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Project Goal
The manifest goal of the Allen County assessing community is calculating consistent and accurate market value estimates for every property. GIS provides the Allen County assessing community with invaluable tools to streamline the mass appraisal process. Spatial reference and powerful analytical tools will influence each of the steps in this process. Creating visual representations will also help illustrate each step to the public.
Initially, visual representation of the data will allow assessing officials to define a problem. GIS will then be used for preliminary analysis, predictions and hypotheses, and much of the data collection. GIS will be an essential part of applying the cost, sales comparison, and income approaches to value, since it centralizes a plethora of data. When reconciling indicated values, additional analyses and spatial referencing will provide measures of accuracy, precision, and applicability of each approach to value.
Business Problem Solved
GIS can be associated with a primary role in solving a major problem that the Allen County Assessor’s Office endures. Due to a recent change in property valuation to “market value”, the Allen County assessing community has experienced an overwhelming increase in workload. The implementation of GIS is saving valuable time, which allows assessing officials to focus their expertise on valuation, rather than process.
One of many examples that demonstrates how GIS is saving time involves the calculation of a gross rent multiplier for residential rental properties throughout the county. Plotting rental properties and current neighborhood boundaries provided visual representation of areas that required site visits. In addition, the geographic parcel number was used to instantaneously route parcels in and around these areas. This enabled us to visit the houses on each block in order. These tools reserved time for assessing officials to focus on data collection, instead of spending time on preparation. The time restraint was immediately resolved, simply by using GIS technology.
Technology Implemented
We are currently using the following applications to support our GIS enterprise:
ArcGIS 9.0 Desktop (ArcInfo, ArcEditor, and ArcView across the enterprise)
ArcSDE 9.0
ArcIMS 9.0
Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Microsoft 2000 Advanced Server
Citrix Metaframe XPa
ESRI Extensions include: Spatial Analyst, Geostatistical Analyst, ArcPress, ArcPublisher
Development Team Biography
Pat Love, the elected Allen County Assessor, plays an active role in the integration of GIS with mass appraisal practices.
Stacey Lopshire, one of two Chief Deputies in the Allen County Assessor’s Office, has 14 years experience in the office and is currently president of the Indiana Proval Users Group, Allen County’s CAMA system.
Michael Clough, Sales & Market Analyst in the Allen County Assessor’s Office, is currently working to maximize GIS applications in the mass appraisal process.
Alex Wernher, Allen County’s GIS Director, has been with Allen County for the past two years overseeing the development of the County’s GIS program.
Rick Bokern, Allen County’s Principal GIS Technician, is responsible for maintaining all of the servers, connectivity, databases and applications that make up the enterprise GIS.
Kurt Whited, Molly White, and Rodney Miceli are employees of ACS and are contracted GIS programmer / analysts. Mr. Whited and Ms. White work closely with county departments creating GIS database applications, while Mr. Miceli works with the public and maintains the county’s GIS website.
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