Austin Land Intel
AL

Austin Land Intelligence — Guide

About

Austin Land Intelligence aggregates and scores every land parcel across four Greater Austin counties — Travis, Williamson, Hays, and Bastrop — and surfaces the most actionable acquisition opportunities in one interface. The platform is built for investors targeting industrial and data center development along the I-35 / SH-130 corridor. Austin is the second-fastest-growing data center market in the United States after Northern Virginia, and Williamson, Hays, and Bastrop counties are the current hot zones for large-site acquisitions.

The core question the platform answers: which landowners are most likely to sell, and where should you focus your calls this week?

Data Sources

All data is sourced from public government and institutional records. No proprietary feeds required.

Layer Source What we collect
Land parcels County appraisal district ArcGIS REST APIs — Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop Geometry, acreage, owner name, owner address, assessed value, last sale date
Highways OpenStreetMap Overpass API I-35, SH-130, SH-45, US-183 centerlines and interchange points
Power substations & transmission lines OpenStreetMap infrastructure layer Substation locations, high-voltage transmission line routes
Natural gas pipelines OpenStreetMap infrastructure layer Pipeline routes across the four-county area
Water bodies USGS National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) Lakes, reservoirs, ponds, and river corridors
Ownership & tax data Williamson County Appraisal District open data (Socrata API) Deed dates, sale amounts, mailing address details
Active listings Redfin public data Ranch, Farm, and Land listings in the Greater Austin area
Data is refreshed on each full pipeline run (~1.5 hours). The current dataset reflects a March 2026 snapshot. Parcels without geometry or with invalid polygons are excluded from the map but remain in the database.

How to Use

Dashboard

The starting point for each session. Shows aggregate counts (high-priority parcels, motivated sellers, new parcels this week) and a ranked list of the top candidates sorted by composite score and seller signal count. Use the action buttons in each row:

Map Explorer

Full-screen interactive map with all scored parcels rendered as colored polygons. Use the left sidebar to filter by score range, county, zoning type, acreage, and seller signal count. Active filters appear as chips above the map — click × on any chip to remove that filter. Click any parcel polygon to open the detail drawer on the right, which shows the full score breakdown and owner information. The Show in table → button carries your current filters over to the Table view.

Table View

Sortable, paginated list of all parcels matching the current filters. Click any column header to sort. Select rows with the checkboxes to generate investment memos in bulk (up to 50 at a time) or export to CSV. Click any row to open the same detail drawer as on the map. The Show on map → button returns you to the Map with your current filters intact.

Parcel Detail page

Full profile for a single parcel: all six score dimensions as a radar chart, distances to infrastructure in miles, owner classification, seller signals, and a mini map showing the parcel boundary. Use the Contact section to log phone numbers, email addresses, and notes, and to track the contact status through the workflow: Not contacted → Called → Memo sent → In progress → Closed. The Generate investment memo button produces a structured text memo saved to the parcel record.

How Scoring Works

Every parcel receives a composite score from 0 to 100. The score is a weighted sum of six components, each measuring one dimension of suitability for large-scale industrial or data center development. All scoring runs inside the database — 765,898 parcels score in under 90 seconds.

Component Weight Logic
Power proximity 25% Distance to the nearest electrical substation. ≤1 mi → 100, ≤3 mi → 75, ≤5 mi → 50, ≤10 mi → 25, beyond → 0
Highway access 20% Distance to the nearest major highway centerline (I-35, SH-130, SH-45, US-183). Same distance bands.
Zoning 15% Industrial → 100 · Agricultural → 80 · Commercial → 50 · Mixed → 40 · Residential → 10 · Other → 20
Acreage 15% ≥500 ac → 100 · ≥200 ac → 85 · ≥100 ac → 70 · ≥50 ac → 50 · ≥20 ac → 25 · below → 0
Seller signals 15% Count of motivated-seller indicators: 3+ → 100 · 2 → 75 · 1 → 40 · 0 → 0
Water risk 10% Distance to the nearest water body. Greater distance = lower risk. ≥5 mi → 100, down to 0 if within 0.5 mi.

