Residential Desktop Technology Recanvassing Program

About the Program

Category: County Administration and Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

Assessor Paul D. Petersen initiated upon his appointment in 2013 a project to recanvas all residential property in Maricopa County with up-to-date information on changes and improvements that have been made to existing property. Without a statutory mandate to visually inspect residential properties, many parcels have property characteristics or component data that have not been updated since the 1950’s. By developing a truly state of the art canvassing methodology and utilizing a new-to-market software package (Assessment Analyst – AA) developed by Esri Canada, our appraisers can be accurate within one inch error of margin from their workstations. Sending an appraiser on site would take up to a minimum of 40 minutes not including the travel times from the main Assessor’s office. Appraisers using AA can accurately review and measure a parcel following IAAO standards at their desk in just 11 minutes on average. With the completion of the first two phases of the project we have been able to show that many homes were in desperate need of a review. With a canvassing project this big we are already starting to see significant signs of fairer and more equitable values, as well as a projected increase in property tax revenues to the local jurisdictions that rely on our values.