For many years, Mecklenburg County‘s GIS program has been recognized for it’s delivery of GIS services through the use of the Internet which is utilized by the Citizens of Mecklenburg County and the rest of the web community. Mecklenburg County’s POLARIS System is the County’s premiere GIS property information and parcel mapping Internet application with an estimated 75,000 visitors per month. POLARIS is heavily used by the land development community and internally by the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County Governments. The Charlotte Chamber has taken notice of how effective Mecklenburg County’s GIS program is currently providing land-based GIS information to the web community and saw from it the potential on expanding GIS information further and providing new online tools to further promote business relocation endeavors to Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The Charlotte Chamber’s Research and Development Division approached Mecklenburg County GIS to pitch the concept of partnering on a GIS project. The project partnership was presented to the Mecklenburg County’s County Manager’s Office and approved overwhelmingly. It aligned perfectly with the Growth Management & Environment aspect of the County’s Balance Scorecard in regards to increased economic growth and job opportunities.

The Charlotte Chamber is the lead economic development organization for Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte.  They provide professional assistance and quality economic information about the Charlotte area to enable companies to make informed decisions to relocate here.  Many new companies have been attracted to Charlotte because of the efforts of the Chamber.  Charlotte has more headquartered Fortune 500 companies than all but five other United States cities - two of these eight companies have relocated to Charlotte in recent years. In the past 10 years alone, 8,928 new firms have opened in Charlotte creating 77,327 new jobs and investing $7.4 billion in new facilities.  This growth is good for the economy and good for the citizens who live here.  These new investments add to the tax base of Mecklenburg County and result in more income for Mecklenburg County, offsetting the need to raise property taxes.
 
The prime focus of the GIS Project will be to provide businesses from local and nationwide communities with geographic analysis tools inside an Internet browser for quality site selection, area analysis, and decision-making.  The goal is provide prospective businesses with more and better information than is typically available on current GIS land-based applications. While not the primary focus of the application, local businesses, contractors, and developers will also use this application for their own business development research. Mecklenburg County GIS is currently developing the Internet GIS application. Phase I Implementation of the GIS Economic Development application is targeted for January 2006.