Eric McEvoy, the presenter for the Polk County GIS department, told the Board of Commissioners on Dec. 24, 2024, that the county will replace its public mapping application PC Maps with a new platform called CLOP. McEvoy said the migration is driven by retired JavaScript libraries and recent changes in web browsers that began to break features such as printing.

"PC Maps is reaching its end of life," McEvoy said, adding that the underlying JavaScript API (Dojo) has been retired and that Chrome updates have started to cause functionality failures. He described CLOP as a ground-up rebuild on the Esri JavaScript API designed for modern, mobile-first web use and improved security.

McEvoy provided usage context to underline the public impact: "PC Maps has had 207,433 views, an average of 196 views a day," and internal sessions numbered 42,438. He said the new platform will include two configurations: a public-facing "clop light" and an internal "clop heavy" analytics interface, plus an embedded tab that will keep the current PC Maps available while it continues to function.

The GIS presenter said CLOP's initial public rollout was planned for the Monday following the meeting and that the team is targeting feature parity with PC Maps by March, dependent on bug resolution. "We're anticipating a 10 year lifespan for this," he said of the new platform, and he emphasized there are no new licensing costs associated with the move; the work is covered by existing licensing.

McEvoy also described related technical work completed this year: the assessor's office converted cartography to ArcGIS Pro, completed its first full year in production and a major version update, and trained two cartographers now handling ongoing updates. He said county staff are implementing a parcel fabric for change detection to identify where parcel and zoning boundaries diverge, which should reduce confusion about zoning near city limits.

On operational maps, McEvoy said the county finished an ambulance service area contract earlier in the year and has been adjusting ASA boundaries to resolve mismatches with fire district lines and dispatch needs; final sign-off requires agreement from affected fire districts, the ASA committee and the dispatch center.

During questions, Speaker 1 asked whether "CLOP" is an acronym; McEvoy replied on the record that it's "Polk backwards" and confirmed plans for a public demonstration and help materials: slideshows and guided help for users who need assistance or who should be directed to different tools. In response to a question about reuse, McEvoy said other counties can adopt the platform but that configuration effort varies; he noted Lake County will receive a near-identical copy configured with Lake County data because his team supports that county's setup.

McEvoy closed by stressing the county will run PC Maps in parallel "until it breaks entirely," and that the migration strategy is intended to reduce security exposure and modernize public access. The Board thanked staff and the meeting moved on to other routine business.