Spatial Join of two polygon layers where presence of one layer modifies the other

[MadisonGiuntoli]

Hello, I'm relatively new to GIS and am hoping for some guidance!

I know what I'd like to accomplish in plain language but am not sure how to make it happen in GIS. I have two polygon layers, layer one and layer two. Wherever they overlap, I'd like to modify a column in layer one and change entries from N to Y. I also would like to make sure that all other columns in layer one are un-touched. Is spatial join the right feature for this? Both layers are made from multiple individual polygons. 

That is the simplest way I can phrase it, please let me know if clarification or further info is needed. 

[VaibhavS]

Since joins are session specific it wont make any sense to create them. You will have to create a spatial join every time you open a new project. 

You can try using attribute rules to overlap and update the column fields from N to Y. I found a community article (slightly related to your issue) that might be helpful. 

https://community.esri.com/t5/attribute-rules-videos/using-attribute-rules-with-joined-tables-to-pas...