The Village of Skokie Beautification and Improvement Commission assists the Mayor and Trustees in landscaping and conservation issues. Every year, the Commission seeks out properties whose owners maintain it at an exceptional level. During this time, the commission visits each nominated property, taking pictures and notes. The most time consuming part of this process is driving to all of these properties. That is where the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS) comes in.

The Village of Oak Brook has numerous private roads that are not maintained by the village. As a result, if a certain neighborhood wants a road to be converted to a public road they must adhere to village zoning code.

The village of Riverside GIS (Geographic Information System) program mapped crosswalk locations in an area of town due to an event that occurred near a school. As a result of initiating this data creation, the remaining village crosswalks and some additional roadway striping information were mapped to have a complete inventory of their locations in the GIS system. Various village departments can now benefit from this information.

The Tour of Elk Grove is an annual international bike race that takes place the first weekend in August. There are many components to the event including the races, block parties, a kids’ fest and more. Village staff are therefore highly involved in planning, setup, and management of the event.

A significant part of any local government’s economic vitality relates to property development and improvements that require a building permit. Permitting fees provide vital income and can help to increase department budgets and the potential for capital improvement spending. As part of an effort to better track permit applications and highlight trends over time, the City of Des Plaines Community and Economic Development (CED) department asked the city’s GIS department to develop a map product to display permit locations.

As stated in Illinois Public Act 093-0687: “No license shall be issued for the sale at retail of any alcoholic liquor within 100 feet of any church, school other than an institution of higher learning, hospital, home for aged or indigent persons or for veterans… ” and “nor to the renewal of a license for the sale at retail of alcoholic liquor on premises within 100 feet of any church or school where the church or school has been established within such 100 feet since the issuance of the original license. In the case of a church, the distance of 100 feet shall be measured to the nearest part of any building used for worship services or educational programs and not to property boundaries.” The Village of Wheeling takes this law a step further and restricts liquor licenses within 100 ft of the property boundary and not the building.

Over the past two years the City of Park Ridge, IL has experienced some severe storm events that have drastically challenged their sewer system. In conjunction with these large events, there has also been a lot of questioning from the City’s residents as to what they can do to prevent storm water from damaging their home. Most of this questioning has lead some residents to install new sump pumps, generators or other flood like control devices; this in turn has lead the city’s Engineering Department to wonder if these installations have helped the residents in their fight to protect their homes.

In order increase development, the Village decided to update its current storm water ordinance. This updated storm water ordinance would allow land to be developed if it is at least 80 percent impervious.

Lake Forest will have access to the web version of MapOffice beginning June 1st. The month of May was spent preparing the base data needed to get MapOffice up and running, which involved loading previous GIS data into the GIS Consortium standardized database.

Every year the Village of Oak Brook performs improvements on roads, water main and infrastructure as a part of their capital improvement program. Prior to the improvements starting, the village is required to notify all residents that are directly and indirectly impacted by the improvements.

Every now and again a municipality is faced with the decision on whether or not to allow a new establishment the rights to sell liquor. Many questions are raised on where this potential establishment will be located as well as how late this establishment will stay open. The City of Park Ridge, IL was recently confronted with these questions and had to make a decision on whether or not to allow an establishment these rights. Within their decision making process they decided to use the Geographic Information System (GIS) as a method for how this late night establishment might affect the local residential neighborhoods.

The Special Service Area 16 came up for it’s first three year review in the Spring of 2010. The City Manager required methods to determine if the Special Service Area had fulfilled it’s goal of maintaining an economically vibrant downtown. He decided that a study of the location units used for retail, services, office, and vacant units would supply the required information

Although Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used to store and retrieve data often times in a highly complex fashion, they also provide a medium for map simple production. A special event map is a regular request of GIS professionals and can be generated in a relatively short time frame with good communication between the event coordinators and the map maker.

