What does your neighbor’s house assess for? That’s like stalking, but it can be helpful for professionals as well.
Chesterfield County’s new GeoSpace and Open GeoSpace allow citizens to search county maps online. The site has a number of layers, which can be turned on and off for a less cluttered look for what someone is looking for.
The layers draw on 20 datasets including building footprints, impervious areas (such as driveways, sidewalks, and any place liquid cannot penetrate), street center lines, parcels (property boundaries), addresses, resource protection areas (wetlands), contours, points of interest, and middle school boundaries.
For those who are inexperienced, it may be challenging, but once you are familiar with the concept it can be not only useful but fun, too.
The county’s older rendition of its GIS (geographic information system) offered one central site for the public to view GIS maps and some pertinent data in simple, easy-to-use web applications.
The new system contains much more in formation.
The new GIS page on Chesterfield.gov is open to everyone, whether and businesses and residents can access the county’s datasets at any time, day or night.
The GeoSpace and Open GeoSpace collaborative also offers county departments to build and provide applications that their customers want.
“GeoSpace already has selected data for you to use and is mapped,” said Susan Pollard, director of communications for Chesterfield County. “Open GeoSpace is a companion site that enables businesses and residents to quickly and easily download data in formats that allow overlaying and analysis of their own data.”
A press release agenda indicated that the project has exceeded expectations in a very short time. There have been more than 5,000 views in just a few short weeks. Several departments rapidly deployed location-based maps and applications. The Planning Department also launched an application that provides viewers with pending zoning and land development cases.
