Wednesday, July 17, 2002

Atlantic County, Pinelands Commission Working Together To Support Regional Planning Efforts

County Executive Dennis Levinson and Pinelands Commission Executive Director Annette Barbaccia have announced the culmination of a six-month data sharing project between Atlantic County and the Pinelands Commission to facilitate planning and infrastructure improvements. This initiative will benefit all of Atlantic County, including coastal communities, regional growth areas and critical preservation, agricultural and watershed areas. This partnership has resulted in the digital mapping of over 180,000 parcels of land and achieved greater cost efficiency by avoiding the duplication of work by the two agencies.

Under an agreement, the Pinelands Commission funded the mapping of 12 Pinelands municipalities and the county funded the mapping of 10 municipalities outside of the Pinelands. The agreement resulted in a cost savings of $95,000 to Atlantic County and a $47,000 savings to the Pinelands Commission. The new computer-based data contain tax parcel information, including lot and block, ownership and municipal boundaries.

"Once again, we realize the benefits of shared services by eliminating duplicative efforts and redundant costs," said Levinson.

"This data will be an invaluable tool in the analysis of potential development and land preservation efforts and the protection of natural resources," said Barbaccia. "Having complete parcel data for all of Atlantic County will be particularly beneficial to our economic monitoring program, which uses the data to comparatively analyze land values of Pinelands and non-Pinelands communities."

The cooperative effort was managed by Atlantic County's Office of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), under the direction of Barry Hackett, and Russell Davis of the Pinelands Commission GIS Laboratory. Digitizing services were performed by BAE Systems ADR, a geo-spatial data consultant.

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"We are extremely pleased with the results of this partnership and look forward to additional opportunities to exchange services," added Levinson.

For more information, please contact Barry Hackett at (609) 645-5898, ext. 4413.

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