Local Government - Implementation and Successes

Question

All:

I have recently stepped into a GIS position for a county government planning agency in New Jersey.  I have spent my first week reviewing and analyzing workflows and geodatabase structures and have come to the conclusion that the database design needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the bottom-up.  With that being said, some of the long term goals that have been established for the department includes the implementation of ArcGIS Online services for the purposes of promoting community outreach and establishing sets of publicly accessible data as well as providing the ability for both local government entities and citizens to interact with online mapping datasets.

I have been exploring ways of redesigning the current database and reorganizing data that can be salvaged.  I came across the local government add-on for ArcGIS and I am trying to decide if this could be the key to reaching the departments long term vision.  Obviously, the integrity of its use is wholly dependent upon a cohesive database design for all the necessary data; i.e. parcels, open space, point data, etc.  I am curious to find out how much success other government agencies have had in utilizing the local government tool in managing their parcel frameworks, etc.  Is this a worthy and effective solution to managing large data sets associated with parcels, infrastructure, promoting web applications, and things of that sort?

If you are at all familiar with New Jersey and parcel availability, you will know that much has been digitized but has a significant lag time in correlation with the publication/release of MODIV data.  MODIV data is publicly available tax information that ties in with block-lot information through unified codes ("Municipal Code"_"Block"_"Lot").  How easy is it to manipulate parcel data in conjunction with joined database's such as NJ's MODIV?

I am aware that this is a lot of largely incoherent rambling but I am simply trying to assess the value of utilizing the local government add-on as a comprehensive solution to maintaining some portions of our database.  Any input or successes related to its implementation would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Jason

JoyStraley · Answer

Hello you 'all,
I currently intern for a local county government. Where might I find this LGM add-in ? Does this model have a function to addresss topology, msag remediation, or is it mainly designed for encorporating legacy data?
Thank you for your time 
Joy

ScottOppmann · Answer

Jason -

Here is a link to a help topic that will also provide some useful information to get you started.  We certainly have seen several implementation patterns emerge and can share a presentation outlining those if you'd like.  We covered several of these topics in our Live Training Seminar this fall.

Scott

deleted-user-o0qo22IL6bb6 · Answer

Tom,

Thanks very much for your reply.  I find myself in exactly that position; trying to ascertain what data is salvageable and what data needs to be scrapped.  My primary concern is the migration of parcel data into the LGM due to the fact that the data is, in some cases, wildy out of date and no topology has been constructed.  This is a process I have generalized knowledge about and have not attempted on such a large scale.  My county has upwards of 130k parcels.  Luckily, several municipalities have just recently updated their digital tax maps which will be able to be integrated with the current database that is currently constructed.

As I had mentioned, some of the main projects I want to implement into the LGM include transprotation systems, stormwater, open space.  I'm wondering about the flexibility of the model in terms of being able to introduce new data sets that are not currently a part of the model or if they should stand alone.

I do appreciate your input as I'm really interested to see how other entities have implemented the model and to what degree of success.

Thanks again.

JasonJason,

I took over a rural county's GIS in April of this year. The Local Government Model is just a framework for GIS data. The reason I choose to implement it was legacy. The GIS data I walked into was like going into a horder house. Lots of stuff everywhere but what is good, what is garbage, I have no clue? I choose to migrate to the LGM because when I hand off my data to the next person, I don't want to leave them the same mess that was left to me.

There is no reason that you have implement everything in the LGM. For example, there are no water or sewer services in our county as everyone is on well and septic, so those components are empty. Implement what works, add what you need. Integrating the MODIV code should not be a problem either by using the existing Parcel ID field or adding a specific MODIV field.

Best,
-Tom