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By fall, it won't take a trip to the top of the water tower to get a bird's-eye view of the city.
Santa Clara County is coordinating a project to provide cities within the county with updated aerial photographs of the area. All participating municipalities will share proportionally, based on square miles, the cost of the project. Campbell, which is about 6.5 miles in size, will pay about $10,600.
The photographs will be taken sometime during the next month, depending on the weather. They should be available for use by this fall.
"The aerials are a really valuable tool," said Ed Arango, a Campbell associate civil engineer. "In public works we use aerial photos for a multitude of research information."
City engineers typically look over aerials of a site for a more accurate overview, and how any proposed changes will affect the area.
"They make it much easier to see what's going and to know what to expect before doing a field visit," Arango said.
The last aerial photos of Campbell were taken eight years ago, and the city paid for the photographs. Typically, staff prefer to work with photos taken within five years so the information is updated and relevant.
"Public works wanted to get new aerials, but due to the cost it just got put off," city planner Melinda Denis said. "Then the county approached us with this project, and we decided to jump on board."
The cost of the county project comes to about $650,000, said Priya Tallam, manager of the county's Geospacially Intelligent Systems. Most cities are participating in the project, but Gilroy, Los Gatos and Los Altos Hills opted out because of the cost. Mountain View will take aerial photos on its own, but exchange information with the county. The county will pay for the about 900 square miles of unincorporated land within its borders, Tallam said.
Campbell's share of the cost will likely be divided among three departments. Public works is expected to pay $4,000, the planning department will pay $4,000 and the city's redevelopment agency $2,614.
The last time the county took any aerial photos was in 2001.
"There's been so much growth and development in the region, and it shows really well in the aerials," Tallam said. "There are so many things you can catch from a photo."
The new aerial photographs will be incorporated with other data through the county's GIS repository. The GIS repository is a hardware and software system that combines different forms of data, such as aerial photos, zip codes and demography data, about the county's land.
The combination of information aids the county and cities in areas such as public safety and economic development.
"For instance, from the assessor's perspective, they want to know what subdivisions are coming up around the area they're assessing and what kind of zoning might be required," Tallam said.
Campbell is currently working to create its own GIS repository similar to the county's. Arango said the city may be able to get such a system off the ground within a year or two, depending on the status of the city budget.
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