Mature Support Notification: Parcel Drafter

[ChrisBuscaglia]

Important Announcement: ArcGIS Web AppBuilder (WAB) Retirement Update

Hello, 

ArcGIS Web AppBuilder in ArcGIS Online will retire in the first quarter of 2026. To ensure a smooth transition, our team is proactively planning to migrate the current ArcGIS Solution to mature support in the upcoming March 2025 release. During this transition period, users can configure WAB using the Parcel Drafter widget until July (or until the official retirement of WAB). All current applications will continue to function as configured.

Our team is currently working with various teams to determine the best technology to support this workflow into the future.

We welcome any feedback, questions, or concerns you may have regarding this transition.

Thanks

ArcGIS Solutions Team

[ChelseaRozek]

We're eagerly awaiting a replacement. For anyone else in the same boat, please upvote the idea here: Parcel Drafter Widget - Experience Builder - Esri Community

[HeatherWidlund]

We definitely need an easy-to-use, easy-to-configure, full parity solution to replace the Parcel Drafter widget. It needs to support configurable snapping to points and vertices, radius, tangent and chord bearings, arc length and chord length, misclose parameters and everything the current widget can do. This is very important to our Assessor's Office workflow for non-GIS-savvy users. I don't have the ability to train or deploy ArcGIS Pro to these users.

[ChrisBuscaglia]

@ChelseaRozek @HeatherWidlund How many users do you have using this solution in production and are they mainly deed examiners? 

[HeatherWidlund]

We have about 3 people in our office who use the solution for mapping deeds to create or edit tax accounts. I know it's not a ton of people, but they completely rely on this tool.

[CFECAK]

Being used extensively by users in our office.  Would live to have something to replace it.  Literally yelled at each day about this.  It is on the white board as a need and marked don't let this death star blow up.

[ChelseaRozek]

@ChrisBuscaglia Our County Equalization department says: 

"Our process is that, if the Treasurer finds any meaningful discrepancy between a property’s deeded legal and our tax description, they will bring it to our office for verification.  To verify, we will be exhaustive and map out the parcel based on the deed description for comparison.  Most deeds are metes-and-bounds (COGO), so we need a solution that allows our front desk staff (1 full-time Equalization technician and 1 part-time aide who both do not specialize in GIS) to easily enter metes and bounds courses and display the result within the context of our parcel polygons and cadastral layers. They are our first line for fielding these checks. Two full time GIS Specialists can also verify deeds that are more complicated or involved.

The ability to verify deed descriptions is a critical function of the department, in association with the Treasurer’s office, to ensure that property being transferred (and subsequently taxed) is the same as the property being assessed for purposes of taxation."

[HeatherWidlund]

@ChrisBuscaglia Any word on whether the Parcel Drafter will be replaced with equal capabilities in ExB?

[stovernr]

Yes having parcel drafter supported through experience builder would be great. I have 9 in my office that use it and staff in our lands department also use it.

[ChrisBuscaglia]

@HeatherWidlund More to come on this soon, I'll make sure to relay progress in this thread. 

[ChrisBuscaglia]

@stovernr Can you please elaborate a bit on the workflow and the users working with Parcel Drafter? Are they deed examiners, tax assessor mappers, etc.? Thanks

[stovernr]

@ChrisBuscaglia In my office they are all examining deeds and doing historical research and drawing everything out to make sure we have ownership correct amongst other things. In our lands department they are using it for managing timber sales.

[Anthony]

I have 12 people on my team that rely on this service for research and to verify historic deeds associated with easement agreements. We have GIS specialists and surveyors as well, but for basic metes and bounds it makes the most sense for non-GIS users to have a simple tool they can use to quickly verify so the surveyors/GIS specialists can focus on other higher priority items. From a business perspective it doesn't make sense to get full desktop GIS licenses as an alternative for a tool that users didn't need a license for in the past, and it's more than is necessary for the average user, so if there is an updated solution in experience builder equivalent to the old one it will be very helpful. 

[ChelseaRozek]

@ChrisBuscaglia Q1 2026 is fast approaching, is there any info on a replacement for Parcel Drafter?

[HeatherWidlund]

@ChrisBuscaglia I have the same question. What is the plan for replacing Parcel Drafter? The existing editing tools in the apps are insufficient.