Combining property data
After years of searching through filing cabinets to research land values and ownership information, Brunswick, N.Y., has created a geographic information system (GIS) to consolidate property data from several town departments. The system is helping town staffers answer questions about real estate and manage data for the assessor and building departments.
About 10 years ago, all of Brunswick’s property information was stored in numerous filing cabinets in several departments’ offices. When making real estate decisions, residents had to consult the building and assessor departments to find information about specific properties. Staffers in both departments would spend hours or days searching sets of files to gather the information.
The storage system also made it difficult for the town to contact residents who would be affected by construction projects. If the building department wanted to notify residents about a special project nearby, employees would first have to collect all the parcel numbers surrounding the area and then match that information to the owners of those properties. Because that information was located in several different files, employees would chase long paper trails and match the parcel numbers to the addresses by hand.
The town board realized that it needed a single database to make the information more accessible. “There just wasn’t a central location for all of Brunswick’s property information,” says Councilman Patrick Poleto. “We needed a computerized database that wouldn’t just hold all the town’s data but would depict the information in a way that is easy to understand, can be shared across departments and can be updated on a constant basis.”
In 2001, the town contracted with Troy, N.Y.-based MapInfo, to develop a GIS that stored all of the property values, boundaries and ownership information. However, only city employees trained on the system could access the information, and the town wanted to make it available to all employees. So, in February 2006, the town launched a new GIS using Exponare software from the company to store maps and data in its internal network. “[The system] provides a single access point for all of the town of Brunswick’s property data that can now be easily updated, changed and added to,” Poleto says. Now, all employees can work with and analyze data, perform queries, view and print maps and generate reports.
If a resident requests a building permit or is thinking about purchasing a parcel of land, the town board can look up the property by typing in the address or parcel number, or by clicking on a map. The system pulls up the history of the land as well as information about neighboring areas. Digital photos can be saved in the system to help residents make building and real estate decisions.
The town board plans to expand the application soon to include information from the water and highway departments. Most of the town’s water maps are outdated, and some have been lost, so the application will help the town update the locations of water shut-offs and fire hydrants. Once the highway department is connected, the site will show when road repairs were completed, helping to track cleaning and paving to ensure good maintenance. The town plans to offer residents online access to the site. “By deploying the site across departments and making it available to [residents, the system] helps the town of Brunswick truly utilize and benefit from location-based information,” Poleto says.
