Pilot Open Data Platform expands access to Boulder County Land Use information

New open dataset offers better tools and improved access to building permit and development information for unincorporated Boulder County.

Boulder County, Colo. - The Boulder County Land Use Department today announced the launch of an open data platform that will give residents, demographers, planners and software developers greater access to building permit and development data in unincorporated Boulder County. 

New Pilot Open Data Platform

The new platform provides civic-oriented application developers and planners access to key land use data in bulk, and is located at bit.ly/bocolucivicdata.

Boulder County has partnered with our existing building permit database provider, Accela, to make publishing and managing datasets simpler and more efficient. Since 2009, Boulder County has significantly enhanced access to information for residents through the Accela data platform. This open data initiative builds upon the county’s Land Use records kept since the 1950s.

“Boulder County is committed to open government and transparency, and the use of open data technology is one tool we have to improve transparency, usability, and public access to data,” said Land Use Director Dale Case.

The Land Use open data initiative uses the existing building permit data and licensed contractors serving Boulder County information, but allows software developers to more easily access up-to-date information to utilize in their applications. 

Background

Open data embraces the idea that public information should be easily accessible to the public online, and produced in a standardized format that can be read and utilized by computers. With this initial launch of open access to land use information, Boulder County plans to make additional data sets available through a coordinated rollout effort this year.

The county is focusing on data standards using the new Building & Land Development Specification (BLDS) standard, which is important for interoperability with permit data from other local governments, and for the data to be integrated into third-party applications and websites. 

Information about the BLDS standard and how it is used by Boulder County is available at bit.ly/bocobldsinfo.

For more information about the Boulder County Land Use open data project, contact Richard Hackett, Land Use Communications Specialist, at 720-564-2605 or rhackett@bouldercounty.org.