Announcements & Recent News

2011

April - Decommissioning the three old versions of VanMap

As part of the process to decommission the three old versions of VanMap and move people to the new version accessible through the orange button, going forward we will only be adding new layers to the new version. Any new layers which are introduced will not be added to the three old versions. We expect to decommission the three old versions in late May or early June, so if you have not already switched to the new version, we encourage you to do so. As always, we welcome your comments at vanmap@vancouver.ca.

February - Say Hello to the new version of VanMap!

The version of VanMap previously labelled as Beta and accessible by clicking on the orange button is now the official version of public VanMap. The older three versions will be accessible for a short period of time and they will then be removed. The buttons used to access them have been moved further down the page.

The documentation for the new version of VanMap is just being finished and will be available shortly although for the vast majority of data and functions, there are no changes. Some changes that you will notice are:

• The legend is now much more compact with more groupings. This makes the legend considerably smaller, but it may take a little bit of time to see where the layers are in the new hierarchy (they are all there for sure). To expand a group, just click on the plus sign in front of the layer group name; to collapse a layer group, just click on the minus sign in front of the name. We have tried to group the layers in a way that follows common sense, but different users may have different perspectives on what is easiest and most clear. Please take some time to explore the new groups, see how easy they are to manipulate, and let us know if you have any suggestions for better groupings of layers. We will certainly consider your suggestions.
• Addresses and some other property information that used to become visible at 1:6000 scale now become visible at 1:3999 scale. This makes the map much cleaner and easier to read and therefore more usable.
• The Zoom In function has been split into two buttons. The lower left-hand button in the Toolbox can be used to zoom to an area by dragging a rectangle (place the mouse, hold down the left mouse button, drag a rectangle, release the left mouse button). You can also zoom in by using the button with the magnifying lass and plus sign (the "old" zoom in button) by simply pointing and clicking to zoom in step by step.
• The copy button is no longer available. We will be documenting some workarounds in the documentation. This stems from a change in the underlying product that is beyond our control.
• The Bookmark function available from the right-click menu in the old version is no longer available. This also stems from a change in the underlying product and is beyond our control. We will continue to look for workarounds or steps to achieve a similar outcome.
• The Address Search box no longer has the second line for the street name list but it works exactly the same way as before.
• The Skyview function in the Toolbox is not yet available.

Please let us know what you think of this new version.

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2010

• VanMap Beta is now a functional equal to traditional VanMap with one minor exception! Try it out as the traditional VanMap versions will be disappearing in the fall.
• See the new buttons on the right hand side of the VanMap home page which take you to some specialty, focused versions of VanMap. These use the same technology as the beta version, are easy to use and focus on a particular type of data rather than having hundreds of layers.
• Drinking Fountains have been added, see Drinking Fountains for more information.
• Food Vendor Pilot project locations have been added, see Food Vendor Pilot Project for more information.
• Olympic Art has been added; this is public art installed as part of the 2010 Games celebrations. See Olympic Art for more information.

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New Public VanMap (beta version) now available!

The City is migrating VanMap to a new generation of the underlying MapGuide software. One big advantage of this is that all users will use the same version, regardless of whether you use Internet Explorer or Firefox or a Mac. Once this new version is finalized, there will no longer be three versions of VanMap (VanMap for IE, VanMap for Macs, and VanMapLite). As well, if you are an Internet Explorer user, you will no longer need to download an ActiveX plug-in like you do for the current VanMap.

This version is a beta version which means it is not the final one and we will be making some changes before it is finalized and before we remove the existing three versions of VanMap. We welcome your comments but unfortunately we can not guarantee that we can or will make changes in response to all of them.

As you use this new generation of VanMap, please note the following:

• This version is based on the same data that is used by VanMap as you know it so you should get the same answers regardless of which version you use.
• The interface looks a little different but this version works very much like the current version.
• You will note that the legend is much more compact because we can have more levels in the hierarchy. This makes the legend more manageable and intuitive but it also means that you will need to become familiar with the layer groups that contain your favourite layers.
• We have not yet provided new documentation although this shouldn't pose too much of a problem. Some symbols have changes but the new symbols are shown in the legend so it is still easy to make the association between the legend and the map. Other functionality is identical or virtually identical.
• The new version does not yet include the following applications and functions although they will be provided before the old version of VanMap is decommissioned:
  • Integration with Google Street View
  • Access to Pictometry imagery
  • Autocounts
  • Integration with the Community Web Pages

If you have comments, please send them to us via email. We hope you like what you see.

To access the new beta version of VanMap, please click on the button below.