The Village of Norridge requires that every residential property within the Village limits to have at least 65% green space on the property. This means that the homeowner can only have 35% of the property consist of impervious surface areas such as the building, garage, driveway, and patios. Any resident in violation of this policy can face fines and may be forced to make changes to their property. In the past, the Village would calculate the green space percentage by measuring the area of the parcels and the features using a ruler and a pencil. The Village asked the GIS department to come up with something that would aid in their analysis.

Every year the City of Park Ridge, IL contracts with a photogrammetric firm in order to collect important planimteric data such as buildings, driveways, sidewalks, etc. in a computer usable digital format. This data is fundamentally important as it provides a backbone for a Geographic Information System (GIS) and allows for in-depth analysis that can help a city understand the scope of what lies within their city limits. Whether it is counting how many homes are within a floodplain or estimating how many sidewalk squares a community must review each year, this planimetric data has its use. For without it, local governments would have to resort to alternative methods such as laborious field checks or manual counts in a Sidwell parcel map atlas.

The Tyler Edens application is an important financial and permit enterprise system that allows the city easily track finances and permit status. The application will only function efficiently if it has good base information such as zoning districts, addresses, and owner information. This information is readily available but requires the tools within the GIS to combine this information into one table. The GIS tools also clean up the County provided assessor owner information to assure owners within the city of Highland Park has correct street names. The GIS office annually creates a flattened import file that is used to keep the Edens data current.

The Village of Winnetka hosts numerous special events over the course of a year and, for each event, the Police and Public Works departments are involved in providing operational support. These events range from parades to festivals and require a wide-range of supportive actions. These actions are assigned via an event orders sheet provided to each department that describes the extent of the event and where various elements of the event are occurring. However, in the order sheet format, it can be difficult for personnel to get an overall view of the event’s total operations. To assist with providing this comprehensive view for the Village’s Memorial Day parade, the GIS Department was asked to develop a mapping product that would help assigned personnel to be better informed about the overall event orders.

Keeping a record of the past is important to help give those in the present and future a better idea of how their current surroundings developed. Whether these surroundings are cultural, political, or genealogical, tracking the history of each can be a way to maintain a connection to where an individual or group of individuals came from. The same holds true for municipal entities, which can track the historical development of their political boundaries using annexation records that are maintained over time.

The recent collection of planimetric data or improved features such as buildings, roadways, parking lots, driveways, etc. in Elk Grove Village has provided for some new analysis possibilities through its GIS (Geographic Information System). One of the evaluations conducted was the distance between primary building structures and also a count of the number of addresses that exist within each building structure.

Every ten years the U.S. Census Bureau conducts a survey in order to find out how many people are living in a specific area among other things. Once completed with the survey, they then eventually release this information to the public. The ability to access this data from the Census Bureau as well as its use to answer important questions is at times invaluable. For the City of Park Ridge, IL, they decided to use the Geographic Information System (GIS) as there catalyst for first accessing this information from the Census Bureau and second, to determine how many people are living within each municipal election ward.

Federal funding is a fundamental part of local government by helping to provide the necessary monetary assets for programs ranging from infrastructure improvements to low income housing support. While numbers and statistics related to a specific program are the nuts and bolts that eventually lead to funding being denied or awarded, including a spatial analysis of the data as a component of the funding application can help to clarify the provided information and increase a local government’s chance of receiving the requested funds.

For a 7.5 mile stretch of Dundee Rd., from Milwaukee Ave. to Green Bay Rd., the only section without a bikeable sidewalk or path is a small section within Wheeling village limits from the Des Plaines River to the Interstate 294 overpass. Without a path or sidewalk, this section of Dundee Rd. can be dangerous for any biker who attempts to ride in the grass or on the street itself. The Village of Wheeling is looking to build a bike path to connect the two sections to help provide a safe passage for bicyclists.

The Village of Skokie has progressively added new users, taking advantage of the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS). While adding users is key to the success of the GIS Program, new users have a learning curve for the new applications and software whether it be ArcView™ or MapOffice Advanced™. Training and demonstrations can alleviate many of the questions and issues users have with interacting with the new technology.

