Polk assessor website is losing its key search function
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The Polk County Assessor's website — long a go-to for property searches and photos — will soon indefinitely lose the tools that made it a staple for real estate agents, homeowners and researchers.
Why it matters: The site is the main public source for Polk County property data, and losing its search tool and photos could slow down real estate transactions, reduce transparency, and cause more residents to call county staff for basic information.
Catch up quick: The website was built in-house over about three decades, primarily via one of the office's longtime programmers who is retiring in July.
- The work is specialized, and the office hasn't found someone to replace the programmer or reasonably rebuild what she'd done internally, county assessor Randy Ripperger tells Axios.
State of play: The website will begin to transition to a vendor-managed system in the upcoming weeks at an estimated five-year cost of just over $672,000.
- Ripperger warned that the new system initially will not match the functionality users are used to, with the search feature possibly missing for several months during the transition.
The intrigue: The website overhaul is happening at the same time the assessor's office is reviewing its content to meet new federal digital accessibility rules under the Americans with Disabilities Act by an April 24 deadline.
- Ripperger said his office is still evaluating what content may need to be removed or relocated before that deadline.
The big picture: Rebuilding the site to its current level of functionality could take years, Ripperger said.
- "It's not a good situation," Ripperger said.
Flashback: The office recently spent just over $500,000 to upgrade its online photos to 360-degree views of most Polk County properties.
What we're watching: Whether the changes ripple through the housing market as real estate agents, appraisers and buyers rely on the assessor's site for quick access to property records and images.