UAD 3.6 series Part 2 of 7

The Signal / UAD 3.6 / November 8, 2026

The Site section turns into fieldsZoning, view and site influence in UAD 3.6

UAD 3.6 turns one view rating, a location checkbox and an adverse-conditions catch-all into 117 individually numbered Site fields. An actual GSE sample report, for a nonconforming lot in a lava flow hazard zone, shows how those fields price out in the sales comparison grid, and how one hazard answer also decides whether the loan is eligible.

Start reading See the Site Influence fields

Hover or tab to the marked points on the photo to see what each house feature reports as a Site field.

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AI-generated illustration of a fictional corner lotResearch checked November 2, 20268 chapters

Key points

28 named View types plus Other, and 20 named Site Influence types plus Other, replace one overall rating and up to two abbreviated factors each. Views are reported at the unit level for high-rise, mid-rise and low-rise properties, a level of detail new to UAD 3.6.
Zoning Compliance = Legal Nonconforming AND Rebuildable to Current Density/Use = No is now a two-field query. Under UAD 2.6, finding this meant rereading the Zoning Description paragraph on every nonconforming file.
UAD 3.6 drops the FEMA map number and map date fields that the legacy form included. The Hazard Zone field still records whether the subject is in a FEMA hazard area. The panel number and effective date now have to come from the lender's flood determination.
An actual GSE sample puts its subject in USGS Lava Flow Zone 2, a zone outside Fannie Mae's purchase eligibility. The file shows one hazard answer pricing a value adjustment and also deciding loan eligibility, two questions the Impact rating alone leaves bundled together.

Site is section 04 of the redesigned URAR, after Summary, Assignment Information and Subject Property. The biggest change is the number of fields: the legacy form had one rating and two abbreviations, and the new form has many individually numbered fields.

This is Part 2 of our seven-part series on UAD 3.6, after Part 1 on how the redesigned report determines which fields appear. The Site chapter runs from General Information through Site Valuation Methodology, pp. 56 to 85 of Appendix F-1.¹

01 / The sectionOne dense band, then 9 subsections

117 numbered fields in the Site section

Site runs 30 pages of Appendix F-1, pp. 56 to 85, with 117 individually numbered fields, 4.000 through 4.116.¹ The F-1 table of contents lists 9 top-level entries under chapter 04: Zoning, Property Use and Property Access are part of General Information, and Water Frontage with Private Access is part of Site Influence.¹ The legacy Form 1004 fit its entire Site band, dimensions, zoning, utilities and the FEMA flood fields, into one dense strip on page 1.⁴

This part covers the Site chapter only. Part 3 picks up ANSI measurement and the sketch; Part 4 covers condition, quality and defects. Disaster mitigation gets its own post, Part 5, beyond the hazard zone connection covered here. Grid mechanics and reconciliation close out the series in Parts 6 and 7.

Legacy Form 1004 Site band: dimension, area and shape field references, zoning compliance checkboxes, utilities checkboxes for electricity, gas, water and sanitary sewer, and FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area, FEMA Flood Zone, FEMA Map number and FEMA Map Date fields, in one dense strip. — **Before:** the full Site band, Form 1004/70, p. 1.⁴

Blank URAR Site section from Appendix C-1, showing General Information, Zoning, Property Use, Property Access, Site Influence, Water Frontage with Private Access, View and Impact to Value/Marketability, and Site Features and Impact to Value/Marketability as separate labeled blocks. — **After:** the Site section's printed layout, Appendix C-1 v1.3, p. 7.⁶ The 9 top-level subsections, in page order, below.

The 9 top-level Site subsections, in page order
#	Subsection	F-1 page
01	General Information	56
02	Site Influence	62
03	View and Impact to Value/Marketability	69
04	Site Features and Impact to Value/Marketability	71
05	Utilities and Impact to Value/Marketability	77
06	Apparent Defects, Damages, Deficiencies	80
07	Site Valuation Methodology	82
08	Site Commentary	84
09	Site Exhibits	85

The series house for this post is the same corner lot every part in the series uses: a collector road along one side, mature oaks, a detached garage and a distant ridge beyond.² Point at a feature in the hero image above for the Site field it describes.

