Business owners, residents, developers and people looking for property in Sherburne County will have a much easier time doing business because of new updates to the county’s website.

 

During a workshop Tuesday, Public Works Director Andrew Witter and GIS Supervisor Brett Forbes gave the county commissioners an update on new services available on the website.

 

Forbes said some public works permits are available for people to fill out online instead of in person. 

 

He showed an example of a how someone would go through the process of getting a utility permit.

 

“They can use the map to locate where they’re going to be doing the work,” he said. 

 

They can map out any obstacles, like other utilities, structures and traffic signals that might be in the location.

 

“This will be building the data not only for us, but for utility companies because if there are obstacles out there, it’ll be an obstacle for everybody that does work in that location,” said Forbes.

 

 

“Hopefully that will make it quicker to apply for the permit because they have taken those obstacles into account,” said  Forbes. “Then they email it to our right-of-way agent. He can review it, make comments and send it back.”

 

Witter said the new process is more convenient than the current system for everyone involved.

 

“Right now, somebody can go on the county website, print a form fill it out by hand then they have to bring it to in to the office, have it signed, reviewed and dropped off,” he said.  “They also have to physically come in and provide a check for that work. Our goal is to make it computer-driven technology to make it simpler for them.”

 

“It should be pretty seamless for people where they can take care of it from their office,” he said.         

 

“A lot of these people are business people, so for them to make a special trip over here to fill out a permit and make a payment is not efficient for them. Frankly, it’s not terribly efficient for us, either.”

 

Another new service in the works is a land opportunity application, where people can search for property in the county.

 

“It’s a way for  people to find available properties for sale, or maybe locate some parcels that could be utilized for their particular purposes for business and industry,” he said.

 

People can search by general location, specific city or township, parcel size or zoning class. So far, information for all the townships and the City of Elk River is included. Forbes said they have already spoken the City of Big Lake and received its zoning information. That should be then next city to be part of the application.

 

Forbes said they intend to eventually add other tools to the application, like demographics and routing information to get time of travel and distances to locations.                 

 

“One step at a time,” he said.

 

“I think it will be a great tool. “I haven’t seen it anywhere else,” said Commissioner Tim Dolan.

 

“To be able to find any available parcel suited to your use is a pretty powerful thing to be able to do.”