- Parcel
- A piece of land that the county records and taxes as one unit, with one owner of record and one parcel number.
- Situs address
- The physical address of the property itself, as opposed to the owner's mailing address.
- Owner mailing address
- Where the county sends the tax bill. When it differs from the situs address, the property is often rented or a second home.
- Assessed value
- The value property taxes are calculated on. Often a state-set percentage of market value.
- Market value
- The assessor's estimate of what the property would sell for on the valuation date.
- Mill levy (millage rate)
- The property tax rate, expressed in dollars per $1,000 of assessed value.
- Assessment roll
- The annual list of every parcel in a jurisdiction with its owner and assessed value.
- Recorder (register of deeds)
- The county office that records deeds, mortgages and liens.
- Deed
- The recorded document that transfers ownership of real property.
- Plat
- A recorded map that divides land into lots, blocks and streets.
- FIPS code
- The federal numeric code for a state (2 digits) and county (3 digits); together they uniquely identify a county, e.g. 08031 for Denver.
- Zoning district
- An area where the local zoning code sets permitted uses and building rules, labeled with a code such as R-1 or C-2.
- Overlay district
- An additional zoning layer (historic, flood, airport) that adds rules on top of the base district.
- Setback
- The minimum distance a building must sit from a property line.
- Nonconforming use
- An existing use or building that was legal when built but does not meet current zoning.
- ADU (accessory dwelling unit)
- A second, smaller home on a single-family lot, such as a backyard cottage or garage apartment.
- Building permit
- Approval from the building department to construct, alter or repair a structure; it is inspected and then finaled.
- Finaled permit
- A permit whose work passed final inspection.
- MVT (Mapbox Vector Tile)
- A compact binary format for map data cut into tiles, used by Mapbox GL JS and MapLibre.
- MCP (Model Context Protocol)
- An open standard that lets AI assistants call external tools and data sources, such as the Parceled MCP server.
