For anyone who has ever had a question about any construction projects around town, the City of Redmond now has a new interactive map on its website that can tell them what they want to know.
On Redmond’s Project Viewer, residents, businesses and other members of the Redmond community can view information about capital improvement projects, property permits and land use actions.
Melissa Brady, geographic information systems (GIS) manager for the project, said the project viewer is one of three maps in a suite that provides users with information about what is going on around town. The other two are the property viewer, which provides users information about land parcels within the city, and the traffic map, which provides information about current and upcoming traffic impacts.
The property viewer and traffic map have been available for use for a while, but the project viewer only just went live on Jan. 1.
One of the features of the map allows users to filter the information on the map by neighborhood, type of project and project phase (design, construction or complete). With the latter feature, once a project has been completed for six months, it automatically drops from the map so it doesn’t become too cluttered.
The viewer is linked to project information on the city’s website and its permitting software so customers can see detailed information on each project at a glance.
According to a city press release, the goal of the viewer is to increase awareness of projects in the city and to inform and engage citizens in development and construction activities. The project viewer can be found at www.redmond.gov/projectviewer.
Brady said the interactive map is linked up with the city’s different maps and other interactive online applications such as the property viewer and the zoning code, so they did not have to double up on information — users can just click on the provided links to the relevant application.
In addition, Brady said the project viewer also provides a name with contact information if people want more information about a project.
Steve Fischer, a city planning department manager in development review, said other information people can find out also includes a project’s applicant, architect, permit status and inspection status.
Jon Spangler, construction division manager for the project viewer, added that city projects such as road improvements and constructions on city buildings are on the map as well so users can get information on both public and private projects. He said the public project information is updated manually as someone must enter that data in the system — unlike the private projects, which are updated live as the project viewer is linked to other applications within the city’s online services.
“This is always live,” Spangler said about the project viewer, meaning users will be getting up-to-date information.
Brady said the project viewer is a joint effort involving the city’s planning, public works and information technology departments. It took about a year to create, which is longer than the other two maps in the suite. But Brady said this is because the project viewer pulls more data from more sources than the other applications.
“There was a lot of integration with different systems,” she said.
