business drivers: STATE AGENCIES

A quick review of state agencies reveals many potential beneficiaries of an accessible, uniform statewide parcels resource. Here are the obvious ones:Department of Agriculture | Atlantic Salmon Commission | Coastal Program | Department of Conservation | Drinking Water Program | Department of Economic + Community Development | Department of Education | Emergency Management Agency | Energy Resources Council | Department of Environmental Protection | Maine Forest Service | Maine Geological Survey | Governor's Office | Maine Center for Disease Control | Health + Human Services Department | Historic Preservation Commission | Homeland Security | Infectious Diseases Division | Department of Inland Fisheries + Wildlife | Bureau of Insurance | Bureau of Land + Water Quality | Land Use Regulation Commission | Department of Marine Resources | Natural Areas Program | Bureau of Parks and Lands | State Planning Office | State Police | Office of Policy and Legal Analysis | Public Utilities Commission | Maine Revenue Services | State Treasurer | Surplus Property | Department of Transportation | Unorganized Territory, Fiscal Administrator | Warden Services | Waste Management + Recycling
Click through the slidedeck for agency-specific examples:

ILRIS: name change?

The Integrated Land Records Information System (ILRIS) is one of the two components of the Maine Strategic Plan. It has been suggested that this acronym may not be the best way to represent the project as discussions unfold around the state.

Since a large part of this initiative will involve developing organizational and political support, perhaps it would be a good idea to attach a more pleasant and (and memorable ) name. Something that suggests geographic collaboration maybe.

It's easy to waste a lot of time pondering the perfect acronym, but what about the MAP Collaborative?

The acronym part of this, MAP, could be Maine (A*) Parcel Collaborative, where the A* could stand for any or all of:

Active | Addressable | Administrative | Advanced | Affiliated | Aggregated | Analyzable | Annexed | Allied | Applied | Assessing | Associated | Automated

For this undertaking to succeed, there will need to be genuine collaboration. The objective is a map, and all of the other A* stuff can just get bundled in there.

Thoughts?

project kickoff

The project: A Strategic and Business Plan Development in Support of the NSDI Future Directions Fifty States Initiative & Property Boundary Data Capture and Integration Framework was awarded on January 16 and kicked off in Augusta last week.

The Sewall Team (Bruce Oswald, Rich Sutton) presented an overview to the Board and solicited some high level input regarding schedule, strategy and tactics. Most discussion revolved around the land records component (presently ILRIS, but anticipating a possible name change shortly). Some other, smaller meetings were held as well, including one with the State CIO, Dick Thompson, and with a subset of the GeoLibrary Board's project team, including Greg Copeland, Bill Hanson, Marilyn Lutz and Dan Walters.

mapping events + activities: MMA

The Maine Municipal Association provides a wide array of services for promoting and strengthening local government. Every week MMA gathers up pertinent news items and posts them in their Municipalities and People in the News list. Since these items range far and wide across the state (and in the interest of geo-enabling valuable, current data, these can be viewed on a map here.

registries according to law

Title 33, Chapter 11, Sections 601-752: What the Maine Legislature has decreed about Registries of Deeds in the State.

county registry records through a browser

This is a map of the vendors currently serving Maine county deeds registries to deliver documents via the internet:

A larger (printable PDF) version is available here.
Access individual Registry sites here.

ILRIS: benefits to current intiatives

Some of the most dramatic land-centric planning processes in Maine today - the Brunswick Naval Air Station realignment, Gateway1, the LURC Moosehead Lake Concept Plan - are proceeding without a current, public and accessible parcel basemap to guide them. In planning exercises where significant land issues are at stake, future scenarios can't seriously be considered in the absence of an accurate common operating picture of existing conditions. Built features, hydrography, transportation, demographics - all of these are certain to be considered. But public consideration of future division and fragmentation of property ownership should also be part of these discussions.

Increase, reduction and changing configuration of Maine's 720,000 property parcels are vital metrics for metering and modulating the future character of this State. It is important that we understand them properly.