• Crime data from the Vancouver Police Department for 2003 to 2009 has been added to VanMap. For each year, there are seven categories of crimes which can be displayed.
• Pictometry, or oblique, imagery is now available for both 2007 and 2009. This imagery allows you to see buildings from the all for compass directions. Please note that at this time, this functionality is only available to those using ActiveX environments and response times may be very slow due to the very large image sizes. We are working on improving these limitations.
• Google's Street View is now accessible from VanMap. If you are looking at a location in VanMap, one click will bring up Google's Street View imagery for the location.
• 2009 Orthophotos--a second set of orthophotos for 2009 has been added to VanMap.
• Parks as polygons have now been added to VanMap are defaulted to on. You have probably noticed them as green areas throughout the City. Adding them in this fashion helps to provide orientation to the City.
• Downtown District Sub-Areas now has documentation. It has been in VanMap for a while, but the documentation was missing.
• The Canada Line, Millennium Line and Expo Line and stations have been defaulted to on to help orient oneself when looking at the map of the City.
• The City has substantially enhanced its Open Data web site with over 100 layers of data for free downloading and the ability to map the data in Google or Bing.
• Street Vendors: This layer shows the locations and types of street vending in Vancouver
• Olympic Torch Relay comes to VanMap

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2009

• Orthophotos 2009--As part of our acquisition of the 2009 Pictometry imagery, we acquired traditional orthophoto imagery that was taken in April, 2009. The images are very sharp and are 10cm resolution as has been the case for the last several acquisitions. They are near the bottom of the legend with all of the other orthophoto layers. Further information is found here.
• Olympic Transportation Plan--The Olympic Transportation Plan has been added to Public VanMap. Near the top of the legend is a new layer group called Olympic Venues and Transportation Plan. This layer group has eight new layers for the transportation plan and also includes two layers previously out on their own-Olympic Venues and City Olympic Sites. The transportation plan is in effect only for the period leading up to and during the Games. Further information on these layers can be found here.
• The City has launched its OpenData download site where you can download GIS VanMap data and other data for free.

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2008

• The latest bird's-eye view photos of the city are now available on VanMap. These photos add one more year to VanMap's long series of aerial photos which date back to 1994. These photos were taken April 26, 2008. Visit VanMap 2008 Orthophotos today and get a unique glimpse of Vancouver from overhead.
• The Property Information Report has been updated to include the 2008 assessed values.
• The 2008 Voting Divisions and Voting Places have been added and will remain through to the election on November 15.
• Railways are now shown so that you can see the alignments for the major rail lines in the City. They are available at all scales.
• Links are provided to some other municipal mapping sites and relevant sites. If you are aware of other sites that should be included in this list, please let us know and we will look into adding them.
• Bridges and Related Structures are now being shown; they are available at all scales.
• Zoom Goto has been enhanced. You can now zoom directly to a property if you know its PID (from the Land Titles Office), its folio number (from the BC Assessment Authority), or its plan number. You have always been able to zoom directly to a particular hundred block (e.g. the 400 block of W. 12th Avenue) but now you can just enter the street name if you don't know the hundred block and VanMap will list all of the hundred blocks for that street name and you can choose the one you want.
• Vancouver School Board French Immersion School Catchment Areas are now shown. These are shown at all scales and are contained in the Public Places layer group near the top of the legend.
• Poster Cylinders have been added to VanMap. These are those places where someone can legitimately put posters on City property.
• Property identifiers (PID) from the Land Titles Office have been added to the report that is displayed when you double click on a property. You must be zoomed in to closer than 1:6000 scale to be able to obtain this report.
• Traffic Counts - Directional Volume layer has been added to to display automated traffic count information, this is in addition to the existing manual traffic counts. An Auto Count Reporting function is now available with the new Traffic Counts - Directional Volume layer.

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2007

• Stanley Park orthophotos layer has been added to help with the damage assessment and re-forestation planning processes, based on photographs taken December 28, 2006
• Calculate areas of polygons
• 2007 Assessed value
• Cemetery Application: Did you know that the City owns the Mountain View Cemetery? This new application, which is available from the Applications box just to the right of the Toolbox at the top of the VanMap screen, allows users to determine where someone is buried in the Cemetery. This application is also accessible from the Mountain View Cemetery site.
• Did You Know? This is a listing of tricks and tips to help you get more out of VanMap. A single Did You Know appears on the left hand side of the VanMap home page, and the complete list is available through the top navigation bar.

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2006

• 2006 Orthophotos These are the high quality you have become used to. The 2006 version joins those from 2005, 2004, 2002, 1999, and 1994. The area covered in 2006 includes the City, the University Endowment Lands, Sea Island (YVR), and parts of Richmond and North Vancouver.
• Olympic venues: The venues are shown, and double-clicking on a venue site will take you to a web site with further information.
• Graffiti: This layer shows the locations of properties which have had a Graffiti By-law infraction.
• Canada Line: VanMap now reflects the change in name from the RAV Line to the Canada Line. Double-clicking on the Canada Line alignment takes you to the Canada Line web site which contain more information about the Line including construction photographs.
• Summons Zones: These are the areas assigned to the City’s Summons Officers.
• School Catchment Areas: Elementary School Boundaries, Secondary School Boundaries. These are the School Attendance Area Boundaries as provided by the Vancouver School Board.
• Web Cams: We have more traffic web cams. If you know of interesting public web cams, please send us the web site references and we may add them if they are appropriate.
• Child Care Facilities: We have added more information to the Child Care Facilities group.
• VanMapLite is Substantially Improved! March 2006 ... read more

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2005

• New layers & enhancementss ... read more.
• New interface, new layers ... read more.

