BERLIN– A GIS project is expected to provide the Town of Berlin with housing data.
A team from Salisbury University will be in the field collecting data in the coming weeks as part of a housing study conducted by the Eastern Shore Regional GIS Cooperative. Logan Hall, a GIS analyst and Berlin resident, said the data would identify contributing factors leading to property degradation.
“The town may use this data to support whatever initiatives you guys may have, as you see fit,” Hall said.
Mayor Zack Tyndall said he initially spoke to Hall about a housing study for Berlin about a year ago. The town was put on a waiting list but a recent cancellation will allow Hall to bring his team to town his summer. He’s hoping his interns can begin data collection next week.
He explained that the Eastern Shore Regional GIS Cooperative was an outreach entity of Salisbury University.
“This initiative aims at identifying contributing factors leading to property degradation across town on the Eastern Shore of Maryland,” he said.
He talked about work the cooperative had done in Cambridge that had allowed the city to identify blighted properties and in some cases acquire them and in other cases help with improvements. Though officials there were initially focused on simply identifying blighted properties, the GIS group helped them develop better queries.
“Can we predict the behavior of an infrastructure system?” he said. “Where and how do we focus our time, our energy, our money and more importantly can we make decisions based on data driven information?”
He said GIS data empowered governments and allowed officials to ask the right questions.
Hall said his interns would begin traversing Berlin next week. With iPads in hand, they’ll walk the sidewalks observing the town’s residences.
“We’re looking for risk variables that lead to property degradation,” he said, adding that interns would look at structure condition, accessibility, site attributes, site conditions and public improvements.
Each structure is then given a cumulative score.
“What we can do with the results is start to determine trends, start asking the right questions,” Hall said. “Is property degradation actually concentrated in the areas we thought or maybe the issue is widespread and concentrated elsewhere.”
He pointed out that in Cambridge, the city had used the GIS data to support their grant applications and in the last five years had brought in close to $2 million in funding Since the team’s work in Cambridge, similar studies have been completed elsewhere. Hall said 48 surveys had been conducted across the Lower Shore.
“We’re really excited to get this data,” he said.
The study in Berlin, which will cost about $17,000, has been paid for by the Tri-County Council with funding from the Rural Maryland Council, according to Hall. Tyndall said the town was grateful for the Tri-County Council’s support, as Berlin hadn’t expected to have the study done this year and hadn’t allocated for it in the budget.
“We cannot thank them enough,” Tyndall said.
He added that the project would also determine foundation height, which would be useful to a town with stormwater concerns. He noted that the project could also be helpful in delineating which homes were in the town’s historic district.
Councilmembers questioned how the interns would go about their data collection, as they said they didn’t want residents to be left wondering what was going on.
Hall said they’d be in university marked vehicles and would be wearing nametags. They’ll also have handouts about the project to provide to anyone who’s interested. He said he’d also give his phone number to anyone with questions.
“I’ve had hundreds of calls…,” he said, adding that he tried to allay any concerns. “Most of the times they’re comfortable with it.”
Hall stressed that the interns would gather their data from public streets and sidewalks and would not be going onto private property.
“They’re going to be accessing all their data points from public accessible area,” Hall said, adding that homes that weren’t visible from the road or sidewalk would not be in included in the data collection.
He confirmed that while the interns would be taking photos, those photos were just so he could corroborate their findings.
“The photos are for me and my team, for quality control and assurance,” he said.
When asked by Councilman Jack Orris if particular addresses would be shown in the findings as degrading, Hall said they would be identified but that the data was not released publicly. He said the information was considered sensitive and that his group could create an application with a private login required.
“The database, we don’t put out publicly,” he said.
Tyndall said he was meeting with Hall Wednesday to discuss the Berlin project and that details would be finalized then. He said he’d also be working to share the information about the project with the public through social media and other means to ensure residents were aware.
