Parks staff pause trails GIS work to standardize data input across departments

Parks staff told the Parks Committee that the trails GIS map is a work in progress but that active work has been paused while the department aligns data input methods across multiple groups and consultants.

Staff said the department placed the GIS project on the back burner during a period of cross-departmental review to ensure trail, sanitary and underground utility data are entered consistently. “We stepped back from GIS, not just this project, but in general for a few months while we looked at different options to make sure we're collecting the data once and not having to go back and redo it,” the staff member said.

The committee discussed resuming the trail map conversation at the next meeting, and a committee member asked staff to keep residents updated because the public-facing map is expected to be useful to the community. Staff said they are evaluating different consultants and approaches and hope to include more detailed GIS content in the future.