#Bush lake shelter 3 update#

Some cities, such as Edina, use aerials shot by Hennepin County. Most communities in the Twin Cities as well as metro area counties use such aerial images. Are antennas on high ground or low, near where deer congregate, by water mains or Indian mounds? Plug in the right data and you'll answer the question. Want to know where the wireless antennas for cell phone services are? It can be mapped.

The pictures, taken from an airplane flying 2,000 feet above the ground, will soon go live to form a sort of visual template for planners, who can layer dozens of databases on top of that image to produce almost any kind of map they want.

#Bush lake shelter 3 update#

Last month, the Bloomington City Council approved completion of a $153,000 project to shoot and process high-resolution photos of the city and update accompanying data files. 'Without the image, the information doesn't make much sense,' said Glen Markegard, senior planner with the city of Bloomington. They combine very detailed information with the big picture of what a building, lot or neighborhood really looks like. The Big Brother aspects of gathering such information may raise the hair on the neck of privacy advocates, but aerial surveys of cities and the information that can be layered on that photographic base are the bread and butter of today's city planners. You could find out where the nearest fire hydrant is, whether there has been a car-deer collision on the street, and whether the homeowner has taken out a building permit. The sewer line enters the house from the street near the middle of the lot, by a big tree. Stack computerized information on top of that digital photo and you learn that the backyard drops about two feet from property line to house. The roof was being repaired when the picture was shot, and the yard is edged with evergreens. The aerial photo of the Bloomington home is so detailed that you can see the garden, gazebo and patio in the backyard.