Vacaville Parcels: Activating Dormant Spaces Through Public Dialogue

Every city has them. Vacant lots behind chain-link. Shuttered storefronts on otherwise busy blocks. Parcels that sit, year after year, while the city grows around them.

In Vacaville, we’ve started mapping them.

What Parcels is

Parcels is an experiment in public attention. It lists opportunity parcels in Vacaville – vacant or underutilized sites where something could happen if enough people cared about what went there.

Each parcel has a map pin, a description, and a feedback form. The form asks simple questions: What would you like to see here? What matters most to you? Would you participate?

The data is placeholder right now. The addresses are approximate, the APNs are generic, and the boundaries aren’t drawn. That’s the point – this is a prototype, not a final product. We’re testing whether the format works before investing in verified parcel data.

Why this matters

Most land use decisions happen in planning commission meetings that few people attend. By the time a project reaches public hearing, the developer has already spent months on plans. The window for meaningful community input is narrow and often too late.

What if we moved upstream? What if, before anyone filed an application, neighbors could look at a vacant lot and say: here’s what we need here?

That’s the idea behind /parcels. Not to replace the formal planning process, but to create a visible, low-friction space for people to express what they want from their city – parcel by parcel, block by block.

What we mean by “activate”

Activation doesn’t require construction. A dormant space can come alive with a farmers market, a popup, a mural, a community garden, a conversation. The first step is just noticing the space exists and imagining it differently.

/parcels is that first step: a public inventory of possibility.

How you can contribute

This is an open project. If you want to help make it real, here’s what we need:

• Verify the data. The current parcel list uses placeholder addresses and APNs. If you know Vacaville’s vacant and underutilized parcels – especially downtown and along the Monte Vista corridor – we need real addresses, real APNs, and real zoning designations. The county assessor’s parcel viewer is a good starting point.

• Add photos. A vacant lot looks different on a map than it does from the sidewalk. Street-level photos help people connect with a place. If you’re walking past one of these sites, take a picture and send it in.

• Submit feedback. Visit /parcels, pick a site, and tell us what you’d like to see there. The form takes two minutes. Every response helps build a picture of what the community actually wants.

• Share it. The more people who see these parcels, the harder they are to ignore. Share individual parcel pages with neighbors, local business owners, or anyone who’s ever said “I wish something would go there.”

• Bring context. Some of these sites have history – prior proposals, environmental constraints, ownership complications. If you know the backstory on a parcel, that context is valuable.

How it’s built

/parcels is part of OpenSolano, a Jekyll static site focused on civic data for Solano County. The parcel data lives in a JSON file. Each parcel gets its own page with a map and feedback form powered by Touchpoints, an open-source platform for collecting public feedback.

The code is open source. If you’re technical and want to contribute data, fix something, or extend the concept to other jurisdictions, the repo is on GitHub.

What comes next

If people use it, we’ll invest in making the data real: verified parcels, accurate boundaries, GIS integration. If feedback clusters around specific sites, we can bring that signal to city staff and the planning commission as evidence of community interest.

The long game is a city where participation doesn’t require attending a Tuesday night meeting. Where the question “what do you want here?” is always open, always visible, always accumulating signal.

/parcels is a small experiment toward that. Try it. Tell us what you think.

Browse Vacaville Parcels