Jefferson County's GIS Transformation in the Assessor’s Office

Jefferson County is the largest county in Alabama, serving over 600,000 citizens. The county's mission involves managing various departments, focusing on tax map modernization led by the Board of Equalization, Tax Assessor's Office, IT Services, and the GIS group.

With the desire to streamline its tax maps, Jefferson County knew geographic information system (GIS) technology played a crucial role in addressing the challenges faced by the county, such as data accuracy and consistency between collaborative departments. To help it move forward in addressing these challenges, the county relied on Esri partner, Sidwell, for their expertise in cost-effective GIS solutions.

Jefferson County found itself grappling with an outdated tax system that was nearly 20 years old. The system relied on obsolete technology and outdated scripting languages. The consequences of this outdated infrastructure were far-reaching, with compromised security leading to inaccurate representations of parcel data. These inaccuracies, in turn, had a domino effect on public-facing applications, causing confusion and raising questions about the reliability of the data.

"We have a parcel lookup app that has 1.4 million views that is public-facing. So, the main emphasis was ensuring the tax system would be scalable and modernized to support moving forward," said Joshua Chris, Enterprise GIS Manager. The impact of these challenges reverberated throughout various business operations and the inconsistencies proved disruptive for many departments.

Jefferson County, home to approximately 320,000 parcels, faced the additional challenge of dealing with inaccurate data. Many parcels exhibited unestablished tile corners and tile edges, with noticeable gaps and overlaps. Complicating matters further were the two independent divisions within Jefferson County—Birmingham and Bessemer—where the Tax Assessor mapping departments operated autonomously. The Tax Assessor had to manage municipal lines and corporate limits and maintained annotations in separate layers during the annexation of corporate limits and municipal lines. To add to the complexity, the Tax Assessor juggled work across multiple years simultaneously. The need for a comprehensive solution to transform the tax system became evident in the face of these factors. Outdated technology, security vulnerabilities, and data inconsistencies were obstacles to establishing a scalable, efficient, and modernized tax infrastructure for the county.

Jefferson County deployed the ArcGIS Parcel Fabric on ArcGIS Enterprise—the backbone for running the Esri suite of customizable applications—to build a comprehensive framework for managing, editing, and sharing parcel data in both a multiuser and single-user environment. In a multiuser environment, the parcel fabric can be edited and maintained using a services-based architecture. Adopting this architecture allows users to share the parcel fabric across all platforms (desktop, mobile, and web), and enable different workflows for clients in the field and in the office.

Using ArcGIS Pro, the county was able to explore, visualize, and analyze data; create 2D maps and 3D scenes; and share its work to ArcGIS Online or its ArcGIS Enterprise organization.

After teaming up with Sidwell, the Assessor's Office initiated a comprehensive countywide remap for the first time in 37 years. The ripple effect of this endeavor was felt across various facets of their operations, resulting in a remarkable reduction in constituent communications concerning data inaccuracies and clarification requests.

The Sidwell team performed the work using aerial imagery and section corners as the basis for reconstruction. Parcel and lot boundaries were constructed from the original plats of subdivisions using the recorded COGO attributes. The remaining parcels were reconstructed utilizing surveys and existing county coverages as reference data. Coincidence between other key layers such as subdivision boundaries and corporate boundaries was maintained throughout the reconstruction process.

The completed parcel fabric was delivered in phases to a geodatabase compliant with the latest version of ArcGIS Pro and parcel fabric technologies. The fabric model includes all features necessary for maintaining ground-level countywide parcel boundaries in addition to all annotations and symbols needed to produce statutory tax maps. The modernized parcel fabric was loaded into an enterprise geodatabase and published as a branch versioned feature service to facilitate concurrent editing between multiple users in two different locations at the county. Attribute rules and workflows were implemented to ensure continuity in editing and reduction of error among mapping staff.

Jefferson County shifted from outdated scripting languages and coverages to cutting-edge technologies, notably adopting Esri's parcel fabric data model. This facilitated a streamlined and efficient nightly process for creating a countywide parcel layer, significantly improving data accuracy.

Beyond the Assessor's Office, the impact extended to optimizing the Emergency Services Network (ESN) boundaries. Leveraging information from the Tax Assessor’s Office and the Board of Equalization, the county empowered courts, municipalities, and other entities to make more informed and accurate decisions.

The positive reverberations of this project reached far beyond internal departments, fostering enhanced collaboration with partners. Notably, the City of Birmingham, one of the largest of the county’s partners, benefited from the exchange of parcel data. This facilitated the alignment of City Council Boundaries, enabling them to update and refine their existing data for heightened accuracy.

The initial project's success has seamlessly transitioned into an ongoing partnership. This collaboration encompasses a multiphase project where Sidwell continues to support Jefferson County in ensuring its data and technology are kept up-to-date and accurate. Additionally, Sidwell has broadened its partnership with Jefferson County, with support that extends beyond maintenance, to include data analysis, ArcGIS Pro training, and workflow recommendations for continuous improvements.