AUBURN, CALIF-- In its continuing efforts to make services more available to residents, visitors and those doing business with the County, Placer Countyhas rolled out its new web page design. The changeover to the new design came after a careful evaluation of how customer needs could be better served by using new technology.
Many of the new pages will contain the same information as previous web pages. However there are several departments where new technology will allow a greater transparency of county government and make it easier to conduct County business.
The Community Development Resource Agency now has extensive interactive features. Its land use application allows anyone with a computer to look at a specific parcel - like a home site - and actually see it on a GIS map. With minimal information one can find things like the zoning, the parcel number, and which school and supervisorial districts the land is in. This feature can be especially useful to builders or potential property buyers who want to conduct research before building or buying. For those who are building a house, the new website will allow checking of the progress of building permits.
Interactive features will also be used for those County departments that collect fees, enabling residents and those doing business with the County to pay those fees online.
"The new website redesign provides many new features and capabilities for the citizens of PlacerCounty," said Clark Moots, Director of Administrative Services, the department that operates the website. "Over the coming months, additional website functions will be implemented that will give our citizens even easier ways to find out information and to utilize County services on a 24-hour a day, 7-days a week basis."
The interactive features are improving contact with County elected officials, as well. Fifth District Supervisor Bruce Kranz has a website that constituents can visit to find out what's happening in his district.
"We're creating a clearinghouse for information in the 5th District by continually updating the information so that every time you visit my site, there will be something new," said Kranz. "Information will be available on special districts, fire districts, newspapers, schools and everything else in the 5th District. We're going to update it regularly for meetings and announcements and set up e-mail lists so interested parties can be notified of what's happening.
"Because my district is a very photogenic area with its forests and mountains, we're setting up a feature where constituents can submit photos that we will post," Kranz continued.
The new web design will also ease the updating of pages with new meetings, reports, plans and other dated information. The Clerk of the Board of Supervisors is using technology to allow electronic accessibility of information on Board agendas and minutes from past meetings.