Chapter 9:  Create New Property

Create New Property

BluePrince allows you to create Properties for you to represent all of the locations where new (and existing) construction take place. The same property data is accessible for all BluePrince users who are involved in different aspects of Community Development such as Zoning, Planning, and Building. On the BluePrince Main Tool Bar click the New Property button to open a New Property form.

Required Fields

The required fields on a New Property form are purple and underlined. If a Required Field is blank when you click Save you will be unable to save the record and a message indicating the problem will be displayed.

You must enter either:

• Street Number and Name

OR

• PIN

OR

• Location

                OR

• GIS ID

Any of these can serve to uniquely identify the property. In addition you must select a Use Zone in the Locations group box. Use Zone determines which Building Permits will be available for the property.

Hint:  Use Zone does not affect which Zoning Permits are available on the Property. Zoning Districts are used for that purpose. Zoning Districts can be added to and removed from the property from the Zoning Tab. Address fields, City, and State will display the default values chosen in your configuration settings. You cannot change the State on the New Property form, but you may select a different city from the City drop-down menu if multiple cities were configured.

Hint:  Be sure that the correct city is indicated for your new property, even if you are entering a PIN and/or Location and not a street address.

Data Entry

You can find out if the Property's address already exists before entering any other data by clicking the Exists button. A Message Box indicates if the address does not exist. If the address already exists, you may chose from a number of options:

• View Details (of the existing property). This will display a list of all matches. From this screen you may view the specific details for each entry.
• Try Again. This will allow you to try a different spelling or different address.
• Use Anyway. This will allow you to continue creating a New Property record.

The purpose of these options is to help prevent duplicate entries in the database. All of the address fields except for Zip Code are used when searching for duplicate address record in the database and if just one of these fields differs from an existing address record, the new address will be considered unique.

Hint:  It is very important that you carefully check your data entry. You will want to avoid creating duplicate property records because this can cause problems later on. BluePrince cannot decide for you that two addresses that are just slightly different are intentionally different. Conversely, BluePrince cannot tell that two addresses that are the same are accidentally the same.

Example:  All of the following addresses will be considered unique by the database:

• 764 Maple Rd. Asheville, NC
• 764 Mapel Rd. Asheville, NC
• 764 N Maple Rd. Asheville, NC
• 764 Maple Rd. N Asheville, NC
• 764 Maple Ln. Asheville, NC
• 764 Maple Dr. Asheville, NC
• 764 Maple Rd. Apt. G Asheville, NC
• 764 Maple Rd. Unit G Asheville, NC

Any editable fields, including those on the Custom Tab, can be populated prior to saving, except for those on the Zoning, Structures, Variances, Attachments, and Notes tabs. Data on these tabs can only be entered on existing records. You must save the New Property and click Edit Mode before entering that data. When data entry is complete, click the Save button.

Modify Information

To add, change or delete Property data you must retrieve the record you want using the Search form. Please see the appropriate section of the Chapter 4: Searching. Existing Property records are also accessible from the Permit, Zoning Permit, and Project forms but will allow only a limited number of fields for editing. Once you have found the correct Property you must open the Property Form and click the Edit Mode button to make your changes. When you do so, all editable fields will change to have a white background. The following sections describe data entry for a Property.

Warning:  Editing an Existing Property will impact all Permits and Projects associated with it, as these records are “linked” rather than copied.  Do Not Change the Address on a Property Record.

Owner/Renter/Manager

The Owner/Renter/Manager tab allows you to attach specific people and/or companies to a property. BluePrince does NOT require you to save a new property record before entering data in the Owner/Renter/Manager Tab fields. Owners and Renters can be people or companies, but Management Companies must always be companies in the database. Each assignment works in the same way. Type in the name of a person or company in the Owner, Renter, or Management Company text field and click the corresponding Assign button. An Assign window will open showing all of the names that matched in the database.

Hint:  You may enter an asterisk * as a wildcard character in the Owner, Renter, and Management Company text fields, which can be very helpful when you only know part of the company or person name that you want to match or are unsure of the correct spelling.

Example:  Entering Mor* in the Search Field will return people and companies with names that begin with Mor. In this case, the search would return people with names such as Bob Morales, Sarah Morris, Larry Morehead, etc. It would return companies with names such as Morningstar Plumbing, Morrison Construction, and Morton Brothers Windows and Siding.

Select the person or company you want and click the Use button to make the assignment and return to the Property Form. The Assign form is discussed in more detail in Chapter 1: Introduction, Section: Common Data Entry Features.

Zoning

The Zoning tab allows you to work with the Zoning Districts and permits that are associated with the property. BluePrince requires you to save a new property record and then click the Edit Mode button before entering data in the Zoning tab fields.

Zoning Districts

The zoning district(s) on a property tell BluePrince which zoning regulations are in effect for the property on a Zoning Permit application. The Districts section on the top of the Zoning tab allows you to review, add and remove Zoning Districts associated with the property. To add a zoning district, click the New button to open the Select Zoning District window. Use the list box to select the appropriate Zoning District for the property and then click the Save button to return to the Zoning tab. You may add as many Zoning Districts as needed. To remove a zoning district, simply select the district in the table and click the Remove button.

Zoning Permits

The Permits section on the bottom of the Zoning tab allows you to review any Zoning Permits and Zoning Relief Permits already associated with the property. Select the Zoning Permit in the table and click on the Details button to open the Zoning Permit or Zoning Relief form.

Structures

Each property may have structures associated with it.  The Structures tab allows you to add structures to a property and review their details. Structures are also automatically added to a property when a Building Permit is created that has created a structure as part of the permit application.

To add a structure to the property, click the New button which opens a New Structure form (see Figure 85). When structures are created this way the only required field is the Description. This field acts as the "Name" of the structure. Enter any other data you need and click Save and Close to return to the Property form. You may view details of a structure by selecting the structure in the table and clicking the Details button. This opens the Structure form, but you must click the Edit Mode button if you wish to make changes.

Figure 85 - New Structure Form

Variances

The Variances tab allows you to review, add, and change variances associated with a property. The variance data that BluePrince stores are:

• In Effect Date
• Reference Number and Description
• Front, Back, Right, Left and Corner Setbacks
• Use Zone

To add a variance to the property, click the New button to open the Add Property Variance form (see Figure 86). BluePrince requires you to enter an effective date and a reference number before you will be able to save the new variance data. Once variances have been entered for the property, you will see them listed in the table. To review and/or make changes to an existing variance, select the variance in the table and click the Change button. This opens the Add Property Variance form as above.

Figure 86 - Add Property Variance Form

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