Instructions for new users of PhillySiteFinder
Welcome to
PhillySiteFinder, an interactive mapping application and database that
catalogues vacant and underutilized commercial and industrial sites in
Kensington, Richmond, Bridesburg and Fishtown in the City of Philadelphia.
SiteFinder was created by the
Cartographic Modeling Lab (CML) at the University of Pennsylvania in partnership
with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.
Getting started: the
toolbar
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The "toolbar" is located along the left hand side of the PhillySiteFinder home
page. Start by clicking on one of the top two buttons on the toolbar.
- The
Search Sites button allows you to look up sites by sale price, sale year,
lot size, and other criteria. Use the pull-down menus to find sites of
interest to you.
- Or, you
can select Map by Address to enter an address and find out
what sites are in its general vicinity.
Use the Feedback tool to report a bug, the About PhillySiteFinder
button to learn more about this application, and the Help tool if you
get stuck.
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Example: Locating and Creating Map of Vacant Land
Site Search
Suppose you want to find a vacant lot that was sold in the 1990s, and although you don’t know
the exact address, you know it’s in the Northeast section of the City. Select the “Search
Properties” tool and in the Sale Year field, choose 1990 and 2000 from the pull down boxes.
Further refine your search by selecting “Northeast” from the Area of City field. Click on
“Search for Sites” to bring up the Search Results screen.
Six vacant or underutilized commercial or industrial properties are listed and shown on
the accompanying map. By looking at the photographs in the bottom half of the screen,
you narrow the choices down to the two vacant lots, site numbers 6130003912 and 6860004200.
Site Details
Next, click on either the addresses of the two properties of interest or the word
“Details” next to the photographs to find out more about these sites. Site details including
lot information, sale information and assessment data are given in the “Site” tab. The
“Photo Gallery” tab contains enlarged photographs, if available.
By looking at the Lot Size field, you can see that the property at 3912 Old York Rd.
is approximately twice the size of the lot on Rising Sun Avenue.
You determine that 3912 Old York Road is the property about which you
want to learn more.
Create Map of Site
Now, suppose you want to create and print an interactive map showing this site in
its neighborhood context. Close the Details Window and return to the top of the screen where
you should select “Explore an Interactive Map.” The sites meeting the original search
criteria are shown as orange squares with their corresponding parcel identification numbers.
To customize this map, choose “move map” so that your parcel is in the center of the map.
Next, click on Add/Remove Layers. Click in the “Show” or “Labels” box of the layers you’d
like to see represented on the map. For this example, we added Empowerment-Enterprise Zones
and PHS Projects as layers. Click “Apply Changes” to see your map with the updated layers,
legend and new positioning.
The following map shows the parcel of interest in the center. Note the thumbnail map
that shows the map detail area in context of the City of Philadelphia as a whole. The map
can be printed by choosing the Print icon or the Print Report button.
Practice
Practice using PhillySiteFinder to answer these questions:
1. How many Renewal Community properties are located in the Northeast
section of the City? Which of these are available for sale?
2. Use the zoom in, zoom out and move map tool buttons to navigate around
the American Street Enterprise Zone. How many vacant or underutilized sites
are located in this Zone?
Problems
If you still have questions about the PhillySiteFinder website or
notice a problem with the application, click
http://cml.upenn.edu/sitefinder/psfFeedbackRequest.asp
to fill out a Feedback Form. Return the form to CML via fax or
by clicking on "Send Feedback to the CML."
Acknowledgements
The information in the website comes from City of Philadelphia Board of Revision of
Taxes data and foot surveys conducted by PEC. The site was built using the architecture developed
for the NIS system, which was funded primarly by the William Penn
Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, and University of Pennsylvania.
Additional funding for PhillySiteFinder comes from the Pennsylvania
Environmental Council and a grant from the Delaware Valley Regional
Planning Commission's Transportation and Community Development Initiative (TCDI).
About the Cartographic Modeling Laboratory
The Cartographic Modeling Laboratory, a joint venture of the School of Social Policy & Practice and
School of Design of the University of Pennsylvania, is dedicated to solving urban problems
through the development of web-based geographic information systems and spatial data analysis
tools.
For more information about the CML,
contact:
Marlen Kokaz
GIS Director
Cartographic Modeling Lab
University of Pennsylvania
mkokaz@sp2.upenn.edu
http://cml.upenn.edu/
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This site is maintained by the Cartographic Modeling Lab at the University of Pennsylvania.
The NIS is currently made possible through the generous support of the William Penn Foundation and the City of Philadelphia.
Additional funds have been provided by Penn Facilities and Real Estate to further develop the NIS.
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In partnership with Pennsylvania Environmental Council.
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Copyright Notice: ©2003-2009 Cartographic Modeling Laboratory.
All rights reserved.
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