4.4. SR 07-23-2001Item # 4.4.
City
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and City Co~
FROM: Michele Mc:Pherson,';'Director of Planning
DATE: July 23, 2001
SUBJECT: Update Regarding G.I.S.
For the July 23rd City Council meeting, we have prepared a presentation of G.I.S. capabilities
utilizing information received from the Dakota G.I.S. system.
I have spoken with Dave Schwarting, Sherburne County Public Works Director, regarding
the County's G.I.S. program. Elk River is last on the County's priority list due to the fact
that the County does not provide planning and zoning services to the City, and therefore,
does not have an immediate need internally for the City of Elk River's information.
Currently, the County staff is working on finishing Big Lake Township as well as the City of
Big Lake. The townships of Blue Hill and Orrock have been recently awarded to
consultants to be completed under contract. The townships of Santiago, Clear Lake and
Palmer are left to be completed and the County is currently determining whether this will be
completed in-house or via consultant contract. Once these townships are completed, they
will begin work on the City of Elk River.
The G.I.S. staff is also responsible for checking and placing all current Elk River plats in the
AutoCAD Engineering software system. From there, they are then converted to the G.I.S.
system and each parcel is assigned a unique identification number, which is then attached to
a property identification number. While the County has been completing the first part of
plat checking, they have been not been converting the plats into the G.I.S. system. In
addition, no work has been done nor do they intend to start work on downtown Elk River
this year. There will be gaps and overlaps in downtown that will need to be resolved
through the G.I.S. mapping process. This will be a time-consuming part of completing the
downtown area, as there are estimated to be 2,064 parcels in this area. This accounts for
62% of the remaining parcels left to be mapped to complete the City's base map.
During our discussion Mr. Schwarting informed me that they had filled the G.I.S. technician
position however, Brian Fisher, lead staff person in the G.I.S. department with extensive
G.I.S. experience, will be leaving the County. His last day is July 27~h.
Memo to Mayor & City Council/G.I.S.
July 23, 2001
Page 2
While Mr. Schwarting indicated to me that their schedule is such that the City of Elk River
should be completed by December 31, 2002, he wasn't able to guarantee that nor was he
willing to place that it writing, as we discussed during the July 2na budget meeting.
We will continue to meet with the County to negotiate an agreement that is agreeable to
both the County and the City, but it does not appear that the City's base map will be
completed much earlier than December 2002, unless the City is willing to take on those
engineering costs.
I will be in attendance at the July 23ra City Council meeting if you have any questions
regarding this issue.
S:\PLANN1NG\MICHMC\CCREPRTS\GIS.DOC
July 18, 2001
Sherbum~ C~~~
PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
COUNTY ENGINEER
DA VID SCHWARTING
13880 Highway 10 West
Elk River, MN 55330
[763) 241-7000 · 800-594-5208
Michele McPherson
City of Elk River
13065 Orono Parkway
P.O. Box 490
Elk River, MN 55330
RE: Sherbume County Parcel Mapping
Dear Ms. McPherson;
I am writing this letter to follow-up our phone conversation about the County's schedule for
parcel mapping. In review, prior to 1996, we completed parcel mapping in all sections of Elk
River except sections 32, 33, 34 and east of TH 169 in 27, of T33N, and sections 14, 24 and 23
of T32N. This information was provided to the City. However, due to demands on staff and
lack of GIS development by the County for many years, the areas that were completed were not
updated. As the county developed its GIS strategy, the County Board set priorities. It was
decided to complete the townships next, especially in the areas along TH 10 and TH 169. We
have completed Haven, Livonia and Baldwin Townships. Blue Hill and Orrock Townships will
be under contract soon. Big Lake Township is being completed internally, as time permits (not
including the City of Big Lake). We will then begin to update and finish the City of Elk River
internally. Our goal for this is by the end of 2002. This is dependent on how much plat checking
work is needed county wide, since the same staff must do this also. Becker Township will be
completed by contract this month. The City of Becker supplied us with valuable information to
help complete that along with the township parcels. We are planning to contract Clear Lake,
Palmer and Santiago Townships in 2002 for completion by the end of 2002 also. When that is
accomplished, we plan to keep the parcel maps up to date as new plats come in, including those
in the City of Elk River. We will continue to work toward completing the parcel "A" mapping
county wide in the most efficient economical manner possible.
If you have any questions, please call me at (763) 241-7005.
Sincerely,
Dave Sc~
Public Works Directdf/County Engineer
Cc
Brian Bensen, County Administrator
John Oliver, County Surveyor
Brian Fischer, GIS Coordinator