Longboat Key goes live with new public-facing GIS mapping tools

The town of Longboat Key recently unveiled new public-facing geographic databases for residents and town employees. 

IT Director Jason Keen presented the new tools at the Longboat Key town commission’s March 24 workshop and made the dashboards live after the workshop. 

Residents can navigate the town’s website to access the databases made available through geographic information systems software. 

GIS is a software using geographically referenced information and data specific to a location. That data is used to create layers that can be applied to maps for visual data sharing.

The GIS technology is something the town has been working on to push out to the public for various applications like sea level rise estimates, property zoning and commission district boundaries. 

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“One of the things we’ve been working on for the last couple of years is to try and bring our GIS functionality up to where it should be,” Town Manager Howard Tipton said. “It’s a great tool.”

Now, with a foundation of GIS applications for the town, Keen said staff will continue developing potential applications. 

“We are looking at expanding GIS over the next year or so to include some of our public safety and we’re currently working with utilities,” Keen said. 

Public Works and Planning, Zoning and Building Department officials could also use GIS databases for projects and in-field applications like locating underground utilities. 

Keen said there could be the potential for a community reporting type of dashboard, where residents could input information about downed trees, downed power lines or damaged property, which would go directly to the appropriate department. 

“We’re trying to expand and make the GIS more friendly for everybody,” Keen said. 

At the same meeting, Director of Planning, Zoning and Building, Allen Parsons, showed commissioners another similar dashboard called Forerunner. 

Forerunner allows users to input addresses and receive important information regarding flood risk and elevation certificates. 

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The software displays information like the property’s flood zone, base flood elevation, design flood elevation and if the property is within a coastal barrier resources system. 

This software available to the public could be useful for residents currently looking to make improvements to their properties following the impacts of hurricanes Helene and Milton, as well. 

“This will be, I think, a great tool for people to do their own research and then try to figure out how to harden their property,” Tipton said.