Ilustre Municipalidad de Punta Arenas, Patagonia, Chile 4/2001 - Current.

This project entailed developing a new, redesigning and updating the tax parcel lots and the database for the urban areas of Punta Arenas. Some 135,000 people live in a 55 square mile area on 35,000 mostly legal tax parcels. The city property tax department (SII, Servicio Impuestos internos Territorial) did not have a good system to check geographically who was paying taxes on what properties in the city. Each time a client comes into the office maps are pulled out, file drawers are opened, hair is pulled out. This digitizing process enables the SII employees to do a quick lookup using a graphical interface in ESRI ArcView.

Problems caused by several areas within the city limits not being properly mapped and the fuzzy land titles caused some headaches. Many are 'tomas' or land takings others are occupied by squatters. SII also had several hundred tax ids but did not know where the properties were. Searches at the local title company were slow due to lack of automation.

This project also incorporates building permits and other databases for the City of Punta Arenas, Department of Planning (SECPPLAN, Servicio Cumuna Planificacion).
This effort has helped streamline and integrate the parcel data with updating and control of property taxes. The building department will be utilizing this data to update the building permit data.

This effort has helped streamline and integrate the parcel data with updating and control of property taxes. The building department will be utilizing this data to update the building permit data and use it for analysis of building permits and zoning changes.

Punta Arenas Website