Street-level view of a corner lot's road-facing edge, a two-lane collector road passing the property, a mailbox and curb visible, mature oaks along the property line. — The road that turns one Site Influence field into a bordering, adverse answer.AI-generated illustration

02 / ViewOne rating to 28 named types

The View field has 28 named types

The legacy form reported one overall rating, Neutral, Beneficial or Adverse, plus up to two factors chosen from 12 fixed abbreviations: Wtr, Pstrl, Woods, Prk, Glfvw, CtySky, Mtn, Res, CtyStr, Ind, PwrLn, LtdSght. A report might read B;Mtn;Wtr.⁵

Field 4.039 replaces it: select all that apply from 28 named view types, Bay through Woods, plus a separate Other (Describe) catch-all, 29 selectable answers in all. Each selected type has its own Range (Full, Partial, Seasonal or Other), Impact (Adverse, Beneficial or Neutral) and a Primary flag. Views are reported at the unit level for high-rise, mid-rise and low-rise properties, a level of detail that is new in UAD 3.6.¹⁷

Legacy View, Appendix A v1.5 p. 21
Code	Factor
`Wtr`	Water
`Pstrl`	Pastoral
`Woods`	Woods
`Prk`	Park
`Glfvw`	Golf course view
`CtySky`	City skyline view
`Mtn`	Mountain view
`Res`	Residential view
`CtyStr`	City street view
`Ind`	Industrial view
`PwrLn`	Power lines
`LtdSght`	Limited sight

UAD 3.6 View (4.039), F-1 p. 70
Theme	Named types
Water	Bay, Canal, Cove, Creek, Gulf, Lake, Marsh, Ocean, Pond, Reservoir, River, Sound
Land	Golf Course, Mountain, Park, Pastoral, Valley, Woods
Built	City Street, Commercial, High Density Residential, Highway, Industrial, Parking Lot, School, Skyline, Traffic Wall Barriers
Other	Residential, plus Other (Describe)

Appendix A: GSE Appraisal Forms Mapping, v1.5, p. 21.⁵ Appendix F-1 v1.4, p. 70.¹ Both tables stay in the page at all times; the wipe is visual only.

Impact is reported for the subject only. A comparable in the grid includes the View type and Range; the dollar adjustment stands in for a separate comparable-side Impact rating.¹

Water (12)

Land (6)

Built (9)

Catch-all (1)

28 named types sum across four themes: 12 water, 6 land, 9 built environment, 1 residential catch-all, plus the separate Other (Describe) value. Source: F-1 v1.4 p. 70, cross-checked against the UAD 3.6 schema's ViewBase enumeration.¹⁷

View from an upstairs window of the series house, looking out past mature oaks toward a distant ridge, under a muted overcast sky. — What the View field is rating. AI-generated illustration.

The Hawaii sample's View row reads Residential, Full, Neutral: one selected type, a full and unobstructed range, and a neutral effect on value.²

03 / Site InfluenceFrom free text to structured fields

Site Influence has 20 named types

Legacy Location worked like legacy View: one overall rating plus up to two factors from a 10-abbreviation list, Res, Ind, Comm, BsyRd, WtrFr, GlfCse, AdjPrk, AdjPwr, Lndfl, PubTrn, reported only in the comparable grid. A report might read B;AdjPrk;WtrFr.⁵

Field 4.025, Site Influence, replaces it with 20 named types plus Other, 21 selectable answers, reported in the Site section itself as well as the grid. Each selected influence has its own Proximity (Onsite, Bordering or Offsite), Impact and Comment.¹⁷ Apparent Environmental Conditions reuse the same table shape with their own 11-item list, Radon, Landfill and Superfund Site among them, plus a Distance from Property field that only the Environmental Conditions table includes.¹

Site Influence explorer

20 named types, grouped by theme

Select a type to see its Proximity and Impact options and, where the GSEs publish one, its definition.

