A friend of mine pointed out a real cool tool available at the Erie County website (erie.gov). The site is an internet mapping system. No, this isn’t like Google Maps, or Local from Live.com. It is much, much, much more. I have included a screen shot to show you some of the features and overlays. There is a nice search function that even allows you to search by name. Really. Are you wondering what Daniel Briere’s lot looks like, or where he lives? I am serious. You can easily locate this information. It is public record, after all.

One of the most useful functions, in my opinion, is the overlay of lot lines. This will show you the shape of a parcel of land or property in the county. This is especially useful when you are shopping for real estate and the listing agent doesn’t have that information available for you. You can use the flood plain overlay, a wetland map overlay and a number of other overlays such as school districts, and municipalities.

Do you prefer to view maps like you can at Google, with an aerial photo from a satellite? You can. In the left hand column, click on the selection to show the “2002 orthophotography” and click “refresh map”. You can use the “Pan” tool to drag the map.

Erie County Internet Mapping Project

The tools within the application take some getting used to, that is why I am linking to the help page as a start. Once there, click on the link that reads “Internet Mapping System”.

A couple of quick notes.

1. Pop up blockers will probably interfere with some functions. You should turn them off, or hold your ‘ctrl’ key while clicking on links within the map.
2. This works properly in IE (Internet Explorer web browser), but not in Firefox.

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