East Point planning staff demonstrate GeoPointe portal and development-design tools

Tere Mohammad, the City of East Point’s new GIS coordinator, demonstrated the city’s GeoPointe mapping portal and related tools at a City Circles meeting, showing how planners, developers and residents can view zoning, permits, floodplains and proposed development scenarios.

The presentation focused on practical features: ArcGIS Online as the city’s back end (branded in the presentation as “GeoPointe”), Google Earth and Google Earth Pro for 3-D visualization and street view, FEMA floodplain layers, and a design-generation tool (called “Delve” in the presentation) that produces building-layout options based on zoning parameters such as floor-area ratio, setbacks, green space and parking. Tere Mohammad demonstrated generating multiple design alternatives for a parcel and exporting designs for presentation tools such as SketchUp.

Why it matters: City planners said the portal will make land-use information and departmental data more accessible to residents and potential investors. Kimberly Smith, planning and community development director, said the city’s planning map is maintained on a 20-year horizon and is updated on a five-year cycle; the last formal update occurred in 2022, and staff expect to work on the next update in 2027.

Key features shown

- GeoPointe/ArcGIS Online: Mohammad navigated the ArcGIS Online interface, pointed out layer controls and the legend for zoning and future development, and explained that different departments maintain separate map applications (police, fire, sanitation, economic development).

- Google Earth integration: Mohammad demonstrated how zoning and other KML layers can be imported into Google Earth for 3-D visualization and street-level views, and noted the city plans to publish zoning and other layers so the public can “fly in 3-D” and view projects in context.

- Delve design tool: The tool lets users outline a site and specify zoning parameters (maximum coverage, height, FAR, setbacks), select uses (residential, mixed-use, retail, community), set green-space targets and parking options (surface vs. basement), then generate multiple building-design options and financial reports.

- Data sources and layers: Mohammad said the system can display FEMA floodplain layers, hydrants, fire stations, water and sewer lines, parcel IDs, permits and business-license records. He said many federal, state and local datasets (including FEMA floodplain data) can be added to the city’s GIS.

Public engagement and next steps

Mohammad asked residents to email priorities for layers and offered to add public requests to the rollout. He supplied an email address for requests and citizen participation: tomuhammad@eastpointecity.org. He also invited volunteers to join a citizen GIS team to help identify and correct map discrepancies (for example, reporting demolished or altered structures so GIS data can be updated).

Staff committed to publishing zoning and key departmental layers to the GeoPointe portal and said some layers could be available on Google Earth within about a month. Mohammad described ArcGIS Online as the city’s primary analysis platform and Google Earth as complementary for public presentation.

What was not decided or acted on

There were no formal votes or adopted policies at the meeting. The presentation included demonstrations and an open call for public input; staff described planned publication and outreach steps but did not record any formal direction or ordinance action in the transcript.

Quotes

“I love East Point. I’ve loved East Point. … To be able to come and work for you guys and to offer my skills, it’s really, I would say, like a dream come true,” Tere Mohammad said, introducing himself as the city’s new GIS coordinator and a recent East Point resident.

“Our map goes out 20-year segments. We are mandated to update it every five years. Our last update was in 2022. So we’re gonna be working on another one in 2027,” Kimberly Smith, planning and community development director, said when describing the planning timeline.

“I can just drag your spreadsheet to the map. You always want to include address first. That’s the main thing. Get your addresses right,” Mohammad said when explaining how community groups can submit data for mapping.

Ending

City planning staff plan to make zoning and key departmental layers available on the GeoPointe portal, continue integrating select data into Google Earth for public presentations, and solicit layer-priority requests from residents by email. No formal actions were recorded in the meeting transcript.