When a term starts appearing more often

Battery storage, charging equipment and accessory dwelling units have all become considerably more common in the records we hold. Each of the three changes how a property is used or powered, and each usually needs drawings before it can be filed.

They also share a trait that matters for anyone about to file one: reviewers have seen the pattern often enough that the questions they ask are predictable.

Coverage in this dataset is uneven across time. A term can appear more often because more jurisdictions are publishing, because the wording became standard on applications, or because the work itself became more common. The records alone cannot separate those three.

Where this site makes a year-over-year statement, it uses the comparable read described on the method page, which counts only the jurisdictions represented in both years and names them as a group rather than one by one.

A comparison of two raw yearly counts across the whole dataset is not something this site will publish, however tempting the number looks.

A description becoming more common tells you that the paperwork has settled into a shape. For a storage system or an accessory unit, that means there is a recognisable drawing set and a recognisable review path, which shortens the part of the project spent explaining what you are asking for.

It does not tell you whether the work suits your property. That question is answered by the survey, the zoning envelope and the existing structure.