Summit Metro Parks (SMP), headquartered in Akron, Ohio, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that manages 16 parks, 150 miles of trails, and several conservation areas across 15,000 acres. The lands that SMP oversees are heavily used, averaging 5.5 million visitors a year. With such a large area and so many visitors, efficient park maintenance is essential, but issues such as encroachment can make this challenging.
The SMP’s parks’ land shares borders with more than 1,000 neighbors in the community. When a park’s boundary is breached by unauthorized land use, it’s considered property encroachment. This type of violation can include extending a private yard into an adjacent park as well as illegally dumping waste or building fences or other structures within park boundaries.
Ron Arpajian, a project manager at SMP, conducts regular encroachment inspections for the preservation of conservation lands. He says that at any given time, there can be up to 700 active encroachments. To document inspections, Arpajian recorded findings on spreadsheets and documents, which was time-consuming and could lead to data inaccuracies.
Arpajian worked with Esri partner Argis Solutions, Inc., to streamline the inspections process. Argis Solutions created a web application with ArcGIS Experience Builder that allows the SMP team to more easily record and search for information as well as visualize data.
A Digital Transformation
Previously, when Arpajian found an encroachment, he entered its location in ArcGIS Field Maps and then documented pertinent information such as violation type, description, and relevant photos in a survey created with ArcGIS Survey123. Back at the office, he entered adjacent landowner information in a spreadsheet and used Microsoft Word to keep track of each encroachment and any communication sent related to it, such as copies of letters and emails and notes from any phone correspondence.
“It was challenging because I wanted to be as efficient as possible in the field and office. It was hard to keep tabs in Excel on inspections and then letters in another drive and various folders,” Arpajian says.
Arpajian began searching for tools and GIS development options he could use to better manage the inspection process. He found Argis Solutions via the Esri Nonprofit Program and had the team create a whole-product solution for SMP.
Building the Application
Since SMP is an established Esri technology user, Argis Solutions created a web application for property encroachment using ArcGIS Experience Builder. Leland Henry, chief geospatial officer at Argis Solutions, says that he and his team like using Experience Builder because it “provides the framework to build user-friendly applications that work on both desktop and mobile devices and comes with many out-of-the-box widgets that can be customized as needed.”
The goal of the property encroachment tool was to give park managers an efficient way to map and document encroachment occurrences in real time, automatically notify property owners, and add follow-up tasks to the staff’s calendar. Arpajian explains that the new tool allows data to be amended and filtered for easier searching, and data can be exported to be placed in a letter on official letterhead for the property owner. Also, a corresponding calendar reminder to follow up on the letter is autogenerated.
The property encroachment web application was built with cross-platform compatibility between iOS, Android, and Windows because the SMP team works across these operating systems. Maps and feature services of the parks were set up to provide a spatial view of each violation and the closest impacted neighbor. This gives SMP staff the ability to view previous violations and update data related to the surveyed points as they relate to the parks.
Maps of the parks as well as symbology marking encroachment violations are included along with SMP’s logo and branding elements.
Users can now navigate property encroachment data by searching and sorting the data using fields such as date or type of encroachment violation, and they can create charts or graphs of selected data. The charts are dynamic; when the user’s selections change, the charts update automatically.
A widget allows SMP staff—choosing from several letter templates—to generate hard-copy letters on SMP’s official letterhead to property owners about violations. As the violation notification letter survey is filled out, a separate website automatically generates the letter as an email. The templates are autopopulated with data from the selected encroachment record, including photos.
An automated notification system was also created to alert park staff when they need to follow up with residents about encroachments. Automated notification scripting was built using Python as well as Make, an automation software. The alerts are sent via email and can also be viewed in the application. SMP administrators can change the steps and timelines as needed, and staff can mark their follow-up tasks as complete.
An administrator also manages which users receive notifications and make edits within the application. Edits to the data captured include adding a landowner and address for each violation based on the location of the surveyed point as well as the nearest property address. The ability to edit is restricted to certain personnel to maintain a level of integrity. These items are integrated into Microsoft Outlook to create calendar invitations for staff. These invitations are reminders to follow up with the addressee in a timely manner.
The web application and automated tasks have enhanced SMP’s ability to document property encroachments while ensuring a high level of accountability among its staff.
A New Inspection Process
The updated inspection procedure now saves the SMP team time in the field and in the office. Arpajian uses Field Maps to display park boundaries and previously recorded encroachment sites on maps that he can follow while conducting field inspections. If an existing encroachment report needs updating, a link in the Field Maps record opens a survey made with Survey123 so that he can revise the information for a specific record. He also takes photos that are automatically attached to the inspection record.
“This was huge, as it keeps the data consistent across the various apps,” says Arpajian.
Staff can send notification letters straight from the field and select which letter to send from a variety of templates. Data collected in the field can be added directly to the letter.
“With this new tool, I can go from one function to the next function and not feel like I am missing things and leaving them behind,” says Arpajian.
Also, Argis Solutions used ArcGIS Hub to create a site for SMP that provides a single landing page with links to property encroachment records and tree risk assessments. “ArcGIS Hub is a versatile platform designed to enhance collaboration inside and outside an organization,” says Henry. With ArcGIS Hub, maps, apps, and resources can be shared to enable informed decision-making.
“The dashboard in ArcGIS Hub allows me to go to board meetings and easily report on park activities. The charts show park patterns and trends, highlighting prevalent issues in a particular location,” says Arpajian. “The new tools help us understand how to plan and focus our resources.”
Equipped with this technology, SMP’s staff are better organized and informed. “I’m not a computer person, I’m just a bit of a dreamer,” says Arpajian. “I knew there had to be a more efficient way. Now there is.”
