Project Proposal for Alaska Cadastral Project Funding Request
1. Project Title: Research and Mapping of Section Line Easements within the Kenai Peninsula Borough
2. Amount of Funding Requested: $70, 888
3. Project Point of Contact: Mary Toll, Platting Officer
Kenai Peninsula Borough Planning Department
144 N. Binkley Street
Soldotna, AK 99669
(907) 262-4441 Ext. 264
(907) 262-8618 Fax
4. Partnerships: Indirectly- BLM and State of Alaska DNR, by virtue of the data they will receive
Directly - Southcentral Title Company, Soldotna, Alaska
Kachemak Bay Title Company, Homer, Alaska
5. Cadastral Project Summary:
a) What is the nature of the problem being addressed?
Section line easements are not uniform for all properties within the State of Alaska or the Kenai Peninsula Borough (KPB or Borough). Research of section line easements is confusing and time-consuming, and must be undertaken on a case-by-case basis. The Borough is asked by members of the public on a daily basis whether their property is affected by a section line easement. Due to the limited staff at the Borough, we must refer these questions to BLM and DNR. Review of preliminary subdivision plat design is also affected by the status of section line easements.
b) What will the proposed project do and how will this help solve the problem?
A full time researcher will review all parcels in the Borough, creating a compatible database with information for each distinctly affected portion of each section. The database will have the KPB Tax Parcel ID number, the aliquot location of the parcel within the Township, Range and Section, the status of the land at the time of entry, the date of entry, the patent number, the patent source (Federal or state) and the resulting section line easement. If appropriate, additional information will be included in the database. If the section line easement has been vacated, the appropriate plat information will be included. The information will be utilized by a mapping technician to graphically depict the section line easements on the KPB GIS parcel base map, attaching the information in the database as attribute data. The section line easement will be capable of being queried upon, to provide the information in a tabular form that is included in the database. This information will be made available both on the web site and on the public access terminal in the Borough Planning Department. Until such time as the mapping is completed, the database itself will provide a valuable research tool, providing the section line easement information utilizing simple queries.
c) Who will be the users of the project results?
The information will be used by the general public; Borough staff such as the planners currently working on a Borough Transportation Plan; surveyors; title companies; realtors; BLM (if they wish to have the information provided to them in a compatible format); various State agencies (DNR, DOT - if they wish to have the information provided to them in a compatible format); review agencies such as the Kenai River Center, State Fish and Game, the Corps of Engineers; outdoor groups seeking access to back country areas, such as the Caribou Hills Cabin Hoppers; a Trails Commission if reinstated, etc.
d) How does this project fall within the scope and goals of the Alaska Cadastral Project?
The ability to share this information on-line, in person at the Borough Planning Department, and digitally with both the general public, Borough staff, surveyors, review agencies, title companies, BLM and State DNR/DOT meets the overall goal "to build a shared approach for the management of land ownership and cadastral survey information". The ability to access this information by telephone or on-line is crucial due to the size of both the State and the Borough, where travel to research such information is not always economically or physically feasible.
e) What specifically will the grant money be used or?
A large portion of the money will pay wages for a full time researcher, and a 6-month mapping technician. While the 6-month mapping technician position may not be able to fully complete the graphic input of the information, at the request of the committee after reviewing the abstract, the funding projection was reduced and Borough staff is of the opinion that the research is the most valuable portion of the project. Additional funds will be secured from some other source if the 6-month mapping position is unable to complete the mapping. The abundance of information currently available on the Borough GIS web site attests to the Borough's ability to complete projects that have been undertaken. Additional funds have been requested to cover travel to Anchorage for research. It is anticipated that the majority of the research can be accomplished from the Borough office, utilizing information from the BLM and DNR web sites, with title companies providing additional information as needed, such as legible patent copies and access to their recorded information plants. The original abstract proposed monthly day trips to Anchorage for the researcher; this has been halved to provide for 6 trips. Subsistence and travel are included in the funding request. The proposed computer that will be used by both the researcher and mapping technician has been scaled back, but staff is confident that it will be capable of the mapping required by the technician, although the speed may be slightly reduced. Upon completion of the project, the computer will be placed in the public access area of the Planning Department. The KPB GIS Department has indicated that the required mapping can be completed utilizing ArcView 8.0. All of our licenses are in daily use; funding for an additional license has been requested for one year. While this is longer than the 6-month mapping technician position would require, the license is available on a yearly basis; if the project is not completed with the 6 months, the license will be used to complete the project with additional funding for a mapping technician being sought elsewhere.
f) Outline the Plan of Operations for the project. How will you accomplish the work that needs to be done?
