Montgomery unveils new address lookup and maps portal to consolidate district and service info

Lindsay Lohrey, the Village of Montgomery's GIS specialist, demonstrated an interactive address lookup and consolidated mapping portal the village built in-house and plans to publish this week. The tool lets users search any address within the village and view linked information such as township, county, school district, library district, zoning and subdivision layers.

The portal combines several datasets previously hosted on separate web pages and adds features intended to reduce resident confusion about which agency provides which services. "With addresses that are unincorporated in the village, such as Boulder Hill, we show a personalized message that says this particular address only receives water," Lohrey said, explaining that the portal flags addresses where the village provides limited services and links to the appropriate county or township contacts.

The project was presented as part of the village's effort to bring GIS services in-house. Lohrey, who joined the village in August 2024, said the portal includes a print view designed for residents who are uncomfortable with interactive web maps; the print/PDF preserves live hyperlinks when opened electronically and can be saved or printed for walk-in use. "The thinking with the print view is . . . geared toward residents who might not be comfortable using the interactive web page," Lohrey said. She also demonstrated layer controls (zoning, subdivisions, base map choices), a legend for layer symbology and a small map rotation/fit feature for odd parcel shapes.

Sonia (staff) said the tool will also help frontline staff answer phone calls by allowing staff to type an address and quickly tell callers which agency handles a given service. Lohrey said the initial dataset contains residential addresses only; staff plan to evaluate whether to add business addresses at the same link or provide a separate view. The portal includes a "suggest an edit" survey that asks a respondent's relation to the address before accepting changes; Lohrey said the form is intended to limit edits to people connected to the property or local leaders.

Lohrey said the village has consolidated many map layers into the portal and will continue to add updated layers (for example, updated zoning 2025 when available). She told trustees the link should be live on the village website "by the end of the week." Trustees asked whether the portal can show voting districts and township information; Lohrey said township is already included and voting district layers should be possible to add. She also described plans to maintain the portal and respond to user-submitted corrections.

The portal was presented during the regular village board meeting; trustees congratulated staff on the project and asked staff to consider how much additional information to include in the print view to avoid excessive scrolling on hard copies. Lohrey said the portal is intended to reduce phone traffic and improve clarity for residents who have a Montgomery mailing address but receive many services from other jurisdictions.

The village did not take formal action on the demonstration at the meeting. Lohrey described next steps as internal testing, adding or refining district layers (for example, voting districts), responding to user-submitted corrections, and deciding whether to include business addresses on the same public link.

Lohrey holds a bachelor's degree from Calvin University and a master's degree in sustainable urban development from the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa).