Morrow County, OH

History of Enterprise GIS in Morrow County

The Morrow County Auditor and Engineer have spearheaded the development of a cutting edge GIS mapping system to modernize operations and provide easier and more transparent access to mount-gilead-ohio_orig

County information.

When implementing large complex technology projects, careful project planning is key to the long term viability and success of GIS programs such as this. Beginning in 2014, GIS System requirements were clearly defined through the development of detailed planning documents: a Tax Map data conversion prototype and an Enterprise-wide Implementation Plan.

Upon completion of detailed and rigorous planning efforts, the Mylar tax maps were converted into a seamless county-wide digital parcel layer integrated with County Tax Maps and Auditor's Real Estate System information. Below are highlights of the efforts undertaken to provide this valuable resource for Morrow County.

Enterprise-wide Implementation Plan This plan was developed to provide a solid foundation to support the business processes, both traditional and new, between various County departments. Redundant activities have been eliminated in the Tax Map Office; and the Auditor’s Real Estate System and Tax Map parcel information are in sync now. Below are details and highlights of sections of this Implementation Plan for Morrow County GIS. - System Architecture / Technology provided information and recommendations related to the necessary hardware, software and licensing in support of the Morrow County Enterprise GIS program. - Parcel Management Workflows presents information about repeated patterns of business activity, enabled by the systematic organization of business tasks and resources. This allowed for the identification of duplicate and unnecessary work due to computerization of the land records. See the workflow diagrams and eliminated work processes here. - Task Listing for 2014, 2015, 2016 provided a specific listing of tasks to be completed by Morrow County to further progress the implementation of this cutting-edge technology. - Potential Applications provides an extensive inventory of possible GIS applications. Applications are the specific tools needed to support business processes and decision-making. This was developed from the interviews, user surveys, and the review of Morrow County map products and existing data. See extensive inventory of GIS applications of GIS application here. - GIS Program Governance / Organizational Structure provided options and recommendations about different strategies to establish and further develop governance and management policies and protocols. To view or download the Morrow County GIS Implementation Plan click here.		Mylar Tax Map data conversion prototype The Morrow County Mylar Tax Map data conversion prototype project included the delivery of 1,350 parcels from Cardington Village, Cardington Township and Lincoln Township in the Esri Parcel Fabric geodatabase GIS format. This pilot project was done in order to evaluate the proposed data conversion methods, refine these procedures and to assess the spatial accuracy and content of the voluminous land records used to capture all the various information such as tax maps, deeds, routing maps, spreadsheets, etc. A list of these can be viewed here.
		Tax Map data conversion project The conversion of the Morrow County Mylar Tax Maps began in 2014 from a Request for Qualifications to hire a GIS data conversion vendor to convert the 28,000+ property parcels on nearly 800 Mylar County Tax Maps. The below lists all the features captured from the maps. Parcel boundaries Sublot numbers (aka bubble numbers) Lots, Sections and Quarter Sections Township & Range lines Political jurisdiction boundaries In Lots / Out Lots as part of Conveyance Divisions Parcels with pending Surveys (red pencil parcels). Flagged in parcel attribute table. Street right-of-way vacations Tax map Acreage Owner name (matched with the Auditor’s real estate database.) Document numbers Lot dimensions

Public Access Web Portal

This GIS website is intended as a general use, public access website for parcel based information and layers of other GIS data that can be viewed 24-7 on any device (phones, tablets, laptops and personal computers). Previously this information was only available during business hours and by traveling to multiple offices across the County. Now, anyone can access this information from anywhere, at any time, as long as you have an Internet connection.

View parcel boundaries, lot dimensions, quarter sections & lots, easements, subdivisions, lot/sublot numbers, school districts & schools, oil and gas wells, as well as the County Auditor’s property and owner information. Users can make distance and area measurements and overlay natural resource mapping such as soils, streams, lakes, flood plains, and local parks. View surveys associated with a property right from the GIS map! Plus, review different years of aerial photos with other layers overlaid on top.

Download the Morrow County GIS Public Access Website User Guide here.

Current Agricultural Use Value (CAUV) Update
In 2016, the Morrow County Auditor moved forward on a project to use GIS to improve the accuracy of the information used to determine CAUV values. This helps to ensure that all program participants are taxed in a fair and equitable fashion.

For property tax purposes, farmland devoted exclusively to commercial agriculture may be valued according to its current use rather than at its "highest and best" potential use. This provision of Ohio law is known as the Current Agricultural Use Value (CAUV) program. By permitting values to be set well below true market values, the CAUV normally results in a substantially lower tax bill for working farmers. Learn more here.

A specialized GIS tool overlays land use areas such as cropland, pasture and woodland with the GIS soils layer to calculate the CAUV benefits for a particular parcel. Using high-resolution aerial imagery and accurate, seamless parcel boundaries provides for accurate calculations for the CAUV program. A map of CAUV properties can be viewed and downloaded here.