a href=”https://www.dailyegyptian.com/contactus.html”bDE Staff Reporter/b/abrspan class=”realsmall”bDaily Egyptian/b/span

Out-of-date city maps to be replaced

New system will provide city with better economic development plans

Advertisement

It’s 30 years old and outdated, so the city is pushing to get a new one.

The current mapping system Carbondale uses has not been changed since the early 1970s, and with all the changes to the city since then, officials want to spend money to make sure the topography and property mapping is up to date.

The project will cost about $140,000 to complete and is expected to be finished by late fall.

City Manager Jeff Doherty said this is being done because the current city maps are too old and are divided into many different sections and areas. This makes it difficult to lay out new city construction plans or provide incoming businesses with the proper mapping plans for their new location in the city.

“You have information you can readily provide to them, and in their development they have access to different information that is not readily available to them right now,” Doherty said. “In one place they can find information for utilities and topographic and property information.”

The first stage of the project has been approved, and involves taking new aerial pictures of the city to replace the outdated ones. The City Council will vote on the next two stages Tuesday, and in doing so, Doherty said the new plans will likely take place as well.

Mayor Neil Dillard said the new mapping system is one that many cities are adapting because it puts all the city information in a large database that people can access through the planning department at City Hall or through the county at a to-be-decided cost.

Advertisement*

The system used to put together the new system is called the Geographic Information System and will map out 34,373 acres in Carbondale, including one and a half miles surrounding the city. The three stages cost nearly $140,000, and the payments are being spread over three years. The first stage was put on last year’s budget, the second on this year’s, and the third will be allotted for 2004.

Phase II will likely be completed by the end of March and involves composing all the aerial maps, while Phase III will put together all the topographic information and overlay it on all the other mapping, Doherty said.

“Now it’ll be in one place; one database that you can use very easily,” Doherty said.

City Attorney Paige Reed said the city staff is in support of the plans because of the on-going benefits it would provide for Carbondale now and in the future if all the stages were to be approved and the GIS system put into effect.

Dillard said this plan puts Carbondale up with other cities that have adapted the same plan, and it gives the city better plans for economic development in the years to come.

“If you’re not on the G.I.S. system, you’re not in the game,” Dillard said.

Reporter Brian Peach can be reached at [email protected]