In a city of 300,000 people, covering 71.6 square miles, connecting residents to information about planning and zoning of properties like this is a process on which Plano’s technology services and planning departments continue working.
This year the city launched its zoning case alert tool “in response to citizen feedback” and continues to work on its zoning case response map, in use since 2017. The tools work together and alert residents to zoning proposals and changes, connect them to the planning process, collect feedback and translate it for city officials.
“The interface of the zoning case response map is an ‘out of the box’ template provided within our GIS framework of ArcGIS Online,” reads the nomination for this year’s Center for Digital Government (CDG)* GovX Awards. “This is a no-code solution that assisted the city in developing a solution to gather resident responses in one portal.”
The city was among several that received a Project Experience Award, which recognizes a municipality for a “single-focus area” with one or more “channel interaction” for these tools.
The alert has a form-based interface allowing residents to sign up for zoning alerts by ZIP code. They are sent via email and include links to pertinent resources. They also link the user to the case response map, where zoning proposals are visualized.
When someone visits the interactive map, they may leave a comment to become part of the public record. These comments, along with offline comments input by staff, are collected for Planning and Zoning meeting packets.
Platforms used include ArcGIS Online for mapping and Integromat for automated email.
Government functions served include:
- Business services/needs.
- Customer/constituent service.
- Government operations.
- Online public engagement.
“The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for zoning case alerts is quite creative. Instead of the standard idea of geocoding a resident to their address, we map residents to the ZIP code or ZIP codes for which they have shown interest.
“Zoning cases are also location based, so once those are mapped, we intersect the ZIP codes with their email information … resulting in a database that is updated every time there is a new zoning case or new registrant.”
*The Center for Digital Government is a part of e.Republic, Industry Insider — Texas’ parent company.