Transportation

Infrastructure

Land use

Natural

Source: F-1 v1.4 pp. 62 to 63; schema annotations from GSE_UAD_3.6.0_EnumeratedTypes_v1.3.xsd.¹⁷ Every type has the same three Proximity options, and which one applies is reported per file, independent of the type.

The Hawaii sample's Site Influence row reads Busy Roadway, Bordering, Adverse: "Site fronts to a collector street through the community, which has higher density traffic impacting subject's marketability."²

The Hawaii sample's Site section

The printed Site section

Fully populated Site section for the 2- to 4-unit Hawaii sample: Legal Nonconforming A-1A zoning, Busy Roadway site influence bordering and adverse, Residential full and neutral view, USGS Lava Flow Zone 2 hazard, private cesspool sewer. — 2- to 4-unit Appraisal (Hawaii) sample, v1.4, rendered p. 3.²

The same answers as data fields

4.025Site InfluenceBusy Roadway
4.026ProximityBordering
4.028Site Influence ImpactAdverse
4.039ViewResidential
4.040Range of ViewFull
4.041View ImpactNeutral

Top row: Site Influence. Bottom row: View, which records what is visible from the dwelling.

In the Sales Comparison grid, Site Influence reappears as row 22.03.13/22.03.42, with the same 20-type enumeration. Only Body of Water Type travels into the grid, under the same row; Proximity and Comment stay in the Site section, and Apparent Environmental Conditions gets its own adjustable row (22.03.14/22.03.44). The Hawaii sample's Comp 1 shows both together: its grid cell reads "Busy Roadway | Ocean," the Site Influence type and the Body of Water Type combined.¹² Part 6 covers full grid mechanics. This part covers only the Site-specific rows.

04 / Zoning and HBUFour compliance answers

Zoning Compliance has four linked fields

Zoning Compliance (4.008) is Illegal, Legal, Legal Nonconforming or No Zoning. Classification Code (4.009) has a separate Description field (4.010). An Illegal answer requires one or more of six Reasons Illegal. A Legal Nonconforming answer adds Rebuildable to Current Density/Use (4.013), required on FHA, USDA and VA files.¹

The Hawaii sample reads Legal Nonconforming, code A-1A, "Agricultural/Residential, 1.00 Acre Minimum." Its commentary: "According to Hawaii Planning and Zoning Office, the subject can be rebuilt if destroyed. Nonconforming to zoning due to smaller lot size than currently allowed."²

Press a Compliance answer to see which fields it puts in play.

4.009 Classification Code
4.010 Code Description
4.014 Description

A conforming use skips the Impact field, by definition.

Reasons Illegal (4.011), six values: Accessory Dwelling Unit, Development Standards, Excessive Units, Lot Size, Manufactured Home, Other. Source: F-1 v1.4 pp. 58 to 59.¹

Fannie Mae purchases only legal-conforming-use properties, or legal nonconforming properties where the appraisal reflects any adverse marketability effect. A loan is ineligible if the property is subject to certain land-use regulations, such as coastal tideland or wetland laws, that would prevent reconstruction or maintenance of the improvements if they were damaged or destroyed.³ Rebuildable to Current Density/Use (4.013) is a government-loan field, required only for FHA, USDA and VA appraisals. The Hawaii sample's "can be rebuilt if destroyed" statement appears in free-text zoning commentary. It does not populate field 4.013.²

Highest and best use touches Site only at the edges. The four tests (16.000 to 16.003) and the present-use conclusion (16.004) live in chapter 16 of F-1, separate from Site. "The highest and best use must be residential" is a Selling Guide eligibility overlay, outside the form fields themselves.¹ The form has no checkbox asking whether the highest and best use is residential. Our highest and best use feature covers the four tests and the eligibility matrix in full, so this part leaves them there.

