City continues ‘Access Madison’ program with online GIS

The City of Madison continues to improve accessibility to city information with the launch of an online geographic information system.

The new GIS is available to the public via the city’s website or by going directly to maps.madisonal.gov.

The new system allows interactive viewing and query capabilities of Madison specific information, including but not limited to, roads, greenways, parks, parcels and satellite imagery.

In addition to these features, residents can turn on the council district layer to determine what council district they reside or zoom in to certain parts of the city to see what zoning applies to that area.

There are also links to the Madison County Tax Assessor maps, as well as Limestone County Revenue Commissioner maps for even more access to specific information.

This is the latest of three projects this year that have been accomplished to better improve the quality of life for residents and visitors.

“The public expects the city government to keep pace with our technology culture,” said Mayor Paul Finley. “All of these technology upgrades have been made to better serve a community that wants information when and where they need it.”

Earlier this summer, the city made significant upgrades to city facilities by providing free public Wi-Fi in City Hall and throughout Palmer Park.

Now city boards and community meetings have free access to the internet to more effectively make decisions and discuss issues.

The free public Wi-Fi also gives visitors to city hall access to check e-mail and surf the web while they are doing business at city hall.

In addition to the upgrades at the municipal building, Palmer Park now provides access to residents and visitors while their children practice and play sports. The wireless network opens up the possibility of streaming video of ball games or providing real time score updates for various tournaments occurring at the park in the future.

The technology initiatives began last fall, when the city started offering online payments of traffic tickets.

Now, approximately 24 percent of all traffic fines are being paid online.

The city continued this spring with the broadcast and streaming of City Council and Planning Commission meetings on government access channel 42 and at madisonal.gov.

The Access Madison program has plans to expand to include projects such as public Wi-Fi access at Dublin Park, as well as offering more online payments in the future.