Greenland officials plan updated tax maps and online permitting; ArcGIS license and costs discussed

A town official told the Board of Selectmen on Feb. 24 that Greenland has not posted updated tax maps to its website since 2018 and that the town is working with CAI Technologies to bring tax maps current and to integrate online permitting with CivicPlus and the town's GIS.

The speaker said CAI provided proposals for 18 locations that have changed since 2018 (condominium conversions, subdivisions and lot reconfigurations) and that the town has already reviewed about 60 lots for accuracy against recorded plans. The official said, “we have not had new tax maps up on our website since 2018,” and that updated maps should be available for 2025 once the contractor incorporates corrections.

Officials discussed online permitting through CivicPlus and the need to connect permitting data with CAI and the town's GIS (ArcGIS). Staff said three distinct costs are involved: (1) a setup/implementation fee for the permitting-software integration, which staff described in the meeting as “about $5,000–$6,000” for initial installation; (2) an ongoing maintenance fee (discussed in the meeting as a small annual amount, described variously near $700 to a few thousand dollars); and (3) an ArcGIS license required to serve GIS layers. The speakers said these costs were not unexpected but that the ArcGIS licensing requirement was an added expense officials had not fully anticipated.

Town staff and selectmen discussed who will be responsible for maintaining the new map layers going forward. The official said the town needs a designated staff member to send new plan data to the mapping vendor when parcels change — historically that work has fallen to the building inspector but responsibilities varied over the years. The official also noted improved permitting and mapping will help other town functions, including assessment accuracy, building-permit administration and stormwater (MS4) compliance.

On funding, the meeting record shows the CivicPlus portion of the online permitting work was included in the current budget; the additional CAI integration costs and ArcGIS licensing were discussed as additions that will be funded from the town budget. Speakers said credit-card fees related to online payments remain to be negotiated with the credit-card processor and that transaction fees are typically passed to permit applicants.

Ending: The board did not take a formal vote on the implementation at the meeting. Staff said they will continue to finalize contract details, confirm license costs, and begin the mapping corrections so updated tax maps can be posted for 2025.