Most property questions in a city have short answers. What is the zoning? Is the lot in a flood zone? Which council district is it in? Until September 2026, the usual way to get those answers in Millcreek was an interactive map. A map works well for many people. It does not work for a person who uses a screen reader, or a person who cannot use a mouse.
The question for this project was simple. What service does the map give, and how else can the city give it? The answer is a report in plain text. The application went into production on September 2, 2026.
What a visitor does
- Type a street address or a 14-digit parcel number. A parcel is one piece of land in the county property record.
- Choose the correct match from the list. The list works with a keyboard.
- Read the report. Copy it as text, or print it.
The report gives these facts for the parcel:
- The property record
- Zoning and future land use
- Historic designation and the subdivision plat
- FEMA flood zones and other natural hazards
- The council district and the council member
- The utility providers
A second page checks short-term rental licensing. It finds licensed rental parcels and the 400-foot buffer around each one.
Some people prefer to ask a person. The page gives a staff phone number and email address, with a response within five business days.
How it works
I designed and built the application. The page has no map. It is plain HTML and JavaScript, built with Vite. It sends queries to the city's public ArcGIS Online layers and to the live FEMA flood layer. The data comes from Salt Lake County, the Utah Geospatial Resource Center, the city, FEMA, the Utah Geological Survey, and the Utah Division of Drinking Water.
Hazard checks use the full shape of the parcel, not only its center point. A lot that touches a flood zone at one corner shows that flood zone in the report.
Accessibility
The target is WCAG 2.1 Level AA. WCAG is the international standard for accessible web content. The search box follows the ARIA combobox pattern, so a screen reader announces each match. The report is announced when it loads. Automated axe and Playwright tests run on each change, and a full keyboard test was done in August 2026.
The manual screen reader test is not complete. The city does not claim conformance until it is.
Limits
- Zoning, land use, districts, and utilities still use the center point of the parcel.
- The linked subdivision plats are scanned PDF files. A screen reader cannot read them.
- 66 parcels have no address. A visitor can find them only by parcel number.
- The page needs JavaScript.
- The report is not a zoning verification letter or a flood determination.
The Millcreek Planning Map links to this report for any visitor who cannot use a map.
Use the live application: Millcreek Property Lookup. It is also listed on the Millcreek GIS Hub.