UCEY

UCEY is a planner-facing interface aimed at solving the housing crisis by assessing the viability of Canadian underused land and drawing on data from brownfields, parking lots, dead malls, and more.

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UCEY - Know your ground before you build.

Inspiration

UCEY was inspired by a simple but important idea. We realized that Canada does not only have a housing shortage, but it also has a land visibility problem. Discussions regarding housing focus on building farther outward, but many cities already contain underused land such as brownfields, parking lots, dead malls, and rail-adjacent parcels. These places are often hard to compare quickly because the relevant information is scattered across different datasets, tools, and planning systems. Even worse, many do not consider these sites as an area to expand housing.

We aimed to build something that enables urban planners, architects, and municipal governments to see those forgotten spaces more clearly. The objective was to create a tool that turns hidden land into a visible opportunity and enables housing to happen faster yet realistically. Why not revamp the environment that previously thrived in the community and also take part in solving the housing crisis?

What it does

UCEY is a web app that helps users discover underused land across Canadian cities and evaluate their housing potential through an interactive map.

Users can:

  • log in and access the planning interface,
  • explore candidate sites on a Canada-based map,
  • filter by land type, activity status, and viability,
  • click a specific site to open a detailed side panel,
  • review scores such as soil, infrastructure, and practicality,
  • inspect cost and housing-capacity estimates,
  • generate an AI planner memo for the selected site,
  • listen to the AI memo through text-to-speech when audio is configured.

The app brings together multiple site categories into one workflow, including brownfields, parking lots, dead malls, and rail corridors, so users can compare very different kinds of redevelopment opportunities in one place.

How we built it

We built UCEY as a full-stack application mainly using Next.js, React, and TypeScript. The frontend centers around a map-driven interface with a slide-in detail panel, while the backend handles site APIs, data integration, personal authentication, AI report generation, and session flow.

We used:

  • Next.js and React for the application structure,
  • Leaflet for the interactive map,
  • Supabase with Postgres/PostGIS for site storage and querying,
  • Auth0 for authentication,
  • Gemini for AI-generated planning summaries,
  • ElevenLabs for text-to-speech,
  • CSV-based data pipelines for integrating brownfield and non- brownfield datasets.

A notable part of the build process was integrating different kinds of site data into one shared format so they could all be displayed and analyzed through the same interface without any back and forth. We also built API routes that let non-database entries behave more like full application records, including report generation and audio features to provide accessibility and clarity.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges was data inconsistency. Brownfield data and non-brownfield land-use data came from very different sources and did not share the same structure, labeling, or level of detail. We had to closely examine those datasets so they could work together in the same app without any contradiction.

Another obstacle was integrating across branches and parallel work. As each team member was allocated a different role from the others, different parts of the system, such as backend setup, auth, frontend UI, and data ingestion, were all evolving at the same time. That made merging, preserving stable versions, and avoiding accidental loss of work a careful procedure.

We also ran into practical issues such as:

  • authentication loops between login and the protected app,
  • API keys not working in the local environment,
  • getting map markers and site panels to stay synchronized,
  • making sure the map stayed constrained to Canada,
  • connecting new site entries to the same AI and audio pipeline,
  • Understanding that not all scores are available equally across all datasets.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that UCEY has developed to be more than a simple map demo. It became a successful planning workflow where a user can go from authentication to map discovery, to site inspection, and to AI-generated explanation in one product.

Other accomplishments we are especially proud of:

  • supporting both brownfield and non-brownfield candidate parcels,
  • integrating concise and accurate data
  • building a map and side-panel flow that feels coherent and useful,
  • adding active/inactive site filtering across different datasets,
  • integrating AI memo generation and audio playback,
  • creating a product that is visually understandable even when the underlying data is complex.

Finally, we are proud that the app communicates uncertainty reasonably well. It does not pretend to replace formal planning or engineering review, but it still gives users a meaningful way to explore and compare sites.

What we learned

We learned that building a geospatial planning tool is not just about showing points on a map. The real challenge is making different datasets, different levels of certainty, and different user needs feel like one coherent experience, all while being accurate and seamless.

We also learned:

  • data normalization is as important as frontend polish,
  • AI is most useful when it explains structured information rather than inventing it,
  • a good side panel can be just as important as the map itself,
  • collaboration and branch hygiene matter a lot when several people are building different layers at once.

Most importantly, we learned that there is real value in turning “hidden capacity” into something visible and actionable. We are potentially helping urban planners revive deserted areas and bring them back into the community while solving the housing crisis in major cities.

What's next for UCEY

The next step for UCEY is to expand both its coverage and its depth. This will continue to build a community and solve the overpriced housing issue.

In the near term, we want to:

  • add more Canadian cities,
  • improve score transparency and source explanations,
  • strengthen project-saving and report persistence,
  • support exports such as PDF planner briefs,
  • improve planning scenario comparison and visualization, -personalize the interface for a better QoL.

In the longer term, we want UCEY to go beyond Canada. The core problem of underused land and fragmented planning data exists in many countries, not just one. Our long-term vision is to expand the platform internationally so it can become a globally usable planning and land-discovery tool, and transform unused territories into a welcoming environment.

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