05 / Hazard and accessWhat the form stopped recording

What changed in the Hazard Zone field

Hazard Zone (4.047) has four answers: FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area, USGS Lava Flow Zone (with a zone number, 1 through 9, when selected), None (No Hazard Zone Noted), or Other, plus Impact (4.048) and Comment (4.049).¹

FEMA Special Flood Hazard AreaUSGS Lava Flow ZoneNone (No Hazard Zone Noted)Other

The legacy 1004 included the Special Flood Hazard Area Yes/No checkbox plus three explicit fields: FEMA Flood Zone, FEMA Map # and FEMA Map Date.⁴ The URAR still records whether the subject is in a FEMA hazard area, but the map number and map date are gone: Site, the Disaster Mitigation chapter and the UAD 3.6 schema all leave them out.¹⁷ The panel number and its effective date now have to come from the lender's flood determination instead of the appraisal.

What the Hazard Zone field lostLegacy Form 1004 recorded a map number and a map date. UAD 3.6's Hazard Zone records only the zone type, Impact and Comment.

Legacy Form 1004, p. 1

117/118 FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area (Yes/No)
119 FEMA Flood Zone
120 FEMA Map #
121 FEMA Map Date

UAD 3.6 Hazard Zone (4.047 to 4.049)

4.047 Hazard Zone (type only)
4.048 Impact
4.049 Comment
No map number or map date field.

Source: legacy Form 1004/70, p. 1.⁴ F-1 v1.4, p. 72; XSD element names checked for "Flood," "FIRM" and "Panel."¹⁷

Close view of a gravel strip along a house foundation, with a well cap and a septic access cover nearby in the grass. — Private infrastructure is near the foundation line: a well, a septic line, the utilities the Site section now scores individually. AI-generated illustration.

Each of Electricity, Gas, Sanitary Sewer, Water and Other grew from two legacy checkboxes to as many as 6 fields: Public, Private, a Shared flag, Impact and Comment, plus a private-source Detail for Electricity, Sanitary Sewer and Water only.¹ Private streets have their own Known Maintenance Agreement flag (4.022). Easements (Conservation, Drainage, Ingress/Egress, Utility, Other) and encroachments (Building, Driveway, Fence, Overhang, Other, plus a required direction, Bordering Property Encroaching on Subject Property or Subject Property Encroaching on Bordering Property) are separate enumerated rows instead of one bundled "adverse conditions" field.¹

Source: F-1 v1.4 pp. 77 to 80.¹ Broadband Internet Available (4.067) is new to UAD 3.6 and has no legacy analog.

Private or community streets require an adequate, legally enforceable maintenance agreement or covenant, which should be recorded in the land records, unless the property is in a state with statutory maintenance provisions. If there is no qualifying agreement, the lender may still sell the loan but must indemnify Fannie Mae under Selling Guide A2-1-03.³

06 / Worked examplePriced, and gated

One hazard answer affects both value and eligibility

This chapter uses the 2- to 4-unit Appraisal (Hawaii) sample, an actual GSE scenario, distinct from the series' fictional corner-lot house in the hero. Its Site section: 11,997 Sq. Ft., Legal Nonconforming A-1A zoning, Busy Roadway site influence bordering and adverse, Residential view full and neutral, USGS Lava Flow Zone 2 hazard adverse, private cesspool sewer.²

Sales comparison grid Site band for the Hawaii sample: Site Size, Neighborhood Name, Zoning Compliance, Hazard Zone, Site Characteristics, Site Influence (Location) and View | Range for the subject and three comparables, with dollar adjustments. — The same fields in the sales comparison grid. 2- to 4-unit Appraisal (Hawaii), v1.4, rendered p. 15.²

Site band, Hawaii sample grid, with adjustments
Comp	Hazard Zone	Adj.	Site Influence	Adj.	View \| Range
Subject	USGS Lava Flow Zone 2	—	Busy Roadway	—	Residential \| Full
Comp 1	USGS Lava Flow Zone 2	—	Busy Roadway \| Ocean	−$25,000	Residential \| Full
Comp 2	USGS Lava Flow Zone 3	−$15,000	Residential	−$5,000	Residential \| Full
Comp 3	USGS Lava Flow Zone 3	−$15,000	Residential	−$5,000	Residential \| Full

Source: 2- to 4-unit Appraisal (Hawaii), v1.4, rendered p. 15.² Comp 1 also has a −$2,000 Site Characteristics adjustment for landscaping, outside this table.

