GIS I - Lab 1: Base Data

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Project Background

You are working as an intern at Clear Vision Eau Claire. Clear Vision Eau Claire is a county wide initiative to develop a collaborative vision for Eau Claire. In spring of 2012, Clear Vision Eau Claire announced a public-private partnership between local developers, UW-Eau Claire and the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center (dubbed Haymarket, LLC) that intends to construct a new development at the confluence of the Chippewa and Eau Claire Rivers in downtown Eau Claire. This development, currently known as the “Confluence Project”, plans to break ground on a new community arts center/university student housing and commercial retail complex in downtown Eau Claire beginning in 2014. The Arts Center will be home to three performance spaces, galleries, offices, classrooms, studios, and more.

Goals

To become familiar with the various spatial data sets used in public land management, administration, and land use; and then use them to prepare base maps for the Confluence Project.

Objectives

1. Explore various data sets for the City and County of Eau Claire
2. Digitize the site for the proposed Confluence Project
3. Learn about the Public Land Survey System
4. View Legal Information for the Confluence site
5. Build a map of all relevant base data for the Confluence Project

Methods

Digitize the Site of the Proposed Confluence Project

The first step in preparing base maps to be used during the development process is to digitize the site for the proposed Confluence Project. Much of the data used in this analysis was provided by the City of Eau Claire and Eau Claire County, but in order to effectively view that information in regards to this project, it is important to distinguish the project site from it's surroundings. Using the following steps, I was able to digitize the development site, which will be used across all base maps during the planning and development of the Confluence Project.

    Digitized Site of Confluence Project
  1. Started by creating a new blank geodatabase in ArcCatalog named "EC_Confluence"
  2. Imported the coordinate system from the "2009-07-13_EauClaire" geodatabase so that my new geodatabase would match the coordinate system of my existing data
  3. Added the World Imagery basemap to my new map in ArcMap
  4. Added my new feature class (pro_site) to the map, even though it is still blank at this point
  5. Located the site of the Confluence Project and added the "parcel_area" feature class from the "City of Eau Claire" geodatabase
  6. Using the LegalOutline.jpg image to identify the parcels that needed to be digitized, I used the Editor Toolbar to edit the "Proposed Site" feature class. I used the Polygon Construction Tool to select the area of the proposed site of the Confluence Project and saved the edits to my new "pro_site" feature class.

Generate Base Maps for Confluence Project

Using data provided by the City of Eau Claire and Eau Claire County, I have prepared six base maps to be used in the development of the Confluence Project. The steps taken to prepare each map are outlined below.

Civil Divisions

  • Added World Imagery basemap to my new data frame
  • Added "County_Boundary" and "Civil Divisions" feature classes
    • There are three Municipality Types that are in Eau Claire County: City, Town, and Village
    • A civil division is a legally defined county subdivision that comprises both governmental functioning entities - those with elected or appointed officials who provide services and raise revenues - and nonfunctioning entities that exist primarily for administrative purposes, such as election districts.
  • Changed the transparency of the "Civil Divisions" feature class to 60% and added the "Proposed Site" feature class to the map


Census Boundaries

  • Added World Imagery basemap and "Proposed Site" feature class to my new data frame
  • Added "BlockGroups" and "Tracts" feature classes
    • Block Groups are a subdivision of Tracts
  • Symbolized the Block Groups with graduated colors according to Population Density. I normalized the POP2007 value field with the SQMI field to display the population density per square mile. 



PLSS Description of Confluence Project

PLSS Features

  • Added World Imagery basemap and "Proposed Site" feature class to my new data frame
  • Added the "PLSS_sections" and "PLSS_qq" feature classes from the City of Eau Claire geodatabase
    • Using the Identify Tool on the "PLSS_qq" feature class, I was able to find the PLSS Description of the quarter-quarter location of the proposed Conflutence Project site.
  • Using the documentation and resources provided to me on the PLSS, I was able to locate the project site and provide the technical PLSS description



 EC City Parcel Data

  • Added World Imagery basemap and "Proposed Site" feature class to my new data frame
  • Added "Parcel Area", "Centerlines", and "Water" feature classes
  • Legal description data provided by the City of Eau Claire
    • Provided parcel information includes Owner Info, Parcel Info, Valuation and Sale History, Tax Info, Primary Building Info, and the Legal Description

Zoning

  • Added World Imagery basemap and "Proposed Site" feature class to my new data frame
  • Added "Zoning Areas" feature class from City of Eau Claire gdb
    • Symbolized unique categorical values based on the "zoning_cla" data field
    • Within the "zoning_cla" data, I further grouped values together into a broader group of zoning classes:
      • Commercial
      • Central Business District
      • Industrial
      • Residential
      • Public Properties
      • Transportation

Voting Districts

  • Added World Imagery basemap and "Proposed Site" feature class to my new data frame
  • Added "VotingWards2011" feature class from City of Eau Claire gdb and labeled each voting district by their ward number

Results

The following image shows all six base maps to be used for development of the Confluence Project:

Confluence Project Development Information

Civil Divisions - The proposed site of the Confluence Project falls within the Eau Claire city limits.
Census Boundaries - Falling into the Tract that includes the downtown area, the Confluence Project finds itself in the middle of the most densely populated area in all of Eau Claire county.
PLSS Features - Confluence Project proposed site PLSS Description: NE 1/4 NW 1/4, S20, T27N, R9W. The base map shows the PLSS Section 20 outlined in orange, and the proposed site can be seen in the Northeast Quarter of Section 20, and in the Northwest Quarter of that Northeast Quarter.
EC City Parcel Data - The two parcels for this development project are located at 220 Eau Claire St and 128 Graham Ave, at the confluence of the Chippewa and Eau Claire Rivers.
Zoning - The proposed site falls into the Zoning Class of Central Business District.
Voting Districts - The Confluence Project sits within Ward 31.

Sources

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