bringing waupaca county zoning data into the 21st century

BRINGING WAUPACA COUNTY ZONING DATA

INTO THE 21ST CENTURYIan Grasshoff

Jason BuckWaupaca County Land Information

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ABOUT WAUPACA COUNTY• 2009 Estimated Population of

51,665

• 41,880 Tax Parcels – 30,234 in towns.

• 22 Towns, 6 Cities, and 6 Villages

• Approximately midway between Green Bay and Stevens Point

OLD ZONING GIS DATA

• DERIVED FROM ZONING MAPS CREATED IN LATE 1960’s.

• ORIGINAL MAPS ARE NOT PARCEL BASED.• ORIGINAL MAPS ARE DIFFICULT TO

INTERPRET.

OLD “OFFICIAL ZONING MAPS”

OLD ZONING MAPS CONVERTED TO GIS

ISSUES WITH OLD ZONING GIS DATA – part 1

• Data from old maps not very accurate – hand drawn.• Original lines divided zoning districts are very thick,

scaled to be about 50’ wide. • Edits on the maps were done with pen and white out,

leaving much room for error.• Parcels, section lines, and other reference points not

on original maps, making it difficult to know exactly what areas the zoning districts covered.

ISSUES WITH OLD ZONING GIS DATA – part 2

• After conversion to GIS, zoning districts crossed over parcels, so a parcel could have more than one zoning district.

• Road right-of-ways were cut out of districts.• Floodplains were included as a zoning district. • Zoning administrator for almost 40 years just

retired, one of the few people to understand the existing maps.

PREFERRED LAND USE MAPS

• Maps created through the comprehensive planning process – from 2003 – 2007.

• Major grassroots effort – hundreds of meetings with local planning commissions.

• A set of preferred land use codes was established, based on existing land use and the future preferred land uses.

• Preferred land use GIS data was created from existing land use data and input from planning meetings.

• Each towns preferred land use maps are unique.

NEW ZONING GIS DATA• Old zoning ordinance was changed because of the

comprehensive planning effort; adopted in May 2010.• New base zoning districts were adapted from the

preferred land use map codes. • Preferred land use translated to new zoning districts.• Old zoning districts were converted to the new zoning

codes.• 20 out of 22 township are adopting or have adopted

the new zoning.• Towns can customize their zoning based on their

preferred land use, using overlays, clustering, and density, so each town’s zoning is UNIQUE.

THE GOAL• CREATE TAX PARCEL BASED ZONING DATA

Based on preferred land use and existing zoning Only one zoning district for each parcel (plus

wetlands) Easy to manage with parcel changes. (Splits,

Combinations, etc.) Zoning parcels can be tied to other parcel based

data for enhanced analysis. Ability to track residential density.

NEW ZONING GIS DATA

PRINT PRELIMINARY MAPS FOR TOWN

REVIEW

TOWN CHANGES INCORPORATED INTO

GIS

CREATE PRELIMINARY NEW ZONING GIS

DATA

TOWN ADOPTS NEW ZONING

FINAL NEW ZONING GIS DATA CREATED

OFFICIAL ZONING MAPS ARE PRINTED

RESIDENTIAL DENSITY DATA

SETUP

DATA LOADED INTO ZONING DATABASE

THE PROCESS

PREFERRED LAND USE TAX PARCELS

2-ACRE DNR WETLANDSOLD ZONING

NEW ZONING

CREATE PRELIMINARY NEW ZONING GIS DATA

COMBINING THESE IS LIKE…

CREATING PRELIMINARY NEW ZONING GIS DATA

PART 1 - DETERMINE GREATEST PERCENTAGE OF A ZONING CODE ON A TAX PARCEL

CONVERT OLD ZONING DISTRICTS TO NEW ZONING DISTRICTS

PREPARE PREFERRED LAND USE DATA

PREPARE DNR 2 ACRE WETLANDS DATA

PREPARE TAX PARCELS DATA

INTEGRATING PREFERRED LAND USE AND NEW WETLAND DATA

INTEGRATING TAX PARCELS WITH DATA FROM PREVIOUS PROCESS

RESULTING DATASET CONTAINED A LOT OF SLIVERS AND GAPS

ALL THE BLACK ARE SLIVERS AND GAPS

* IN JUST ONE TOWN – THERE WERE 524 SLIVERS TO FIX.

WHY SO MANY SLIVERS AND GAPS?• OLD ZONING GIS DATA

Old zoning districts didn’t match tax parcels. Road right-of-ways were cut out of old zoning. Flood plains were included in old zoning, not part of new zoning

codes.

• PREFERRED LAND USE 5 acre wetlands were used (2 acre used in to create preliminary

data). Roads were buffered to establish development zones. Wetlands and other land uses were buffered to establish barrier

regions between land uses. Tax parcels were used in creating the land use areas, not always

accurately. Some preferred land use codes did not convert to new zoning.

HOW WE RESOLVED THE SLIVERS…

• For the first couple of towns, this process was done manually and took about 8 hours to complete, per town. There must be a better way….

• Used Access to find the zoning code with the highest percentage per tax parcel and used that code for the overall zoning on the parcel. This cut down the clean up process down to 5 clicks and about 10 minutes.

…AND THE GAPS.• More of a manual process than the slivers. We

often had to look at the old zoning to figure out what code to use.

• Gaps usually were caused by the 5 acre and 2 acre wetland difference or preferred land use codes that did not transfer to new zoning.

• Lastly, we integrated the old zoning data (except general agriculture) so towns can see areas that need to be fixed.