Fort Mill unveils public GIS hub to help residents find property, utilities and voting precincts

Gavin Witherspoon, the town’s first GIS analyst, introduced a new public Fort Mill Hub during the Town Council meeting, demonstrating address verification, utility-provider lookup, political-district lookups and school attendance zones.

The hub is a public web application that centralizes layers such as town boundaries, parcel records linked to York County data, utility service areas and solid-waste collection days. Witherspoon said the tool is intended as a one-stop resource for residents who ask whether an address is inside town limits, who provides water or electric service, what a parcel’s zoning is and who their elected representatives are.

Town staff and council members praised the site as a practical resource. Council members asked that voter precincts and polling locations be added so residents with low turnout can more easily find where to vote. Witherspoon said he would add precinct information and that some layers (for example, county-managed data) retain a “date modified” field so users can check currency.

The hub links to external map sources including York County parcel maps, the ARFATS regional transportation map and the SCDOT map gallery. Witherspoon said some town map layers will pull live from other agencies so updates propagate automatically. He demonstrated the hub’s address verifier, a utility-service lookup that reports electric and water providers and the day of garbage collection, and a political-district lookup that displays contact links for representatives.

Councilmembers said the tool will help residents answer routine questions without staff intervention and reduce confusion about the town boundary, which contains irregular pockets and enclaves. Witherspoon said the site is a starting point and can be expanded and customized; staff plan to announce the hub on the town website and social media after council review.

The presentation concluded with council direction to add polling-place data and to proceed with a public rollout.