Did You Know? #8 Howard County has an Online Interactive Mapping Portal?

Many folks don’t know about this very important and useful mapping tool that Howard County’s GIS Division produces for all of us to use. Check this out! https://data.howardcountymd.gov/InteractiveMap.html#

This portal allows you to easily search and view has almost 300 data layers from the county. If you select “Add Layer” on the left sidebar it brings up the “Layer Library” from which you can select layers to add and then view them.

Some of the existing views that are included under “Map Data and Tools” on their main page are: 

• historic districts and historic sites (https://data.howardcountymd.gov/InteractiveMap.html...) and

• preservation easements including historic preservation (https://data.howardcountymd.gov/InteractiveMap.html...). 

This is how I learned that for some reason the County named the easements along the Middle Patuxent River above Murray Hill Road as the Gorman Stream Valley and those along the Little Patuxent River, including Wincopin Trails, as the Murray Hill Stream Valley. I need to seek an explanation for these names.

There is also an:

• aerial photography viewer with historic aerial views from 1943, 1952, 1963, and 1970 through the present (https://data.howardcountymd.gov/InteractiveMap.html...). 

The 1975 view of Guilford Road, the quarry filled with water and the cemetery are amazing. Can you guess where the cemetery is located? Hint – it is at the end of the long driveway with a loop 600 feet northwest of the tip of the quarry. It seems about twice the size that it is today (half an acre instead of a quarter of an acre). But in earlier photos it seems closer to the 0.25 acres. I know the acreage because you can measure length and area on any of these maps, another terrific feature.

They even have a view where you can “search development plans” - https://data.howardcountymd.gov/Sea.../Search_Plans_Web.aspx

This Interactive Mapping Portal is a great resource for all of our local residents. I am very grateful to Howard County's GIS Division for providing this information to the public. There is more that they can add if the public is truly interested, So if there is information that you would like to see added to the portal – such as water quality and air quality monitoring and other environmental data – we might be able to get the County to add more information if we ask as a group. Please suggest data layers to add so I can compile your requests. Thanks!!