Guide to Using GIS Portico Website - Lee County, Illinois User's Guide.… · Lee County Guide to...

Lee County Guide to Using GIS Portico Website

www.leecountyil.com

Welcome….

…to the Lee County GIS Portico Website! The site is designed to display geographic (map) and

related property information. The site has two levels of access available –“Guest” (no cost) and

“Professional” ($420 annual fee).

Features of the GUEST site include 1) searching for parcels by property address or parcel

number, 2) map navigational tools such as panning, and zooming in/out, 3) map printing, 4)

emailing a map link, 5) and measuring area by acreage or square feet. Property specific

information is also available such as parcel number, legal description, lot dimensions, assessed

value, recent sales information, real estate taxes, homestead exemptions, and residential building

information such as size, age, etc.

The PROFESSIONAL site was created to offer a higher level of data access to real estate

professionals in a secure environment. It includes everything available on the GUEST site along

with these additional functions: 1) ability to search by owner’s name, 2) ability to perform

“advanced property searches” using criteria such as township, sale date, sale price, property

class, story-type, home size, home age, etc., and 3) export of limited search results, and 4) create

a list of parcels within a specific buffer distance. Additional property specific information

includes ownership, residential building sketches, and photographs (when available).

To access the site go to: www.leecountyil.com and click on the “GIS/Maps” tool. Enter your

user name and password or enter the site as a GUEST.

We hope you find the site useful and easy to navigate. The attached reference guide developed

by Carmen Bollman (Assessment Office), should help you get started. If you have any

questions, contact the assessment office or the GIS/IT department.

Wendy Ryerson Mike McBride

Chief County Assessment Officer GIS/IT Director

(815) 288-4483 (815) 285-8166

[email protected] [email protected]

http://www.leecountyil.com/

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


www.leecountyil.com

Zoom/Rotate

This is the Zoom/Rotate Tool, located in the upper left corner of the

map. The slide bar allows you to zoom in and out. The little circle at

the bottom right will take the map back out to the full county map.

(Depending on your internet connection and computer, the map may

take a few moments to load, so please be patient. There is a small

Progress Bar that will appear at the bottom of the screen showing how

much is left to load. If it gets “stuck” you’ll have to refresh your

browser window and start the search over.)

You can also swivel the map if you need to change the orientation. To reset the map to North,

click on the triangle near the slide bar.

You can also hold down the Shift key, left click the mouse and draw a square over the area you

want to zoom to.

Hint: If you zoom in too far, there is no “back” button, you have to use the zoom tool (slide bar)

in the upper left corner to zoom out. If you use the Back button on the browser, it will take you

back to the log in screen, or the page that was open before you logged in to the map.


www.leecountyil.com

TOOL BAR

The new tool bar looks like this. The Search tool (magnifying glass) is always to the left of the

Search window. Tools can be turned on and off by clicking on the icons. To “clear” the tools

that are on, just click on the magnifying glass, and all other tools will return to their original

positions.

Note: Not all tools are available on the GUEST site.

BASIC SEARCH

To perform a basic search, click in the Search window and start typing a parcel number (10 digit

number, no dashes), street address, or owner’s name. All possible matches will start showing up

below the Search window, so the more information you enter, the more it can narrow down the

results.

In the following example, I’m searching for 112 E. Second St., Dixon. Notice that with only

typing 112, it’s already trying to match my request with all known data…starting with parcel

numbers.


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If you keep typing, the results narrow further:

Select the address that you are looking for and the map will zoom to that area on the map.

If you are looking for a parcel but you have limited information, type in what you do know. In

the next example, we are searching for an owner with the last name of Smith. Type in Smith and

hit enter. All matches are displayed in the Results window to the right, and all of those parcels

are highlighted in blue on the map. If you hover the mouse over the Results, each parcel will

highlight more boldly as you move the mouse down the list of results. (Note: Searching by

owner’s name is not available on the GUEST site.)


www.leecountyil.com

ADVANCED SEARCH (available only on the PROFESSIONAL site)

The Advanced Search Tool looks like this. You can use the drop down menus to start selecting

features for your search. To add more criteria, use the “And” and “Or” buttons. To remove

criteria from the search, click the red circle to the right of that line in the search.

In this example, it’s searching for sales in Dixon Township with a sale date greater than January

1, 2012, a sale amount between $100,000 and $250,000 and a year built newer than 1990:


www.leecountyil.com

A Results window will appear at the right, showing all matches. Owner name, address and

parcel number will be listed, and all of those matches will be highlighted on the map in blue.

You can then click on the parcel you’re looking for or use the tools at the bottom of the Results

window to do further analysis.

RESULTS TOOLBAR

This tool bar will appear whenever a Results window opens. The tools (in order, left to right) are

a Buffer tool, Save, Email Link, View Property Record Card, and Close Window. Note: Not all

tools are available in the GUEST site.)


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BUFFER:

By clicking on the Buffer tool, it will create a buffer around each parcel in the list, which will be

red on the map, and also highlight all adjacent parcels within that buffer in blue.

SAVE: (Available on the PROFESSIONAL Site only.)

