Resources for Arvada

• Development Projects
• Land Use
• Community Profile - includes stats on demographics, incomes, and others from the Arvada Economic Development Association
• Internet Mapping - being phased out, but still useful for research and policy
• Colorado Transparency Initiative
• County of Jefferson Transparency Initiative

Best Practices for Arvada

• A collaborative effort between the GeoData Services and Information Services (GSIS) divisions of Arvada in complying with the State of Colorado and Jefferson County transparency efforts.
• Arvada’s GSIS division grants developers an open license, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use, modify, and distribute the datasets in all current and future media and formats for any lawful purpose.
• The City and GSIS division decided to conforms to W3C’s “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0” Level A to ensure end-users can operate datasets freely. They have sets under XML, Text/CSV, KML/KMZ, Feeds, XLS, or ESRI Shapefile formats.
• While their open data initiative took hold in 2009,developers and city users took hold rather quickly and generated innovative new ways to improve development, capital projects, internet mapping, and other quality-of-life-related issues. The data sets are updated regularly to ensure developers have the most recent information.
• The County of Jefferson highlighted this key point: “Our operating capital comes directly from you, the citizen, whether through taxes or fees paid for services provided. Whether it is to pay bills and salaries, or maintain and create services - it is your money. This means you have a right to know how it is being handled and where it’s spent.”
• Arvada also seeks feedback from the community and asks developers to request for more datasets.