Perci PBC provides a community development platform that makes land use planning and housing processes more transparent and equitable. Its Perci Explore tool visualizes housing needs, development activity, zoning petitions, and project reviews across Boston using openly available data. The platform helps residents, developers, and policymakers align on neighborhood change and advocate for projects that benefit existing communities.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Land use planning and housing development processes are opaque and inefficient, making it difficult for residents to understand or influence neighborhood change. High barriers, lengthy approvals, and frequent misalignment between developers and communities lead to too few homes being built, fueling the housing affordability crisis. Residents often lack access to timely, contextual information about development activity, zoning changes, and project reviews.
Solution
Perci PBC provides a platform that makes land use planning and community development processes more transparent and equitable. Its Perci Explore tool aggregates openly available data from sources like Boston's open data portal into a one-stop-shop for understanding how neighborhoods may change. Users can visualize housing needs, ongoing development reviews, permitted projects, and zoning petitions, alongside contextual overlays such as regulations, transit routes, and flood risk. By making the forces at play visible, Perci empowers community stakeholders to advocate effectively for projects that improve their neighborhoods and supports a flywheel of community-led development.
Target Audience
Primary users are residents, community group leaders, developers, policymakers, and elected officials in Greater Boston who need to understand and engage with ongoing planning and development processes.
Features
- Color-coded map of Boston zip codes showing the proportion of households with housing cost burdens exceeding 30% of income
- Aggregated view of new construction permits, zoning petitions, and larger project reviews in one interface
- Contextual data overlays including existing regulations, public transit routes, and flood risk
- Leverages openly available data from sources like Analyze Boston for transparency
- Designed to enable everyday residents to find out about development activity and influence outcomes