After the hydrant tracker, I got curious about what other public data was sitting in state and county systems, waiting to be pulled together. Turns out NJ publishes every building permit issued in the state through the Department of Community Affairs. Camden County publishes GIS parcel data with block/lot numbers, zoning, and coordinates.

So I stitched them together.

The result: 2,259 building permits across 1,059 parcels in Barrington Borough, representing $30.4M in total construction value. 713 of those permits are still open (554 are over a year old). The data primarily covers 2020 to present.

Where the Data Came From

NJ DCA maintains a statewide repository of building permit records. Every municipality reports permits up to the state, and the data includes permit type, estimated cost, issue date, and completion status. I pulled Barrington’s full record set and cleaned it up.

The problem is DCA records don’t include coordinates. They have block and lot numbers but no way to put a pin on a map. That’s where Camden County GIS comes in. The county publishes parcel boundary data with block/lot, zoning classification, and geographic coordinates. I joined the two datasets on block/lot, bolted on coordinates and zoning from the county, and had a complete picture of every permitted construction project in the borough.

How Claude Built It

I fed the joined dataset to Claude and described what I wanted: an interactive dashboard with a map, trend charts, completion time analysis, and an address lookup. Claude generated the whole thing as a single self-contained HTML file (no backend, no build step, no dependencies beyond Leaflet for the map tiles). I reviewed the output, spot-checked numbers against the source data, and shipped it.

The Dashboard

Click through the tabs to explore the map, completion times, open permits, trends, and more. The address lookup lets you search any property in the borough.

View full dashboard in a new tab (better for mobile).

What Stands Out

713 permits are still open with no certificate of completion. 554 of those are over a year old, 439 over two years. The median age of an open permit is 969 days. That’s a lot of construction work that was permitted but never officially closed out, representing over $10M in uncertified work.

The borough is overwhelmingly residential: 90% of all permits (2,036 of 2,259). The median project cost is $4,800, and 70% of projects come in under $10K. These aren’t McMansion developments. They’re HVAC replacements, roof repairs, bathroom renovations.

2022 was the peak year with 409 permits issued. The borough collected $617K in permit fees across the full dataset.

Completion speed varies wildly. The median is 69 days from permit to certificate, but 21% of completed permits took over a year. Bigger projects predictably take longer. New construction is the slowest category.

Data sourced from NJ DCA permit records and Camden County GIS. All analysis is automated and should be independently verified.