Two different questions, one field. Comp 1 shares the subject's Zone 2; its Hazard Zone adjustment cell is blank in the grid, the same as its Zoning Compliance cell. Comps 2 and 3 are in the less severe Zone 3 and each draw a −$15,000 hazard adjustment. That priced difference is a value question, and the Impact (4.048) and Comment (4.049) fields answer it. Separately, Fannie Mae purchases loans only in USGS lava flow zones 3 through 9; zones 1 and 2 are categorically ineligible.³ The sample places its own subject in Zone 2, on the ineligible side of that cutoff. The Impact rating treats a priced severity difference and an eligibility question the same way.

USGS lava flow hazard zone map of the island of Hawaii, with the subject property marked and the numbered zone boundaries shaded. — The zone boundary that contains the sample's subject. USGS exhibit, from the sample's Site Exhibits.²

Under 2.6, this same property would have reported one Location rating with up to two abbreviated factors and one View rating with up to two factors. UAD 3.6 adds the lava flow zone concept and structured cesspool detail, both new since 2.6.

07 / Collateral risk lensRules, screens, limits

What a collateral risk team can check in the Site section

Each capability below reads fields that every UAD 3.6 report has, and works from the report itself, with no vendor geospatial feed or PDF text extraction required.

Capabilities and their limits
Capability	Reads	Replaces	Where it stops
Zoning eligibility screen	`4.0084.0114.013`	Reading the Zoning Description paragraph on every nonconforming file	Reasons Illegal and Rebuildable only arrive when Compliance calls for them; a conforming file has neither.
Private street indemnification screen	`4.0204.022`	A free-text Property Access description	Known Maintenance Agreement is Yes/No only; the field stops at that flag.
Lava-zone eligibility gate	`4.047`	A capability new to UAD 3.6, since the legacy form had no lava-zone concept at all.	The gate needs the zone number itself. Impact (4.048) alone treats an ineligible zone the same as a merely unfavorable one.
Other-usage data-quality rate	`4.025`	Also new to UAD 3.6: the 2.6 abbreviation list had no Other-rate concept either.	Needs a fuzzy match against the enumeration list. The GSE-documented pattern is one example to build from, short of a certified detector.
Encroachment direction flag	`4.0584.059`	One bundled Yes/No "adverse site conditions" field	Flags the condition; resolving the title question is separate work.
Site Influence and View exposure map	`4.0254.0264.0394.0404.041`	Up to two abbreviations per legacy rating, decoded by hand	Impact is reported for the subject only. Comparables show type and range in the grid, with no separate comparable-side impact rating.

# Field IDs: Appendix F-1 v1.4. Thresholds and routing are the lender's choice.

# R1. Zoning hard-stop and rebuildability
IF report[4.008] == "Illegal":
    FLAG "zoning_ineligible"
ELSE IF report[4.008] == "Legal Nonconforming" AND report[4.013] == "No":
    FLAG "nonconforming_not_rebuildable"

# R2. Private street indemnification
IF report[4.020] == "Private Street" AND report[4.022] == "No":
    FLAG "private_street_no_agreement"

# R3. Hazard zone eligibility is a different question than the value adjustment
IF report[4.047] == "USGS Lava Flow Zone" AND zone IN {1, 2}:
    FLAG "ineligible_lava_zone"            # SB2-3-04, hard stop, independent of Impact (4.048)
ELSE IF report[4.047] == "USGS Lava Flow Zone" AND zone IN {3..9}:
    continue_with_value_adjustment          # Impact (4.048) / Comment (4.049) / grid dollar amount

