County Upgrades Publicly Available Mapping Tools

County officials are vowing that an upgrade to a public mapping tool will give residents more information in a way that won't cause stabbing head pains.

County Executive Kevin Kamenetz announced Friday an update to the My Neighborhood mapping program on the county website.

The first incarnation of My Neighborhood appeared on the website nearly 10 years ago.

Robert Stradling, director of the county's Office of Information Technology, readily admitted that the site was not user friendly—even for someone like him.

The updated version, rolled out Friday, is designed to provide access to 11 different types of map information, including census, school districts, business and enterprise zones and other zoning information. (Read the county's user guide to the new site.)

"That ease of use is really what this is about, because that wasn't there before," said Stradling.

Kamenetz called it "one-stop shopping."

"It will allow users, by simply searching for an address, to pull up a wealth of information," Kamenetz said.

The changes are part of Kamenetz's promise to make county government more . Earlier this year, he announced 24 technology initiatives he wanted implemented by October 2012.

The county has spent about $10 million over the last decade on its geographic information system—a computerized database of census, public services and other information regularly collected by governments.

Stradling estimates that the county saved $2.5 million annually mostly through reduced manpower and document storage over the same 10 years.

Ten years ago, county officials hoped My Neighborhood would make data the county was already collecting accessible to the public.

Instead, it collected digital dust because it was difficult to navigate.

"There was a lot of very good information, but you often had to have multiple windows open," Stradling said.

Stradling said the new program will in many ways offer the same use as other publicly available mapping programs.

"It will look like Google, and work like Google but will give you information you can't get from Google," Stradling said.

The new incarnation will allow users to access all of the information in one window and select as many or as few of the options as desired.

The program also ties into other state and federal sites.

Kamenetz said those connections will allow residents to access additional information "without leaving and starting all over again."

Residents will also be able to generate links to the maps they create and send those links to county agencies or even share them with other residents.

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