To accommodate coming enhancements and changes, we will be upgrading the server software on approximately January 24, 2005. As a result, you will need to remove your existing Autodesk MapGuide viewer and install a new one before the server software is upgraded. Once the server software is upgraded, you will be forced to upgrade your viewer before you can access VanMap. See detailed instructions. A major benefit of the upgrade and new viewer is that Internet Explorer users with Mac OS 10 will be able to access VanMap.

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2004

• False Creek Navigable Channel layer has been added to facilitate understanding of what areas of the Channel are strictly for navigation and in which areas anchoring is allowed.
• VanMap now provides new and very high quality orthophotos. The new orthophotos were taken in Spring, 2002 and are at an approximate 10cm pixel resolution. There is an overview orthophoto available up to a scale of 1:50,000 and then a very detailed orthophoto that gets increasingly clear as you zoom into scales closer than 1 to 6,000 and looks very good even closer. Please read the documentation listed under Orthophotos 2002 to learn about them and about the building lean that you will notice in some high density areas such as downtown and the West End.
• You will also notice that a layer has been added to identify off-leash dog parks. This layer is contained in the Public Places layer group. Double-click on the dog icon and you'll be taken to a picture of the park with the off-leash area clearly marked.
• The colour of the background water is also changed and we have provided a larger geographic area at the start for context.

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2003

To keep you better informed of VanMap enhancements, changes, and important information, Team VanMap has created a mailing list for users of public VanMap. To sign up for it, please click here.

VanMap now links to Zoning and Development By-Law and Subdivision By-Law! When you turn on the Zoning Districts layer in VanMap and double-click on one of the zoning districts, you are taken to the Community Services Zoning and Development By-Law main page. From there, select the link for 'Zoning and Development By-Law' in the sidebar or the first paragraph, to go directly to Zoning and Development By-Law (No. 3575). VanMap also links to the Subdivision By-Law. Turn on the Subdivision layer in VanMap, put your mouse over one of the subdivision sub-areas and when the map tip displays a letter from A to G, double-click and you will link to the Subdivision By-Law (no. 5208). Start VanMap and try out these two new features!

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2002

• Traffic count information has been improved. For many locations, you will now find multiple years of data which allow comparisons over time. Have a look by starting VanMap now.
• Youth Layer Group added. The Youth Layer Group layer is dedicated to providing information about Vancouver for youth, collected by youth. More information available.
• October 2002 - Introducing VanMapLite! No viewer required. A second option to view geographical information for the City of Vancouver; not quite as many layers of data but very quick and easy to use. To help you decide between VanMap and VanMapLite click here.
• New VanMap viewer supporting Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6 is now required! You need MapGuide 6 viewer, the latest version 6.0.4.2. You need to uninstall any other version, and then install the new viewer.
• New MapGuide 6 viewer supports IE6 and Windows XP. To upload the new viewer is an easy, two-step process: remove the old viewer (MapGuide 5), and install the new viewer (MapGuide 6).
  
• VanMap and the 2002 Civic Election - Election 2002 layer group is now available in VanMap. Voting division boundaries and voting places for the November 16, 2002 municipal election have now been added to VanMap.
• VanMap Update - VanMap has arrived with new data and new functionality — new data, including Subdivision categories and Traffic signals and new functionality including an improved legend and Skyview function!

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2001

VanMap uses AutoDesk MapGuide software. AutoDesk is currently experiencing compatibility issues between their technology, Internet Explorer 6 and Windows XP. This situation is temporary and when further information is available, this page will be updated. VanMap continues to work with IE 4.x, 5.x and all versions of Windows other than XP.

City Projects and Road Work now available in VanMap! You can now access information about major City initiatives, projects, development proposals, construction and roadwork, including projects that may effect road availability, and other traffic advisories. Start VanMap and try out these new layers!

A version of VanMap for Macintosh computers is now available!

Exciting news from VanMap!

• Orthophotos are now available! Zoom in to a scale of 1:6000 or lower and turn on Orthophotos from the legend.
• You can now view Property Dimensions in VanMap.
• Bikeways - June is Bike Month and to celebrate VanMap has added a new layer, Bikeways! Vancouver has a citywide bicycle route network of commuter and recreational bikeways.

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