Community Development Director Nathan Dietrich and City Planner Jared Smith presented the interactive map to council members during the July 5 regular meeting.
“A new interactive map that we have [is] available for all citizens, real estate developers, developers and, most importantly, you [council members]. ... You can get to a lot of the Information that sometimes would seem very onerous to get ... whereas now all of this information is at your fingertips,” Dietrich said in the meeting.
Smith did a walk-through of the interactive map showing what can be done with it and what it displays. He said they created it so the city could increase transparency and assist the public with getting information into their hands more easily.
The interactive map allows users to search by property tax ID, measure in two ways, change the base map and look at the different layers, according to Smith. The layers that can be seen are zoning, future land use plan, utilities, thoroughfare plan, FEMA flood hazard areas, parcels, parks, municipal boundaries and streets.
“This is kind of a brainchild of yourselves [council]. Because you ask us on a regular basis what these [zoning] uses are, and what can and can’t be used,” Dietrich said.
The layers provide useful pop-ups when users click on certain areas—such as in the parcel layer, pop-ups give address and owner information, and in the street layer, pop-ups tell who owns the right-of-way, Smith said.
In addition, Smith showed how some of the pop-ups include links to further information.
There is also a help button of how to use the map that leads to a PDF, and the city is working with the marketing department to make a how-to video, according to Smith.
Dietrich said city staff would regularly perform upkeep of the map, adding new elements and more data to continue being transparent.
