Tips in Using the Belmont County GIS Mapping Website – May 2017

Accessing the site:

Go to www.belcogis.com, and click the “Web Mapping Shortcut” image, or click on “Aerial

Mapping” and then the “Belmont County, Ohio Aerial Mapping” hyperlink after disclaimer. This takes

you to http://belmont-oh.bhamaps.com/ .

Initial screen

By default a search box appears allowing you to search by Auditor parcel number or by Owner

Name.

Zoom/Pan tools

A slider is on the left. Drag the square up or down to zoom in or out. The globe at the top takes

you to the countywide level. The Hand is a Pan tool. The Magnifying Glass buttons allow window

zooming in and out. Also, the wheel on the mouse allows zooming in and out. Mouse left button

down allows panning as well.

Overview tool

The globe at the bottom left shows a red rectangle of the map view. Clicking on the globe

displays a gray rectangle representing the view on screen. Dragging the gray rectangle and releasing it

changes the on-screen view. Clicking the globe again returns it to its initial state.

Default Parcel Search Box

Entry fields are programmed to

display matching results as you type.

Auditor parcel number format is nn-

nnnnn.nnn, where the first two

characters are the taxing district, and the

last three characters are the split off the

parent parcel (.001, .002, etc.).

Owner name is based on last

name and first name values.

Click Search to list all matching results,

or click the name in the result list, and

then Search, to list that result only. The

map will zoom to an individual selection.

The parcel will be outlined, and a box

will appear showing Parcel Identification

Number (PIN), Deed Volume and Page,

Owner Name, Acreage and a hyperlink

for the scanned Transfer Card. The

report hyperlink will open a box showing

the attribute data for that parcel. A

“View report as full page” hyperlink at

the bottom of the report will create a

nice report for that parcel, with a map of

the parcel at the top and attribute data

below.

If the results disappear as you are typing

in a search field, there are no matches in

the database.

Clicking Clear in the Search box clears all

you have typed so far.

The database being queried is the

Engineer’s parcel database.

Report for PIN 09-00711.001-2-1

---

View Search Results

Results found are displayed in the “View Search Results” box. The number of

matching results is dispalyed at the bottom left (maximun 1000). The results can

be sorted (PIN is default) by Owner Name, Auditor Parcel, Volume/Page,

Acreage, Date Transferred, Owner Address, Tax Name, or Property Address. The

results can be ordered Low to High or High to Low.

A really useful feature is the Export option to create a txt, csv, pdf, or xlsx file.

Select the output file format, and then click Download. Give it a moment and

then select Open or Save/Save as.

Clicking on an individual result in the View Search Results box zooms to that

particular parcel. Click Remove button to remove a specific result. Click the

Clear button to clear all results.

Clicking on the Transfer card hyperlink displays a scan of the most recent scanned transfer card. Its

information may be more current than that in the mapping as the mapping parcel file is on a monthly

basis update, whereas the scanned transfer cards are uploaded when received from the Engineer’s

Office in the courthouse. Our monthly update schedule is set by the level of service contracted by the

county – currently Tier II (Monthly) of IV (Daily, more expensive).

Advanced Search

Advanced searching is robust. You can search

on many different fields. It is recommended

you first zoom to the countywide level so you

can see results displayed in yellow.

Click the Advanced Search button in the

toolbar. You can search by the following:

Township: (drop-down is available showing

township names);

Section: (01-36) (use of a leading zero is

recommended);

T: (01-10) (use of a leading zero is

recommended);

R: (2-6) (no leading zero);

Tax Map Parcel (the number on the hardcopy

tax map, such as 1, 2 ,3, OL 113, VAC-05, etc.);

Volume Page: (Deed Volume/Deed Page) (Official Records are preceded with a “9” as in 9063/186);

Acreage: Acreage Low to Acreage High for an acreage range;

Date Transferred: for begin and end date range with calendar popups;

Subdivision: (subdivision name);

Cabinet/Slide: Recorded plat Cab/Sl, such as D/170;

Owner Name: from Auditor table;

Owner Address: tax mailing address from Auditor data, not from 911 addressing;

Property Address: parcel address from Auditor data, not from 911 addressing;

Click Search to execute the earch. Matches appear in yellow on the map.

Press Clear to start over.

Address Search

Click Address Search in the toolbar to search by 911

address (not Auditor address values).

For rural 5-digit house numbers, it is recommended you

enter a house number alone, and then click Search to

list all possible matches for that house number. That

way, you avoid misspellings of street names.

Search results include “contained in” values, such as

54565 for a search value of 456.