The Village of Norridge has a newsletter that they typically mail to all addresses in the village. In addition to going to all houses, the newsletters are sent to every unit in every apartment or condo building. Because of the natural turnover in apartment renting, many times the newsletters come back to the village because there is no one currently living at the address. This costs the village money in returned and wasted postage. The village asked the GIS department to come up with a map that would present a solution to the problem.

The Village of Lincolnwood has been hard at work trying to secure grants that will help produce bicycle routes and paths throughout the Village. The grant, Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC), is administered through the Regional Transportation Authority. It is federally funded to help people of lower income travel to their places of employment. Providing assistance for this grant application has been the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS). Throughout the process GIS has played an important part by providing maps and analysis. The Village is a member of the GIS Consortium (GISC) which is a Using the GIS Consortiums subscription to Business Analyst Online, the Village compiled necessary statistics for use in the grant. In addition to the statistics, locations of stoplights were mapped out to provide a list for use in field checks. Also, using GIS, the Village was able to verify that manhole covers and inlets along the proposed bike route corridors were of a certain type; openings were not large enough for a bicycle tire to become stuck.

Employees for the Village of Glenview often request very simple, but effective ways for determining attributes for property owners and one of these attributes is\are, zip codes. With assistance from Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Employees are now able to quickly look at the zip code map and find out a residence(s) zip code in a matter of seconds.

The Village of Oak Brook contains a number paths and trails including multi-use paths in Fullersburg Woods. The paths run through Central Park and many of the residential subdivisions. They provide residents and visitors the opportunity to stay fit and explore the village. In order to assist residents and visitors the Village hired an outside vendor to create a bike path map showing the location of the various paths throughout the village as well as important places of interest such as the Drake Hotel and Historic Graue Mill.

Understanding the trends of what is happening in the housing market is difficult to do especially if you are not in the realty business. Houses may be sold, rented or even more dramatic, torn down in order to build a new one. In this article we will focus on two parts of the housing market that at times can have a significant impact on a local community, housing demolitions and property foreclosures.

The City of Highland Parks contains a vibrant downtown full of many service-orientated businesses that wish to provide outdoor seating for their customers. The City of Highland Park requires these businesses to apply for a permit, which allows outdoor seating. One of the main purposes of the permit is ensuring that the outdoor seating locations do not cause a public safety hazard by obstructing the pedestrian traffic or by being too close to the street

Addresses play an important role in the day to day activities of the Village of Lincolnshire, IL whether it is for water billing information, permits or locating a resident in case of an emergency. In addition, a physical address can serve as a link to answering such questions what school district do I belong to or what zoning district am I in?

According to federal law, “Adult Uses” are protected uses under the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and if a community does not provide a sufficient amount of land area for this use to exist, the municipality can be considered as violating free speech. Furthermore, this municipality could end up in Federal Court.

More often than not a local community has a need to notify their residents when a large event is about to occur. Whether it is a fourth of July fireworks display or a street closing for a street festival, residents deserve to know when something is going to affect them and the neighborhood around them. For the Village of Morton Grove, IL the act of notifying residents has been practiced in many ways but it was not until the implementation of the Geographic Information System (GIS) that a simpler method came to fruition.

As was described in the August 2009 article, a Village of Riverside master address database was created in the Geographic Information System (GIS). This database was generated from several sources including water billing, permits, fire inspections, and business licenses. Each address follows the United States Postal standard format and is represented geographically by a point at the location of the addressed structure or property.

In 2003, the village of Wheeling created a bike map plan highlighting the areas of the village that would be best suited for bike paths. Although a few of the paths were created, much of the plan was never fully implemented. In 2009, the village planner decided to create a new village bike map that would take the best aspects of the previously created map, but add in more logical and cost effective bike paths.