The Save button allows you to save the search results in a format that can then be opened in

Microsoft Excel. It will save it as a *.csv file, but this is compatible with Excel. Simply open

the file and all of the information contained in the search will be put into a spreadsheet.

EMAIL LINK:

This feature allows you to email a link to the map, with all of the results highlighted, and the

results window open. Clicking on the link that arrives in the email will open Internet Explorer

by default and the recipient can either log in if they subscribe or view the map as a guest. You

may have to click on the link a second time after the browser is opened, then it will zoom to the

parcel referenced in the link.


www.leecountyil.com

VIEW PROPERTY RECORD CARD:

This feature allows you to view the property cards for ALL of the parcels included in the search

Results window. Click on this button and another tab will open showing all of the property

cards. From here, you can print them all, print only the ones you need, or simply view them and

close the tab.

CLOSE RESULTS:

This feature closes the results window but not the Advanced Search window at the top, if you’ve

used that tool. You should use this to close the Results window before performing a new search.

To close the Advanced Search tool, click on the “A” magnifying glass.


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SELECT ELEMENT

To use this tool, simply left click and hold it down, then draw a line through the parcels you’d

like to select.

The selected parcels will then be highlighted in blue and a Results window will open with all of

the basic parcel information.

To view ONE of the results, click on the name. This will display the information for that one

parcel. To return to the complete list, click on the white grid squares at the top left of the Results

Window.

To clear the results, just close the Results window.


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BUFFER

This tool works similarly to the select elements too, in that you need to click and draw on the

map. To create a buffer, click a point or left click and draw a line on the map. The buffered area

will show up red, which will be 100 feet (or whatever distance you’ve chosen) from the

point/line. To buffer parcels, click and draw a line around the parcel boundaries. I’ve purposely

drawn outside the parcel lines so you can see what it looks like, but usually you’ll want to trace

the parcel lines as closely as you can for more accuracy.

A Results window will open to the right. The chosen buffer area will show up in red, which will

be 100 ft (or the chosen distance) from the parcel boundaries that you traced. All parcels within

the buffer zone will highlight in blue.


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IDENTIFY

To display the parcel information for one parcel, simply click this tool and then inside the parcel

lines and the property information window will open. The parcel will also highlight blue.

If you scroll down to the Links section of the Results window, there are shortcuts to Drawings

and Photos if they’re available. Click on the link you need and it will open in a new tab.

MEASURE

This tool allows you to measure an area by acres or square footage, the default being acres.

Click on your starting point and at each point thereafter. The length of the sides you draw will

show as you’re drawing them.


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Double click to finish drawing your area. The measured area will be orange, with the acreage

displayed in the middle of the shape. All sides that you drew will display the length.

XY Coordinates If you need to search for something by latitude and longitude and know the coordinates, you can

enter them and click Add Point. It will place a red dot on the location, and zoom into the map.

If you want to find the latitude and longitude of a point, you can click Add Manually and then

click on the map. A red dot will appear at that point and then you can hover the mouse over it

and it will show the coordinates.


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BOOKMARKS

To create a bookmark, zoom to the area you want to mark and click on the Thumbtack. In the

window, name the bookmark and click the +. This way you can quickly return to areas that you

look at often. To remove bookmarks, click on Clear, however this will remove ALL bookmarks.

LAYERS

Map layers are able to be faded in and out. The default settings are shown above, with the

aerials and cadastral (lines, annotation, parcel numbers) “ON” and the soils layer “OFF.” The

slide bars can be used to fade what is visible, so if you need a line map, for example, simply slide

the aerial bar down.

The “Legend” box can be checked to reveal an explanation of different features, such as what the

different colors of lines mean. This menu can be “hidden” by clicking the arrow in the upper

right and the menu will slide shut.


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PRINT

Clicking on the Print button will open another tab, from which you can print your map. It will

show the line legend off to the left and if you have an Identify window open, that will display on

the printed map as well. At the bottom, it says “Please choose Landscape when you print. Print

now.”

Clicking “Print Now” will bring up a Print window and you can finish the printing process. By

choosing “Landscape” your page will print more fully. If you leave it on “Portrait,” the map will

be reduced in size to fit the page that way.

If you do not want the parcel information printed on the map, you should turn off that tool before

clicking the Print button, either by clicking on the “Search” magnifying glass (turns off all tools)

or just clicking on the “Identify” tool to turn off that one. Even if you “hide” the Identify Results

window on the map, it will still print on the page.

Hidden window on main tab… Still shows in new “Print” tab

You can also choose “Generate PDF” which will create a map that you can save as a PDF file.

This map will not have the legend ON the map, but there will be a general legend at the bottom

of the page.


www.leecountyil.com

HELP TIPS

If you click on the Question Mark button to the far right of the tool bar, you can turn on and off

some helpful map tips. Available tips are Map Navigation Help (World icon) and Feature

Selection Help (Arrow icon). These screens contain shortcuts and helpful tips for using the map

more efficiently.

Guide to Using GIS Portico Website - Lee County, Illinois User's Guide.… · Lee County Guide to...

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