A useful feature of the website is automatic searching and display for the parcel containing the resulting

address search, with the popup for basic parcel attributes, transfer card, and report.

Layers

The parcel layer is on by default. You can change the transparency

of this layer from 0 to 100 (100 is default).

To get there, click Map and Tools in the toolbar, then click Layers.

You will see Tax Map, GIS Layer, Aerials 2011 and Aerials 2014.

The Tax Map layer includes parcel polygons. Click the small arrow

to the extreme right of Tax Map and you will see a slider bar for

opacity. Clicking Tax Map toggles this layer on and off.

There are other layers available to you. Click the small arrow to

the extreme right of GIS Layer to expand the list of available

layers. There are two tabs – Sublayers and Opacity. The Sublayers

tab lists the other layers available; opacity presents a slider bar as

for transparency of parcels, above. The Cadastral layer includes

monuments, distances and landhooks, and parcel labels.

Survey Plat

This layer will show a red dot for the location of every scanned

survey in the county. Clicking on a specific dot will bring up a pdf

of the survey (popup blocker off). Please note the (1 of 2) in the

title bar of the resulting popup.

This tells you there is more than one item in the

popup. Click the right arrow to see the next item

(in this case, the basic parcel data).

Recorded Plat

This layer will show a star for the location of

recorded plats.

Click the hyperlink to load a pdf of the recorded

plat.

Note once again that the popup has a (1 of 2) in

its title bar.

Community

Not from Belmont County? Don’t know where

unincorporated hamlets are, such as Lloydsville,

Steinersville, Echo or Tacoma? Go to the

countywide view by clicking on the globe at the top

left of the screen, and then turn on the Community

layer. You will see wher all these little burgs are!

Addressing

There are three options under Addressing – House

Numbering Grid, Roof Print, and 911 Address.

The House Numbering Grid displays the layout for rural house numbers in the county house numbering

system (municipalities are responsible for their own addressing). East-West house numbers range from

32000 at the Guernsey/Noble County Line to 59000+ near the Ohio River. North-South house numbers

range from 53000 at the Monroe County Line to 74000 at the Harrison-Jefferson County Line. There are

1000 numbers available per mile, i.e., per survey section. If you have a rural house number and know if

the road is basically east-west or north-south, you can approximate the location of the address very

closely. Usually odd numbers are on the north for east-west roads and on the east for north-south

roads.

The Roof Print layer is of all

65,000+ mapped buildings in the

county. This allows you to see

building outlines more clearly.

The 911 Address layer displays the

house number for each addressed

structure. This data is from the

911 database and its purpose is to

assist in emergency response. It

may not be suitable for delivery,

mailing, assessment, utility billing,

or any other purpose. Addressing

data in commercial GPS units may

not agree with 911 values!

Creek

The Creek Layer will display named creeks

in the county.

Elevation

The Elevation Layer has three options –

Spot, Contour (10 Feet) and Contour (50

Feet).

Elevation data is from the 2001 aerial

mission and has not been updated since.

Spot elevations are usually at road

intersection of hilltops and are represented

by a cross symbol with the elevation value

labeled.

Fifty foot and ten foot contours are also

labeled with the elevation value.

This layer gives you an idea of the

topography of the land.

Contour values are good to one-half of the

contour interval, so for our case, plus or

minus five feet.

Road Centerline

The Road Centerline layer is based

on extraction from aerial

photography by the vendor who

flew the county. Roads are labeled

with a concatenation of road

number (T436, C28A, S40, etc.),

prefix direction, street name,

street type (RD, AV, BLVD, etc.) and

suffix direction. Roads are symbolized according

to jurisdiction. Click the Legend button in the

toolbar to see the way roads are labeled by

jurisdiction.

The road names are the ones used at 911.

Subdivision

The Subdivision layer shows subdivisions mapped

to date.

Voting Precincts

Voting precinct mapping is used by the

Board of Elections for determining in

which voting precinct voters reside.

It is easier to see the precinct numbers if

Aerials are turned off.

Boundaries are determined by the Board

of Elections.

School District

School District mapping is determined

from taxing districts for each parcel in the

county by the Auditor’s Office.

Parcels in the same taxing district have a

school code which relates to the school

district.

This layer is also used by the Board of

Elections for assuring voters get the

correct ballot for school levies.

See the

Legend for

names.

Fire District

Fire districts are fire taxing districts, not fire service districts.

Fire districts do not cover the whole county – only areas that

have enacted a fire taxing district.