Understanding the trends of what is happening in the housing market is difficult to do especially if you are not in the realty business. Houses may be sold, rented or even more dramatic, torn down in order to build a new one. In this article we will focus on the part of the housing market that at times can have an impact on a local community, housing demolitions.

The City of Highland Park Department of Community Development Planning Division is in the process of creating a new master plan for the continual development of the Central Business District. Building mass is one of the issues currently under review for this plan. Building mass is the study of size, height. and volume of buildings within an area to gauge the density of commercial and residential use with in that particular area.

Transportation projects can fall under several different categories, from new road construction and pavement resurfacing to bike lane development and railroad crossing re-grading. One common theme among all these project types is the amount of planning that is required to successfully execute each one and minimize the effect each will have on traffic flow in and around the project areas. To assist with this process, the City of Des Plaines, IL engineering department utilized the city’s GIS program to develop numerous transportation data layers and products that allow for a more coordinated departmental approach.

Village employees continually review their current parking layouts within active business districts so they are confident that they are providing their residents with the best services possible. If the village does not provide ample parking within shopping sectors of town, it can easily fall victim to decreasing consumerism and complaints from business employees who need a long-term location to park while they are at work.

For years, data has been stored in file cabinets, basements and employee’s heads in the form of institutional knowledge. This was not necessarily a bad thing; the technology just was not available. Now that the movement to a digital world has begun, the transition has seemed slow at times. Having paper documents around is just the norm in an everyday workflow. But what if the information is not directly in front of you? Moving paper data to electronic databases has saved time and money for private and public entities across the world.

Addresses play an important role in the daily activities of Village of Riverside staff whether it is for water billing information, permits, or locating a resident in case of an emergency. In addition, a physical address can serve as a link for answering such questions as what school district do I belong to or what zoning district am I in? However, obtaining this information for a specific address often requires searching through multiple spreadsheets, databases, and paper documents.

The Village of Lincolnshire, IL like many municipalities relies on zoning ordinances to help shape and control the growth of the Village. Along with zoning requirements, the Village also regulates development of residential zones by deploying setback regulations. These regulations help control the size and placement of structures on the lot to ensure adequate spacing within structures within each district or block. This ensures that any given subdivision, street, or block is appealing and avoids any possible situation of residential structures being built too large for the lot it is on.

The Taste of Oak Brook is held annually during the Fourth of July weekend in the Village of Oak Brook, IL. It is sponsored by McDonald’s and features cuisine from area restaurants such as Maggiano’s and Ditka’s. For The Taste of Oak Brook event, attendees are given a pamphlet listing each restaurant and the food that they will be serving. This pamphlet does not provide information on the location of the restaurants at The Taste of Oak Brook or parking information. In order to address this issue, the village enlisted the help of the GIS department.

Over the past decade, communities throughout the mid-west have battled with invasive species. These Invasive species in our rivers and lakes have affected the way we use these natural resources. Likewise, our trees have become a focal point of disease and invasive species including the Emerald Ash Borer and Dutch Elm Disease. Because of this, it has become necessary to manage trees.

The City of Highland is very responsive to residents concerns of basement flooding and sewer backups during heavy rain events. The major issue is storm water infiltration of the wastewater sewers exceeding the wastewater sewer’s carrying capacity. Damaged or aging wastewater laterals are a major source of this infiltration.

The village of Wheeling contains numerous restaurants and eating establishments that reflect the diversity of the area. This includes “Restaurant Row”, a string of highly rated restaurants along Milwaukee Ave. The village kept a list of these establishments, but never provided this information to the public. Using the ability of a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) program to create location points, which are then placed within Google Maps. The GIS Department created a map showing the location of each restaurant within the village as well as address information and a link to the restaurant’s website. This interactive map located on the village website allows the user to find restaurants within the village based on location.

The Village of Lincolnshire, IL and the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department have been continuously looking for new ways to incorporate GIS into historical projects that help maintain important data. An opportunity arose when village personal came to the GIS Department with a request to update and replace a legacy wall mounted map showing all village annexations.