Seller signal detection

Each parcel is checked for three indicators of owner motivation. Parcels with two or more signals are flagged as motivated sellers.

Score tiers on the map

80–100 — High priority. Act now.
60–79 — Good candidate. Worth researching.
40–59 — Moderate. Some factors present.
0–39 — Low priority. Does not meet key thresholds.

Water Bodies & Flood Risk in Austin

Why water proximity lowers the score

In the scoring model, proximity to water bodies is treated as a risk factor — not an amenity. For data center and industrial development, water features create three distinct categories of risk: regulatory setbacks, floodplain restrictions, and conservation easements.

Regulatory landscape in Greater Austin

LCRA jurisdiction. The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) is a quasi-governmental agency that manages water policy for the Lower Colorado River basin, which runs through the heart of Austin. LCRA operates more than 5,000 miles of electric transmission lines and maintains easement rights across significant portions of the four-county area. Development within LCRA transmission easements requires a formal Permission to Encroach review — typically 60 days — and certain encroachments (structures, grading within 30 ft of towers) are generally not permitted.

Separately, LCRA has been actively working with landowners to place agricultural parcels into conservation easements through the Colorado River Land Trust. Land placed into trust is permanently restricted from major development. Before acquiring any large agricultural parcel near the Highland Lakes or Colorado River corridor, verify whether a conservation easement has been recorded against the property.

FEMA floodplain complexity. Austin has two overlapping floodplain maps: the federal FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) and the City of Austin's own regulatory floodplain, which is frequently more conservative than the federal maps.

In 2019, Austin City Council adopted Atlas 14 rainfall data — a NOAA study showing a ~30% increase in projected rainfall intensities for Central Texas. As a result, Austin redefined its regulatory 100-year floodplain to match what was previously the 500-year floodplain. This reclassification moved approximately 3,200 buildings into the new 100-year floodplain. Floodplain map updates based on the Atlas 14 data are ongoing; the first studies are expected to complete in mid-2026, with remaining studies in 2027.

Practical implication for acquisition: A parcel that sits outside the FEMA 100-year floodplain may still be inside the City of Austin's more stringent regulatory floodplain. Development permits in the regulatory floodplain require FEMA CLOMR (Conditional Letter of Map Revision) approval before the City will issue a development permit — a process that adds months and engineering costs to any project.

Travis County only has floodplain jurisdiction in unincorporated areas outside city limits. Properties within city boundaries fall under the city's jurisdiction. Williamson, Hays, and Bastrop counties each have their own floodplain administrators.

What the water score means in practice

The score_water component uses distance to the nearest USGS NHD water feature as a proxy for flood and regulatory risk:

Distance to waterScore
≥ 5 miles100
≥ 3 miles75
≥ 1 mile40
≥ 0.5 miles15
< 0.5 miles0
This is a screening signal, not a legal determination. A parcel with score_water = 100 (far from any mapped water body) is less likely to have floodplain complications — but the only authoritative answer comes from checking the City of Austin regulatory floodplain map at ATXFloodplains.com and the FEMA FIRM at msc.fema.gov.

What the score does not capture:

Recommended due diligence for any high-score parcel near water

  1. Check the City of Austin regulatory floodplain at ATXFloodplains.com — this map is more current and more conservative than the FEMA FIRM
  2. Search the county deed records for recorded LCRA conservation easements or CRLT (Colorado River Land Trust) deed restrictions
  3. Contact LCRA Real Estate (800-776-5272) to check for transmission line easements crossing the parcel
  4. Verify impervious cover limits if the parcel is in Travis County's ETJ (Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction) — Travis County Code Chapter 482.943 applies to projects adding ≥10,000 sq ft of impervious cover outside city limits

Known Limitations

This platform is a research and prioritization tool. The scores, distances, and ownership data are derived from public records and should be treated as starting points for due diligence, not as legal or financial advice.