1. July 22, 2003 Response to Proposals by committee
2. August 15, 2003 Assistance agreements sent by committee
3. Sept. 2, 2003 Assistance Agreements signed
4. July-September Acceptance of grant funding by KPB Assembly (to be scheduled)
5. September 1, 2003 Advertise for full-time researcher to begin October 1, 2003
6. October 1, 2003 Start of projects/researcher starts
7. October 15, 2003 Researcher provides KPB staff with plan of research and tentative agenda
8. January 2, 2004 Researcher provides update on status of project
9. March 2, 2004 Advertise for mapping technician
10. April 1, 2004 Mapping technician hired and begins mapping
11. April 1, 2004 Researcher provides update on status of project
12. July 1, 2004 Researcher and mapping technician provide status update
13. Sept. 30, 2004 Research Project complete, full database available, status of mapping project reported
14. October 1, 2004 KPB staff scrambles for additional in-house temp budget or other funding source to complete mapping if needed (Note: it is anticipated that the mapping will be completed or substantially completed within
the 6-month time frame; if not, up to 2 additional months may need to be funded from another source)
6. Deliverables:
a) Microsoft Access or other suitable database with KPB Tax parcel ID number, the aliquot location of the parcel within the Township, Range and Section, the status of the land at the time of entry, the date of entry, the patent number, the patent source (Federal or state) and the resulting section line easement. If vacated, the appropriate plat information will be included.
b) Arcview shapefiles or other compatible format as needed by BLM and DNR
c) Additional layer on KPB GIS public web site graphically showing the section line easements on the parcel base map. These will be able to be queried to obtain the source of information.
d) Metadata
e) A dedicated public access computer terminal in the KPB Planning Department
7. Project Budget
a) Identify project costs for personnel, travel contractual, supplies/equipment, and indirect costs
� Full-time researcher for 12 months
Range O, Step 1, 2080 hours, regular wages ($20.36/Hr)
$42,349 + FICA $3,240 $45,589
� Full-time GIS mapping technician for 6 months
Range M, Step 1, 1040 hours, regular wages ($17.78/Hr)
$18,500 + FICA $1,415 19,915
� Travel to Anchorage and BLM/DNR (air-fare for researcher) 6 x $150 900
� Meal expenses for Anchorage travel - 6 x $27/day 162
� Rental car for travel in Anchorage - 6 x $40/day 240
� Computer - Dell Dimension 8300 2,082
� ArcView License Version 8 for one year with maintenance 2,000
TOTAL $70,888
b) Identify anticipated matching, in-kind contributions, or resources other than this grant
� Provision of office space for researcher and mapping technician; supervision of project; additional funding search or completion with in-house budget for remainder of mapping, if needed; data availability to interested parties in suitable format upon completion; data availability on the web site; provision of space for public access terminal upon completion of project; minimal updating of information as needed by in-house personnel (section line easement vacations are the only anticipated updates required)
c) Summary of results from on-going work that will be incorporated in the project implementation
� Parcel database for entire Borough has been mapped and attribute data is updated nightly
� New subdivision are input daily
� KPB Planning Department is undertaking a Transportation Plan in association with the current KPB Comprehensive Plan rewrite
� All recorded subdivision plats within the KPB have been scanned from the original mylars, with the mylars now being stored off-site in a secure fireproof location
� The scanned plat database is being audited, and subdivisions for which there is no mylar are being scanned from paper copies or other sources
� Parcel database, with ownership data, scanned plats and satellite imagery is available on-line at the Borough web site (http://www.borough.kenai.ak.us/GISDept/default.htm)