This layer is also used by the Board of Elections for assuring

voters get the correct ballot for fire levies.

See the

Legend

for

names.

Strip Mined Soils

This layer was developed in cooperation with Belmont

Soil and Water and ODNR in 2008.

It is not kept up to date. The intent was to serve as a tool

for people to know where strip mining has occurred in

the past.

The user should use caution as not all strip mined areas

may be included in this mapping, and its accuracy is

approximate, based on scans of coal company permit

maps submitted to ODNR over the years.

C & D Permit mapping was done by ODNR from scanned surface mine permit maps. The SSURGO Spoil

Soils layer includes previously surface mined areas.

DFIRM Group

The Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map (DFIRM) is

useful for estimating if a property is in a flood

zone.

Three options are available.

Base Flood Elevation (BFE) shows lines for which

the base flood elevation has been determined.

Panel shows the layout of panels with FEMA

panel number, required for Elevation Certificates.

Flood Zone shows areas in the 1% chance (A

Zones) and 0.2% chance flood zones.

Township & Corporation

This layer shows the layout of all scanned

hardcopy tax maps for the Township sections

and quarter sections, and for sheets in

Corporations.

Tax maps of township lots are not in this layer

and are covered below.

Turning this layer on will allow the user to

click on the map and be presented with a

popup to view the scanned tax map in

another window.

Again, notice the title bar in the popup, as

multiple layers may be available.

Township Lot

This layer diplays the layout of all scanned,

hardcopy township lot tax maps.

Township Lot tax maps include tax maps of

recorded plats and subdivisions.

Click on the map with this layer on to see a

popup directing you to a scanned tax map.

Again, notice the title bar in the popup, as

multiple layers may be available.

Measure

The Measure button in the toolbar features several useful tools.

Measure – Point

The point tool allows you to enter a

lat/lon and have the location

displayed on the map. It is

recommended you zoom to the

countywide level first. You will not

see the point if your view does not

cover the area in which the point is

located.

For example, zoom to the county

wide level, click the Measure Point

button, and enter 40 for Latitude and

-81 for Longitude. A blue dot will

appear at this location. Make sure

longitude values are negative for

North America, as we are west of Greenwich, England.

Also notice that the latitude/longitude values change as you move your mouse pointer. It seems only

Decimal Degrees work.

Measure – Line

Select this option to measure an approximate distance. You can select units of feet, miles, meters and

kilometers. Click at the beginning of your line and double-click at the end of your line, and a distance

will be displayed. For example, the county is about 26 miles wide.

Measure – Polygon

This tool allows you to sketch a polygon and get an approximate perimeter and area. You can select the

units you want for length and area. Click at the beginning of the polygon, click on additional vertices,

and double-click to finish the figure. Perimeter and area will be displayed in the units you selected.

Measure – Freehand Line

Click on the beginning of your line, hold the left mouse button down, and sketch the remaining line.

When you release the mouse button, the length will be displayed.

Measure – Freehand Polygon

Draw a freehand polygon by holding down the left mouse button. When you release the button, the

perimeter and area of the polygon will be displayed.

Measure – Erase

Click the eraser to erase all measured items.

Printing

The Printing button in the toolbar

allows you to make a pdf of the

areas on screen.

To get there, click Map & Tools, and

then Printing.

You may enter a Title and Author for

your map.

For sheet size, select 8.5 x 11 Portrait

or Landscape, 11 x 17 Portrait or

Landscape, or Map Only.

Print Format selections include pdf,

png, jpg, gif, eps, svg and svgz.

The map will generate after a

moment, and then appear in a new

tab.

From there you can send the map to your printing device or save it.

Aerials

You have the option of using Aerials from 2011 or Aerials from 2014, or none at all.

The 2011 aerials are from Belmont County’s flight and are 1/2 foot pixel countywide.

The 2014 aerials are from the Ohio State Imagery Program (OSIP) and are 1 foot pixel countywide.

The county can have up to two years of aerials at the current web mapping pricing structure. We

anticipate replacing one of the layers with 1/2 foot imagery from the 2017 county flight when it

becomes available toward the end of 2017. The next OSIP is set for 2020 for this area of the State.

T & R Tips

This toolbar button takes you to a “cheat sheet” of Township and Range values for various townships

and sections in the county.

Townships that are not also geographic, or survey, townships (6 mi x 6 mi) may have duplicate sections

of the same number but which are in different T & R’s.

Belmont County is part of the Old Seven Ranges and includes lands from Range 2 to Range 6.

Fire Hydrants

Shows the location of fire hydrants that are mapped to date.