October 2023 MapGeo Newsletter

Quarterly Newsletter 

October 2023 

We're excited to share MapGeo news with you! 

This quarter's MapGeo Community Spotlight - Weymouth, Massachusetts! 

 
Weymouth’s Town Hall was originally built as a replica of the Old State House in Boston 

Just a short ferry or train ride from Downtown Boston to the nearby South Shore, you’ll find the Town of Weymouth, Massachusetts - which has a city-like population of over 57,000 residents. Weymouth is in fact a town of four Villages (North Weymouth, Weymouth Landing, East Weymouth, and South Weymouth). Instead of having one downtown, Weymouth has four distinct centers of business. In addition to these villages, three of the Boston Harbor islands are in Weymouth (Grape Island, Slate Island, and Sheep Island). 

Weymouth is the birthplace and childhood home of Abigail Adams, closest advisor and wife to the 2nd U.S. President John Adams, and mother to the 6th President John Quincy Adams. Weymouth is the second-oldest settlement in Massachusetts — second only to Plymouth. Some other notable connections to Weymouth include that of Booker T. Washington, who owned a summer home on Main Street, and Maria Weston Chapman — an American abolitionist and lifelong Weymouth resident.  

How Weymouth is Putting MapGeo to Work  

Weymouth recently made a seamless transition upgrading their parcel viewer to MapGeo. The implementation, supported by the MapGeo Support team, stayed on schedule and within budget.  
 
MapGeo has generated positive user feedback and renewed engagement in GIS within the town, and Weymouth expects MapGeo will fit in well with the town's future needs.  
 
Town GIS Administrator, Garrett Walsh had some positive comments on MapGeo: 

“Like other communities who have invested time and resources in legacy systems, there was some hesitation here in Weymouth to move away from our 20-year old parcel viewer.  We needed an affordable solution that could simultaneously leverage new technologies while preserving some of the custom functionality from our old viewer that our users depended on for their daily tasks.  The decision was made to go with Sanborn/AppGeo's MapGeo solution. After an initial meeting with the MapGeo implementation team, we set an ambitious timeline that would allow for a seamless transition before our existing licensing for our legacy system expired. 
 

The MapGeo onboarding presentation and implementation survey created the framework, and from there it was a simple matter of uploading the required data. The implementation team was clearly very capable. They were very responsive to my requests throughout the process and were able to include the custom functionality we wanted.  Their familiarity with local CAMA vendors and regional GIS data made for a very quick turnaround.   
 

The initial feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and created a renewed engagement in ‘all things GIS’.  I expect we will have some fresh ideas for how to grow our MapGeo site as we continue to use it and I have no doubt the MapGeo team will be able to assist us.” 

Weymouth’s Land/Zoning Regulations and Zoning Permitted Uses website are linked within the property panel of MapGeo for quick access. 

Spatial IQ Quarterly Educational Webinars 

Thank you to those who were able to attend last months webinar to learn about MapGeo and its general functionality, along with some additional tips and tricks you might not have known were possible. The recording of this webinar has been posted to our library.  

If you have missed any of our past webinars, check out the recordings here to learn about all the great use cases for applying geospatial technology to improve your everyday operations.  

Special Introductory Pricing 

Is your community looking to switch platforms or do you know a nearby community that you think would like MapGeo? For a limited time, we are offering a 50% discount on a NEW MapGeo implementation for those who are switching from an existing platform with well-structured data. What does well-structured mean? Reach out to our Sales Team at mapgeosupport@mapgeo.io for more information.  

Linking to Open Gov & Zoning Hub  

Open Gov (Viewpoint Cloud) permit linking with MapGeo is now available! Simply select a parcel in MapGeo and click on the permits link (boxed in red in the image below). The link will bring you directly into your Open Gov site showing all the permits associated with that parcel. Similarly, Zoning Hub linking is also available on MapGeo! Just select a parcel in MapGeo and then click on the Interactive Zoning link (boxed in blue in the image below) to view that parcel within your Zoning Hub site.  If you have either of these products, or something similar, and would like to implement an integration please contact us.  

Annual Spatial IQ for MapGeo Overlay – EPA Food Opportunities 

This year’s Spatial IQ annual MapGeo overlay presents layers from the U.S. EPA Excess Food Opportunities Map that supports the diversion of excess food from landfills. It displays locations of potential generators and recipients of excess foods, including farmer's markets, anaerobic digestion facilities, composting facilities, and food banks. Take a look at this new overlay theme on your MapGeo site to learn more about the resources and facilities available in your area! 

Updated State Themes 

The MapGeo team has been working on updating existing state overlay themes for all our clients.  

Some themes that are in the process of being updated are: 

Have you checked out our MapGeo Support Portal? Head to the portal for tips, tricks, and ideas on ways to expand your MapGeo and Spatial IQ.