(Washington, DC) The Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR) announced today the beginning of a project to enhance the quality of the District’s real property assessment data. Beginning June 2, 2004, vans specially equipped with state-of-the-art photo imaging cameras and computer-assisted mass appraisal technology will survey and gather data on the more than 140,000 parcels of real property in the District of Columbia. The vans will photograph each building, confirm the street address, verify property characteristics, and geo-code (GPS) each building’s location.
The District has selected a contractor with considerable expertise in the field of mass appraisals for this project. White vans displaying signs clearly identifying them as District of Columbia Property Data Verification Project vehicles will go throughout the city for the next three (3) months. The crews operating the vans will have District Government-issued identification cards.
“This program will be of great benefit to the citizens of the District of Columbia. Accurate addressing will ensure better property data for more equitable and uniform assessments, as well as quicker responses for emergency personnel,” said Thomas Branham, chief assessor for the District.
The program will run through the summer and conclude in the fall. The appraisal data verification technology employed by the contractor has been rigorously field-tested to ensure accuracy and reliability by incorporating leading-edge database management tools. State-of-the-art imaging is deployed through a mobile data collection unit in the customized vans. The technology used is an efficient alternative to the standard data collection techniques undertaken by most jurisdictions. This technology has been used in Cincinnati, Ohio, Wyandotte, Kansas (Kansas City, Kansas) and Mahoning County, Ohio (Youngstown, Ohio).
District residents may contact OTR’s Customer Service Telephone Information Center at (202) 727-4TAX (727-4829) for more information. Customer service representatives are available Monday through Friday, except holidays, from 8:15 am until 4:30 pm.
