current and reliable enough for submittals?
Layers are pulled live from county GIS, USGS, and CAL FIRE at export time, and 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 San Mateo address
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