# R4. "Other" overuse as a data-quality signal
rate = COUNT(SiteInfluence(4.025) == "Other" AND freeText fuzzy-matches an existing enumeration)
       / COUNT(all Site Influence entries)
IF rate > LENDER_THRESHOLD: discount_quality_score(appraiser)

# R5. Encroachment direction as a title-risk flag
IF EncroachmentDirection(4.059) == "Subject Property Encroaching on Bordering Property":
    FLAG "title_risk_subject_encroaches"

Field IDs from Appendix F-1 v1.4.¹ R1 and R2 restate SB4-1.3-04; R3 restates SB2-3-04.³ R4 restates the Lessons Learned job aid.⁸ Thresholds and routing are a lender's choice.

GSE Lessons Learned job aid page 8, showing a non-compliant Site Influence entry of 'Neigh St' propagated into the subject and all three grid comparables, beside the compliant Residential entry. — **The "Other" overuse pattern, as the GSEs documented it**Lessons Learned job aid, p. 8: an appraiser typed "Neigh St" into Site Influence via Other instead of selecting the Residential enumeration.

Existing adjacent data layers, such as FEMA's flood map services, parcel-linked zoning products and imagery-derived condition tools, are vendor-stated capabilities; whether they integrate with UAD 3.6 is unconfirmed.¹ We found no GSE statement on AI pre-population of UAD 3.6 Site fields in the documents we checked. A CU message warning about View and Site Influence smoothing across subject and comparables has existed since 2.6, though its current wording and volume are not verified here and so are left uncounted.

Where the data stops

Three-value Impact is still a judgment call. Adverse, Beneficial or Neutral can imply more certainty than the underlying read supports, and it becomes a market-calibrated dollar figure only once it reaches the grid as an adjustment.
Enumerations can be gamed. Comment is required only when Impact is Adverse or Beneficial, so selecting Neutral avoids having to explain an influence.
The field count is a workload cost too. Utilities alone grew from 2 checkboxes to up to 6 fields each; more rows and more required Impact and Comment pairs mean more inspection time.
An AMC's role has limits. An Other-overuse rate is a pattern check on form compliance, which a QC function can act on. It cannot direct the Impact or Comment an appraiser enters on a specific file, which stay that appraiser's judgment under AIR.

08 / ChecklistWhat to check next

What a risk team should check next

Five items, read against your own intake and QC rules. Your progress is saved in this browser.

Site section review

0 of 5 checked

Confirm your flood-cert pipeline has stopped assuming FEMA map number or map date come from the appraisal.
Add a Private Street AND Known Maintenance Agreement = No rule (R2) if your QC rules are missing one.
Add an Other-usage-rate metric per appraiser or AMC (R4) if your QC is missing one.
Decide whether Legal Nonconforming AND Rebuildable = No (R1) is a hard stop or a priced exception in your guidelines.
Decide whether USGS Lava Flow Zone 1 or 2 (R3) triggers an eligibility hard-stop check before any value adjustment runs, separate from the Impact rating.

Saved in this browser only.

Open question

Now that Site Influence and View report Impact for the subject only, how should a reviewer build a consistency check, given that the grid does not include a separate comparable-side impact rating to compare against?

Research checked Nov. 2, 2026 against the GSE documents listed below. Field counts, enumeration counts and grid adjustments were read and recomputed by ValuSignal from the primary GSE documents for this build. The corner lot, the road and the window view are fictional and were generated with Higgsfield; the form pages and sample sections are screenshots of GSE publications. General information, not legal, lending or appraisal advice.

Sources

8 documents, accessed Oct. 16 to Nov. 2, 2026

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The Site section turns into fieldsZoning, view and site influence in UAD 3.6

Key points

117 numbered fields in the Site section