Alot of trouble creating a subdivision

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05-11-2017 09:04 AM
DerekMeinhardt1
New Contributor

I know this may seem like a long shot, but I am in a pretty sticky situation.

I recently took up the position of Mapping and GIS Coordinator with my local government. I am more on the IT side of things, and not so much mapping...but it was a situation I could not pass up.

I have absolutely no knowledge of mapping, but have learned a thing or two here. However, I'm having a terribly painful time creating a new subdivision that is supposed to be in our map of our local county.

I have even reached out to the person who had my position before with no luck, as his lingo was almost greek to me. Would anyone be willing to assist in greater detail with me on this? All of the research I have done so far has come up in failure. I am even willing to see if someone would like to remote into my machine and show me step by step. Thank you for any help that you can provide. The anxiety has been high.

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5 Replies
MichaelVolz
Esteemed Contributor

What version of ArcGIS for Desktop are you using?

Does your local govt use the Parcel Fabric and it's associated model?

Are you storing your subdivisions (cadastral data) in a file geodatabase, SDE database or other?

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DerekMeinhardt1
New Contributor

Unfortunately, I am not sure of this. I am unaware of how the parcel data was acquired. All of the files are locally stored on our network drives and not an Arc Server.

I am using ArcGIS 10.2.1

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ChrisDonohue__GISP
MVP Alum

I can understand where you are coming from as I got thrown into a similar fire when our Department inherited the Subdivision update responsibilities for our City from another Department when that Department's GIS Analyst retired.  It took several days to sort it out (and my colleagues and I have quite a few years of GIS experience).

This could get complex really fast, so you may want to see if you can find another person with GIS skills in your organization that can help you walk through it or bring in an experienced GIS person on a temporary basis.  This will be particularly important if the subdivision map is not just a generalized one but instead needs to be accurate at the parcel-level.

There are a whole ton of variables in how to accomplish this task based on how your organization is set up.  For example, what data storage is in use by your organization?  Enterprise geodatabase (SDE)File GeodatabaseShapefiles?  Other?  Is the data tied to other data using Relationship Classes?  Each one of these has implications for how one goes about editing the data.  Without a GIS background, it will be difficult to figure this out without some resources/expertise.  I suspect just having someone do a screenshot share and walk through it won't really work as there are many complexities.  I'm not saying this task is impossible, just that it is not simple.

Another possible technical resource to consider would be GIS people in other local municipalities.  If you there is a neighboring organization that uses GIS that you are familiar with, consider giving them a ring and ask if you can borrow their expertise.  It can also sometimes work if you add "if you help me out, I'll buy you some beers after work"

On the longer term, consider lining up basic GIS training so you can get a feel for what is involved and be better able to communicate with technical staff, it at least from a management-level understanding.  Every specialty has its own lingo and half the battle in managing/coordinating is understanding what staff are doing in their discipline.

So to summarize, based on what you have provided, short of it being just a very-generalized subdivision map needed, this likely will not be a quick and simple task to accomplish.  I'd see about lining up some resources and expect that it will take some time to accomplish this task.

Chris Donohue, GISP

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DerekMeinhardt1
New Contributor

Thank you very much for the detailed description. This will help alot.

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ChrisDonohue__GISP
MVP Alum

Another complexity I just realized - your organization is at the County/Parish level.  The assessor level.  In the United States, there are accuracy and processing specifications that can dictate how tasks get done because of the County's authority/responsibility as the final word in determining parcel boundaries.  Or to put it in a different way, when there is a disagreement over a boundary, it goes to the County to resolve.  That brings into play a whole added set of protocols and legal processes that need to be adhered to when processing data that other levels of municipalities don't necessarily need to worry about to the same extent.  I would research what the legal requirements are, as at the County level there are often specific expectations and there is the reality that data does get challenged.

Chris Donohue, GISP

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