Method and system for retrieving and serving regulatory history for a property

• US 10,147,150 B1
• Filed: 07/25/2017
• Issued: 12/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unearthed Land Technologies LLC
• Original Assignee: Unearthed Land Technologies LLC
• Inventors: Carrington, Charles C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Uddin, Md I
• Application Number:
  US15/659,333
• Time in Patent Office: 497 Days
• Field of Search: 707603, 707706, 707770, 707693
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/16 Real estate
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/163 Real estate management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services

Abstract

Described are methods and systems for retrieving and serving the regulatory history of a property. For example, an identification of data sources for permits and approvals is stored in a computer system. Property identifiers from the data sources are stored in the computer system. The system identifies the types of permit and approval data available from each of the data sources for each of the property identifiers. A determination can be made of the completeness of the regulatory history available for each property associated with each of said property identifiers. The system receives a request for the regulatory history of at least one of the properties associated with the property identifiers. A web page may be populated with a list of the regulatory history for the property.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

using a local computer selectively coupled to a plurality of remote computers via a communications network, the plurality of remote computers having land use based regulatory history data associated therewith, and having data sources associated therewith, a further remote computer having a data source associated therewith that is different from the data sources associated with each of said plurality of remote computers, the local computer being used to communicate with the plurality of remote computers over the communications network to build a local database;

storing a first identifier of a first data source of a first type of infrastructure information, which includes at least one of water information, sewer information, utilities information, and other infrastructure information, in the database, wherein the first identifier is a URL of a website;

storing a different second identifier of a different second data source of a second type of infrastructure information, which includes at least one of water information, sewer information, utilities information, and other infrastructure information, in the database;

performing automatically data layering of the data sources, wherein a data layering feature of a software automatically identifies a particular property with infrastructure information from a plurality of governmental authorities, utilities, or public works;

generating a data source index associating a plurality of types of infrastructure information, including at least one of water information, sewer information, utilities information, and infrastructure information, with respective identifiers of a plurality of different data sources, the plurality of types of infrastructure information including the first type of infrastructure information and the second type of infrastructure information, and the plurality of different data sources including the first data source and the second data source;

receiving a user input including an identifier of a selected property of interest to search the data sources;

retrieving automatically from the first source and the second source, using the data source index and matching the identifier of the property, infrastructure information of the property including the first type of infrastructure information and the second type of infrastructure information;

determining automatically a potential match for the property based on a predetermined threshold and prompting the user to confirm the match, wherein the matching process includes determining any discrepancies between how the property is described by different governmental authorities, utilities, or public works, and reconciling them;

overlaying, on a user interface, at least one of data layers of water information, sewer information, utilities information, and other infrastructure information, for the property from the plurality of remote computers, and display the layering of geographical information system (GIS) data on the user interface based upon user input to the user interface;

associating, using the database, the retrieved infrastructure information of the property including the first type of infrastructure information and the second type of infrastructure information with the identifier of the property;

determining automatically that the retrieved infrastructure information is incomplete, using business rules and based on the data source index including at least one type of infrastructure information that is unavailable in the retrieved infrastructure information of the property in the database;

flagging automatically the identifier of the property as incomplete in the database;

identifying the data source associated with the further remote computer to query to complete the infrastructure information of the property;

generating automatically a notification of completeness of the infrastructure information of the property; and

providing automatically the notification of completeness to the user interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the first identifier and the second identifier is a URL.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the first source and the second source is a public facing website.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first source and the second source is a backend database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein none of the first source and the second source is a public facing website.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first source is a source of a third type of infrastructure information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input includes a click or selection of an area on a map.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input includes an address.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input includes a GPS position.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input includes a tax parcel number.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input includes a search.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein data layering of the data sources includes layering maps or layering at least one map and other data.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying the first identifier as identifying the first source; and

identifying the second identifier as identifying the second source.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a third identifier of a third source of the first type of infrastructure information; and

storing the third identifier in the database.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

retrieving from the third source, using the data source index and based on the identifier of the property, infrastructure information of the property including the first type of infrastructure information.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a third identifier of a third source of a third type of infrastructure information, which includes at least one of water information, sewer information, utilities information, and other infrastructure information; and

storing the third identifier in the database.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

retrieving from the third source, using the data source index and based on the identifier of the property, infrastructure information of the property including the third type of infrastructure information.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface displays a plan, drawing, or map of the selected property of interest.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the first type of infrastructure information is at least one of drawings, maps, and plans.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first type of infrastructure information relates to at least one of design, engineering, construction, reconstruction, building, demolition, expansion, remodelling, and alteration.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the first type of infrastructure information relates to at least one of a sewer line, water line, flood control, canal, control line, power plant, electric power, fuel storage, natural gas, telephone, architecture, floor, ceiling, rooftop, site visibility, hazardous material, hazardous waste, airport, military facility, training facility, rail, road, site plan, parking and traffic data.

22. A system comprising:

a plurality of remote computers having land use based regulatory history data associated therewith and having data sources associated therewith;

a further remote computer having a data source associated therewith that is different from the data sources associated with each of said plurality of remote computers;

a local computer selectively coupled to said plurality of remote computers via a communications network, said local computer being configured to communicate with said plurality of remote computers over said communications network to build a local database;

a memory including the database; and

a processor, wherein the processor is configured to;

store a first identifier of a first data source of a first type of infrastructure information, which includes at least one of water information, sewer information, utilities information, and other infrastructure information, in the database;

store a different second identifier of a different second data source of a second type of infrastructure information, which includes at least one of water information, sewer information, utilities information, and other infrastructure information, in the database, wherein the first identifier is a URL of a website;

perform automatically data layering of the data sources, wherein a data layering feature of a software automatically identifies a particular property with infrastructure information from a plurality of governmental authorities, utilities, or public works;

generate a data source index associating a plurality of types of infrastructure information, including at least one of water information, sewer information, utilities information, and infrastructure information, with respective identifiers of a plurality of different data sources, the plurality of types of infrastructure information including the first type of infrastructure information and the second type of infrastructure information, and the plurality of different data sources including the first data source and the second data source;

receive a user input including an identifier of a property of interest to search the data sources;

retrieve automatically from the first source and the second source, using the data source index and matching the identifier of the property, infrastructure information of the property including the first type of infrastructure information and the second type of infrastructure information;

determine automatically a potential match for the property based on a predetermined threshold and prompt the user to confirm the match, wherein the matching process includes determining any discrepancies between how the property is described by different governmental authorities, utilities, or public works, and reconciling them;

overlay, on a user interface, at least one of data layers of water information, sewer information, utilities information, and other infrastructure information, for the property from the plurality of remote computers, and display the layering of geographical information system (GIS) data on the user interface based upon user input to the user interface;

associate, using the database, the retrieved infrastructure information of the property including the first type of infrastructure information and the second type of infrastructure information with the identifier of the property;

determine automatically that the retrieved infrastructure information is incomplete, using business rules and based on the data source index including at least one type of infrastructure information that is unavailable in the retrieved infrastructure information of the property in the database;

flag automatically the identifier of the property as incomplete in the database;

identify the data source associated with the further remote computer to query to complete the real property information of the property;

generate automatically a notification of completeness of the infrastructure information of the property; and

provide automatically the notification of completeness to the user interface.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein at least one of the first source and the second source is a backend database.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the system includes the first source and the second source.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the system includes the user interface, which includes a display.