The parish’s new GIS website is an interactive parish map that includes a multitude of data layers available to the public that can be turned off and on to customize the public’s interface on screen. Some of the layers include, but is not limited to, tax parcel ownership, FEMA flood zones, parish and state roads, individual taxing districts, such as road or school districts, and parish owned bridges among other things that will be beneficial to the public. All of this data is overlaid over recent, high quality aerial imagery of Allen Parish that was taken during the winter of 2020.
Funding for the project was provided by a federal grant through the Delta Regional Authority for Economic Development. The overall goal of the project is the creation of a public/user friendly GIS map of Allen Parish to promote economic development through ease of access to public data.
This website is the result of 18 months of hard work in conjunction with several consultants and Allen Parish interagency cooperation, which included the tax assessor, the police jury, the sheriff’s department and the school board. A special thanks is extended to Fenstermaker and Associates, U.S. Land Grid and LA Digital Reproductions for their hard work and assistance in starting this website up.
This accessible and versatile tool is easily navigated by simply clicking on the option buttons that one would like to view. Users may view different options by simply clicking the different options. For instance, a piece of parcel can be enlarged to show the viewer who owns a particular piece of property.
Assessor Richard Earl stated the program uses 2020 aerial imagery that allows them to do various things including measuring the square footage of houses and discover property all over the parish. This imaging has gone from 1993 to 2020 updates with a substantial difference on how one can view what the GIS System has to offer. Earl also thanked Jacob Dillehay (parish engineer) in the meeting on Monday for putting so much work into this program, as well as Lewis Williams (tax assessor’s office). Williams sifted through 16,000 parcels to make sure this system is up-to-date and accurate.
Superintendent of Schools Kent Reed also had several positive statements to make about the system. Reed said people are always moving in, and they need to quickly know the school their children are zoned in as well as the bus route. This can be accessed at the click of a button now which makes the process easier overall when registering for school.
The website can be accessed at https://allen.totaland.com. The link to the website will be placed on the tax assessor and police jury’s websites for easy access.
