Show All Answers

1. How can I search for a property by address?

1. Click in the text field at the bottom of your parcel viewer window where it says "Property ID or Address".  Type the FULL address in this text field and hit "Enter".  An address point will appear on the map with a dialog box with details about the property.
2. A pop up window will appear showing the details about the property.  
   
   

2. How can I navigate on the map more easily / quickly?

At the very top right of the browser window in the parcel viewer there is an arrow pointing SW.  Click on that and you will get an inset map that will let you hover and drag the map extent (gray box).  You can toggle the inset map on or off using the arrow.  When clicking on the arrow (below), an inset map will appear at the top right (bottom), enabling the viewer to navigate in the inset map.  

3. How can I zoom to my current location?

Use the My Location button on the toolbar – this will take you back to a view where your current location is centered in the map.  You will be prompted to allow the browser to use your location, select Yes.

4. How can I get back to the map of Whatcom County?

If you have zoomed out too far, or lost your place in the map, you can easily et back t the default extent (amount of zoom in or out) by selecting the Home button.  This will snap you back to a map that is centered on Whatcom County.  

• Select Home in the Parcel Viewer Task Bar
  
• This should snap you back to this view:
  
  

5. How do I print a map?

1. Use the Zoom Tool to zoom to the area of interest
   
2. Use the Draw toolset to create arrows or highlights if desired
   
3. Click on the print icon
   
4. In the print options window, create a Title for your Map or use the default name in the Map Title field
5. Select common layout sizes using the pulldown option
   
6. Select the Format “Image” type you want to use (example - PDF, JPG, etc)
   
7. Click print.  The map will appear in as a clickable file you can save to your computer or device
8. The map will appear in the browser with title, scale etc.  To see the option to save the map, you might have to hover over the top of the browser window until you see the download button.
   

Advanced Options:  
Select Advanced options and put in a mapping scale and other options you can check on/off.  You can also specify units you want to use for your map.

6. How do I change the scale range for the property ID label visibility?

1. Click the Layers icon at bottom of screen and ensure that the “Tax Property Labels (Zoom In)” is toggled on. (The text will be shaded when zoomed-out). 
   
2. Make sure the Property ID labels are set to appear when the map has been zoomed in.
   
3. Simply click the + icon in the very lower-left corner or use the scroll wheel on the mouse to zoom in farther as needed.
4. When the map is appropriately scaled the labels will appear and the layer item will no longer be shaded
   
   

7. How do I adjust layers visibility and drawing order?

All layer adjustment will be done through the Layer tool located on the toolbar.

1. Select the Layer tool
   
2. Click the triangle to the left of the layer name to view the symbols for that item
   
3. Toggle the check box to turn on and off
   
4. Additional options are presented to the right, when the (...) icon to the right of the layer name is selected:
   
   • Set transparency
   • Set visibility scale range (this setting determines how far you must be zoomed in or out before a layer appears)
   • Move layer up or down on the list which also changes the display order on the map
     
     

8. How do I measure distance or area?

1. Click the Measure icon (ruler) on the tool bar to open the Measure window
   
2. Click the shape symbol to the left for area, the adjacent line symbol for length or the XY point for location
3. Once chosen a dropdown to the right will provide units-of-measurement options, see arrow below. Click on the pull down option to the right of the units of measurement to change units.
   
4. The measurement options to the right of the tool change depending on the tool you’ve chosen, with area for the shape tool, linear units of measurement for the ruler and Longitude and Latitude measurements for the Point tool.  
   
5. By holding down control while drawing or measuring, you can snap to parcel lines.

9. How do I access the Whatcom County Zoning Regulations from the Map?

1. To access the zoning regulations for an area, make the “Unincorporated Whatcom Zoning” layer visible by clicking on the checkbox.  Note: The layer is grayed out at full view.
2. Zoom into an area you want and click on the map to bring up the popup.  Note:  You might need to arrow over to the popup if multiple layers are turned on
   
3. Look for the Blue highlighted text under Zoning Code Link: Zoning Description

10. How accurate is the parcel data?

GIS data is pulled together from a variety of sources with varying degrees of accuracy and precision, so horizontal positional accuracy can vary greatly.  For many of the subdivisions, Coordinate Geometry or COGO calculations were performed using recorded plat documents. While recorded documents are used to inform our mapping, online mapping data is for assistance in property location and not guaranteed for accurate measurements.

11. When I search a parcel, how do I move the popup from obscuring the map underneath?

At this time there is no way to move the pop-up around, however, you can reset the popup by click on the outer Edge of the map feature so that it is no longer obscured by the pop-up.

12. How do I brighten the Assessor Map parcel lines and labels?

The only adjustment available for layer symbology is transparency, which is located in the Layer window.

• Select the layers tool.
  
• In the properties window that appears, select the "..." to the right of the layer you want to change.
• In the properties select Transparency.  In the transparency adjustment area, adjust the transparency. Dragging the transparency slider to the left will increase the opacity of the layer, thus increasing the visibility of the layer, to the right will increase the transparency.
  

13. How can I add my own text and markup to a map?

Both text and markup are available in the Draw window.  Simply open and select what color/shape you’d like to draw with, and scroll down for advanced options.

• Select the Draw tool
  
  
• In the popup window, select shapes, text or lines.
  
• Once you select a shape or line, additional choices will appear which enable you to change the color, width and transparency of the lines of the shape (etc). 

14. How do I use the Public Notification Tool?

1. Click on the Public Notification Tool
   
2. There are multiple methods to select parcels for notification: 
3. Enter the Prop ID or the Geo ID and select Search (magnifying glass icon).

To Select by Shape

• Manually select a parcel or group of parcels, choose a point, line or polygon shape.  
  
• You can buffer the selected parcels by selecting "Apply a search distance" (hint: the search distance and unit of measurement can be changed).
• Select the format using the drop down menu.  The results can be delivered as comma-separated (CSV) or PDF Labels
  
• Select "Download" to have the chose format downloaded

15. Why is the map responding slowly?

We are always monitoring for performance as more and more users discover the Parcel Viewer.  The app may occasionally experience slowness for a variety of reasons.  Here are a few:

• You are zoomed out in an area where there is a lot of map features (i.e. parcels) and you use the pan tool to pan to a new area.
• You are zoomed out when using the popup tool, which is delayed by having to draw the map features first. 

To improve performance, you can: 

• Turn off property labels.  Go to the layer list and uncheck the tax property labels (top).
• Use search by address or parcel identifier to get to your desired location. 
• Make sure you are zoomed in before using the popup feature to identify a property.  
• Use the navigation tool in the upper right to navigate the map view more efficiently. 
• Confirm that you do not have more than one application session open at a time.
• Refresh the browser page if you encounter consistent slowness.