HITL sampling list — 2026-05-12
Candidates
two ranked lists of HCMs that fit the type-1 and type-2 vacancy hypotheses surfaced by the audit. type-1: commercial / industrial / civic obsolescence with high tract-level contamination signals. type-2: residential properties on parcels that look structurally distressed but are protected from demolition by HCM-related laws.
each row carries a fresh Google street view deep link that opens at the parcel coordinates so you can pan to the building. the orchestrator's pre-captured street view clips for each HCM are not reliable here — heading and pitch were defaulted to street-facing not building-facing, so many clips miss the building. the deep link gets around this by letting you aim the camera yourself.
↓ download forensic audit (pdf)Method
Type-1 candidate ranking
filter: typology in (civic, commercial, industrial, infrastructure, public_art), no active Mills Act contract, CalEnviroScreen type-1 contamination probability ≥ 0.6, parcel acres ≥ 0.5, alt-use score (F-axis) ≥ 4. ranked by type-1 contamination probability descending, then by alt-use score descending. these are the HCMs most likely to be commercial / industrial obsolescence cases worth field-validating.
Type-2 candidate ranking
filter: typology in (sfr, multifamily), designation year ≤ 1995, parcel acres between 0.05 and 1.5 (excludes condo-scale on the low end and district / estate designations on the high end), at least one code complaint or open CSR (independent distress signal), no recent mills-act-active investment, last permit ≥ 8 years ago or absent, type-1 contamination probability < 0.7 (not primarily contamination). ranked by total distress signal then by age. earlier versions of this filter surfaced harold lloyd's estate and the village green HPOZ — accidental district-scale catches; the parcel-size cap and the complaint requirement remove those. what remains is freestanding residential parcels with at least one independent distress signal.
Vision pre-classification
each candidate was pre-classified by claude vision (sonnet-4-6) against 4 Google street view captures (n/e/s/w from parcel coordinates). vision results sort the lists — rows with a vision condition of abandoned or distressed appear first. this is a screen, not a verdict — vision can only see what faces the street, so well-maintained facades on buildings with internal damage will not show. use it as a fast-pass filter to find the rows worth a manual HITL review.
What to look for in street view
type-1 cues: empty parking lots, abandoned silos / chimneys / loading docks, chain-link perimeter with overgrowth, peeling siding on industrial buildings, signage faded or removed, rail spur or oil-well remnants nearby. type-2 cues: boarded windows on a single-family residence, tarped roof, sagging porch or visible foundation cracking, vegetation overgrowth around the foundation, no vehicle in driveway across multiple time captures, fire scorching, plywood patches over windows, mail slot taped over, danger-keep-out notices.
Workflow validation — burnside cluster — 2026-05-12
the HITL tier produced its first confirmed type-2 case the same day the rubric was built. HCM-423 / 424 / 425 (607, 626, 636 burnside ave apartment buildings, designated 1989) were ranked by the tier-1 GIS filter — 2 open CSR cases each, no recent permits, residential typology, designated >30 years ago. Google maps verification of the cluster turned up neighboring 616 burnside ave apartments listed as "permanently closed" — a strong visible signal that the entire block of HCM-protected apartments is non-operational. that is the textbook type-2 trapped pattern: building cannot operate, cannot be demolished (HCM-protected), cannot be substantially altered (HPOZ / designation covenants). all three burnside HCMs are now in the tier-3 site visit queue at high priority, paired for inspection efficiency.
Data limitation
street view captures are dated — Google's most recent capture for a given block may be 1-3 years old. the deep link opens whatever capture Google currently serves. for properties on hidden interior parcels (driveway-set-back single-family residences common in highland park / silver lake) street view may not show the building at all. for those, the user should pivot to satellite view or check Google's "see all imagery" link to find a better vantage. fields below are necessary but not sufficient — the visual confirmation is the dependent step.
Type-1 candidates: commercial / industrial obsolescence + contamination
loading HCMs — ranked by type-1 contamination probability
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Type-2 candidates: residential structural damage trapped by HCM
loading HCMs — ranked by structural-distress proxies
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