Del Mar College

Challenge: Expanding College Service Area

Solution: GIS Maps Potential Service Areas

Administrative Challenge

Del Mar College serves a legal boundary that includes four counties in South Texas.  Currently, it received property tax support from only a limited area of one of these four counties.  The population of the four counties exceeds 600,000 residents, while the current taxing boundaries include only 250,000 people.  Del Mar College seeks to expand its taxable boundaries to include all four counties in its mandated service area.

Geospatial Solution

In June 2009, President Mark Escamilla requested the GeoTech Center undertake a mapping project to demonstrate the college’s service area and number of potential learners that could be served.  He specifically want to know the best location of potential remote site service centers that could minimize the time and distance learners traveled, while maximizing the number of potential learners.

John J. Nelson, GeoTech Center GIS Specialist, undertook the project and created a series of GIS maps to demonstrate: 1) legal service boundary, 2) current tax boundary, 3) potential new remote service center locations, and 4) drive time for potential learners.  These maps were created in ArcGIS 9.3.1 and presented to the college administration and Board of Regents in both hardcopy format and PowerPoint presentation.  The maps are currently being deployed on the GeoTech Center ArcWebService Internet Map and will be available to the public to study.

 Benefits

The college administration has a visual marketing tool to tell their story and sell the policymakers and skeptical property owners the benefits of expanding the college’s taxing boundary.  The public is provided with up-to-date information on possible remote campus location and can provide meaningful feedback to policymakers.

For more resources, visit our Geospatial Resource Repository.