The greater Kent County area is eagerly looking forward to a major new management tool due for implementation on July 31, 2001. Kent County, 16 local units of government and four governmental agencies combined in 1998 to build a Regional Geographic Information System (REGIS).

This $13.5 million project will cover approximately 900 square miles in Kent County and a portion of Ottawa County with nearly 200 data layers (over 4,000 attributes) available on the REGIS system. REGIS will enable local government participants to more easily access and use information to provide improved services to residents.

Getting organized...

The planning for a regional approach to GIS began in 1989 when Kent County formed a GIS Steering Committee. The committee completed a cost-benefit and needs analysis in 1994, however the project stalled in 1995 due to turnover of elected and appointed officials of Kent County. In 1997, the Grand Valley Metropolitan Council (GVMC) picked up the project and formed the REGIS Agency with 20 participants:

• Alpine Township

• Byron Township

• Cascade Charter Township

• City of Cedar Springs

• City of East Grand Rapids

• Gaines Charter Township

• City of Grand Rapids

• Grand Rapids Charter Township

• City of Grandville

• Grand Valley Metropolitan Council

• GRATA (Grand Rapids Area Transit Authority)

• City of Hudsonville (Ottawa County)

• Kent County

• Kent County Road Commission

• City of Kentwood

• Plainfield Charter Township

• City of Rockford

• Village of Sparta

• City of Walker

• City of Wyoming

The REGIS Board of Directors includes on representative from each participating community and agency, and REIS also has a nine-member executive board. Walker City Manager Jim Hatch is chairman of the REGIS Board.

Each REGIS member also has a representative on the Project Coordinating Committee, which coordinates participant activity. A number of ad hoc committees with member representation have been formed from time to time to deal with problems or issues that arise. The REGIS staff consists of six full-time and several part-time employees.

...and down to business

REGIS is one of the largest multi-participant GIS projects in the nation. Two major factors drove the decision to move forward with a regional program:

1. projected savings of $55 million for a collaborative effort versus individual projects;

2. collaboration allowed development of an inclusive and non-fragmented database.

From its inception, REGIS was conceived as a project that would actively involve participants in policy, administration and technical issues. The rest of the project team includes the Convergent Group (contract system integrator); Analytical Survey, Inc. (ASI-contractor for data conversion); ESRI (GIS software/application vendor); and Kent County (landbase administrator, "LBA").

The foundation of the GIS is the cadastral (landbase) data. The Kent County Property Description & Mapping Division (PD&M) scrubbed (prepared for conversion) all parcel data (approximately 220,000 parcels) and REGIS then sent this information to ASI. ASI is completing data conversion of the paper maps into a digital format.

Convergent Group performs quality checks of the data and prepares it for upload into the REGIS system. Once data is uploaded in a digital format, the ESRI and Miner & Miner product ArcFM (Facilities Management) is used by County PD&M as the parcel editor to perform parcel splits, combinations, write new descriptions and add new plats and subdivisions to the parcel fabric, all without pen and paper.

When updates are completed, they are uploaded to the centralized REGIS server and are available for all 20 participants to access in "real time" in ArcView and ArcIMS applications.

Applications currently being developed

Several other applications and data layers are under development:

• Some participants, such as the City of Grandville and the Kent County Department of Public Words steam system have most of their data available.

• Communities that operate water/sewer systems are creating those layers.

• The county drain system will be converted by the end of the year with the goal of providing a seamless multi-jurisdictional layer that will allow users to analyze their own systems with connectivity to adjacent systems.

• An incident analysis application that will make crime data available to police agencies in a digital format is under development.

• Plus, parcel-based ad-hoc queries; land use analysis; transportation; web-based analysis; standard map generation and sales; and custom map production.

Applications planned for future development

REGIS provides a foundation for local units to develop applications unique to their organization such as zoning assessment, code enforcement analysis and tracking, facilities management and work orders.

One of the most useful features of the REGIS system will be its interface with the County Property Tax Administration System (PTAS). Access to property information such as sales, land acreage, land dimensions and tax information will be searchable from REGIS and can be process by clicking on the parcel map through the REGIS Browser.

Digital submission standards will be developed so that a city, township or village will be able to give a copy of these standards to a potential developer and have all subdivisions, plats, PUDs and site condominiums submitted in the same format. These plans can then be uploaded into REGIS without having to be reworked first by the local unit or county staff.

Another major goal is to develop a countywide addressing system over the next few years.

Division of labor

The GIS interface applications that REGIS participants will receive have been divided into four levels or "tiers."

First-tier users will be able to perform data maintenance, analysis and map production and will maintain the parcel fabric, landbase and utilities.

Second-tier users will perform interactive tasks, including spatial analysis, queries and map production. These users will provide analysis on local government services such as land use analysis, zoning, incident analysis and planning.

Third-tier users will be participants who are interested in a data browser to view and print specific data layers in an easy-to-use application.

The fourth-tier user will be the general public who will use a generic data browser to view specific data layers in an easy-to-use application. Much of the REGIS data will be available to West Michigan and the rest of the world via the Internet.

Footing the bill

The total REGIS project budget is approximately $13.5 million. The 20 REGIS partners are paying $11.2 million of this total, while the Michigan Department of Transportation, Transportation Improvement Program is contributing the balance of $2.3 million.

Individual member contributions were determined by the type and scope of applications purchased, and hardware and system needs. Kent County is the largest contributor at $4.4 million. Approximately $700,000 of this contribution pays for scrubbing and digitizing the parcel fabric of the 20 cities, villages and townships in Kent County that are not members of REGIS. These communities will repay the county if and when these communities join REGIS.

Providing access to REGIS

Kent County is building a Wide Area Network (WAN) that will provide connectivity for both the REGIS and PTAS systems. Some of the larger REGIS and PTAS members already have T-1 access to the County and REGIS and will not need to participate in the WAN.

Public Act 462 of 1996, the "Enhanced Access to Public Records Act," allows public bodies to provide enhanced access via GIS for the inspection, copying or purchase of a public record not otherwise exempt from disclosure. The act also permits a governmental agency to recoup the expense of creating enhanced access, such as GIS, in the rates charged for providing the information.

Funds realize from recouping of development expenses will be credited against the operation and maintenance of the 20 participants using the same formula used for allocating the project cost.

REGIS has contracted with a  geo-spatial services company to create a cost model for charging for REGIS data. The fee participants will charge for data will include the REGIS fee for development and expenses plus their own organizational fee.

Ready to reap the rewards

The REGIS project has been challenging and the participants have addressed many major problems and issues along the way. Technology has continued to develop as the project has developed. As seen in this article, the alphabet soup of acronyms can make communication difficult between those intimately involved and those not involved in the project. The participants have done a great job of keeping their eyes on the desired outcome.

Effective governance requires accurate and available information and the ability to analyze an apply data to solve everyday problem and to improve the lives of residents. The REGIS participants are looking forward to the availability of REGIS as an important new management tool for improving the cities, townships, villages and other governmental agencies in and around Kent County.

Grand Valley Metro Council