Pittsylvania County launched a brand-new online Geographic Information Systems (GIS) portal for County residents and the general public on November 1. With a streamlined appearance, improved data accuracy, and more available data layers, this site will better serve the variety of groups that use it.  

“Our public-facing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data and applications are utilized daily by realtors, bankers, lawyers, surveyors, and many other groups,” said Barry Guidry, GIS Systems Analyst. “With a more intuitive design and better layers and features, we believe that this new and improved application will better serve the general public and our frequent users.” 

You can access the new online portal here. (We are also maintaining the old portal through the month of November. You can access it here.)

Previously, Pittsylvania County contracted with a third-party firm for our “parcel viewer” application. Through that arrangement, we did not actually control anything about the parcel viewer; we simply provided periodic data updates to the vendor, and we could not make changes to the format or available data layers. With this new portal through ArcGIS Enterprise – a full GIS software package through ESRI, a global leader in geography technology and software – Pittsylvania County staff can now build, develop, and maintain its own web application technology. This means that we can modify existing web applications and create new ones with particular layers and data sets. 

Below are a few of the benefits of this new online GIS portal: 

In short, the County is more capable of controlling its own technological infrastructure and is therefore in a better situation to provide what this critical service to the public.

Helpful Information and Tips

Here are just a few of the helpful and interesting map layers that can be accessed through our online GIS portal: 

• Data on each of the 50,000+ parcels in Pittsylvania County 
• Utility provider service areas 
• School zones for elementary, middle, and high schools 
• Fire and EMS stations and districts 
• Convenience center and greenbox site locations and distances
• And much more! 

 Some notes, tips, and tricks to keep in mind when using the new GIS portal: 

• The more layers that you enable the slower the site will load. This is because the site is pulling higher volumes of data to populate the map.
• The site does pull from your cache, meaning that it will probably load the slowest the first time you use it. If you frequently use the same data layers, that information will be stored in your browser, allowing the information to load much quicker. 

If you have any feedback, questions, or concerns, please submit this form and we will get back to you as soon as we can. 

GIS Feedback and Questions