Have you ever wondered what an aerial view of Belmont looked like in the early 1990s? Or perhaps 2005 or 2013?
Well, with the recently launched Geographic Information System (GIS) interactive map, you can satisfy that curiosity while also accessing a variety of other information about the town.
“I’ve always been a big proponent of GIS. There’s a power of relating information spatially,” Chief Innovation Officer Chris McClure said. “It’s not just an engineering or assessing tool; it has benefits for the schools and public safety.”
The public map—accessible on the town’s website—layers a variety of data and allows users to access public information on properties, including ownership, property and land valuation, voting precinct and Town Meeting representatives.
In addition to individual property data, users can toggle through various “themes” or layers, including locations of open space, cemeteries, overlays, fire hydrants, and historic districts. The GIS even shows how Belmont is divided into fire response zones. Trash and recycling collection zones are also among the available themes.
State “themes” have also been integrated, allowing users to see where bus stops are located, state conservation lands can be found, or where flood zones are located.
“It helps people visualize what could be separate spreadsheets,” McClure said. “Seeing it on top of each other could really bring it to life.”
To help with the ongoing development of the map, the town has hired a GIS coordinator who will begin in the role April 1, he said. That person, Jackie Newell, currently works as a GIS analyst in the Boston Emergency Operations Center.
With the onboarding of a full-time coordinator, the plan is to continue integrating information including from the assessor’s database—allowing property cards to be directly linked to the GIS— and from the new permitting system the town is switching to. This would help users navigate which permits have been pulled for a particular property.
Other long-term goals include creating a grave-finding feature or a time-lapse setting that would show map and data changes over time, he said.
McClure described it as a “one-stop” shop of everything property-related.
“With this new position starting, I really expect this to explode in terms of what’s available,” he said.
Reporting to McClure, the coordinator will be a shared position with the Department of Public Works. In fact, the position is one DPW Director Jay Marcotte has advocated for since he joined the department in 2015.
“I’ve been in several communities where the GIS coordinator was an instrumental part of public works,” Marcotte said.
In his department, much of the data is managed by consultants for specific functions, like sewer, water. Incorporating the data into the town’s GIS map would not only streamline the information but also bring that management in-house—negating the need for consultants.
“That’s just the public works function,” he said. “You could use a coordinator for any department in town.”
McClure said it’s a resource that can be used for emergency management planning, as well as facilities planning, using information on infrastructure age and where properties sit in relation to one another. School districts can be outlined and residents can know where they live in relation to the nearest public school.
“The sky is the limit,” McClure said. “It’s really just limited by people’s imagination.”