A Town of Needham GIS staff member demonstrated the municipality’s new WebGIS mapping application, showing users how to search parcel records, view aerial photographs dating back to the 1990s, measure coordinates and export maps as PDFs.

The demo, presented as an online walkthrough, matters because residents, property owners and town staff use the tool to find parcel data, check zoning and examine aerial imagery for planning and property research.

The presenter walked through key functions. The search bar accepts addresses, location names and street names; partial addresses can speed results. Clicking a map parcel opens a popup with parcel information and “a link to the assessor’s property record card,” which, the presenter said, opens the Assessor’s Office website for more details. The presenter noted that thematic layers — including school districts and voting precincts — can be overlaid on aerial photos.

Users can toggle groups of layers on or off from the layer manager and use a layer-search box to filter the list. The application includes multiple aerial photo years, the presenter said, with imagery available “going back to the 1990s.” A legend tool displays symbols for visible map layers.

Drawing and measurement tools let users add temporary points, lines, polygons and labels and compute length, area and perimeter. The presenter cautioned that drawings remain only for the current browser session and are deleted if the session is restarted or the page refreshed: “They are not stored permanently,” the presenter said. The erase button clears session drawings. The coordinate tool provides longitude and latitude values that can be copied and pasted.

The print function produces a PDF by default sized 8.5-by-11 inches; users can change scale, resolution and title settings before exporting. The bottom bar contains links to the Town of Needham homepage, the Town GIS homepage, a GIS contact form, the layer list and a help page. Full-screen mode and navigation controls (zoom, pan, previous/next extent, home) are also available.

The presenter closed the demo by noting the application will see minor changes over time “due to technology changes and user feedback.” The presentation did not include any formal actions, votes or funding details.

For assistance, users are directed to the GIS contact form and the help page accessible from the WebGIS interface.