Data sources, freshness & honest coverage
Everything on data4 is mirrored or streamed from government-published sources. This page says exactly where each piece comes from, how fresh it is, and where coverage ends.
How the data works
We
mirror agency feeds on a schedule (permits weekly, parcels & zoning monthly, addresses monthly),
normalize them into one schema, and keep a change log so history accumulates. Every record links back to the
agency's own server — the "agency ↗" links in the
Data Index render the same
record from the government source, so you can verify anything in one click. Live layers (flood, soils,
wetlands, water rights) stream directly from the agency service with no copy in between.
Permit feeds (mirrored weekly)
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Where coverage honestly ends
Building permits: Bozeman, Missoula, Great Falls, Helena, and Kalispell publish machine-readable feeds — we carry them all.
Billings runs a permit portal (OpenGov) that is currently offline and exposes no data feed; Butte-Silver Bow's system (GovWell)
publishes no feed; most small towns and rural counties are permitted by the State of Montana (DLI), whose portal allows only
one-at-a-time human searches. For those areas, our statewide New Addresses layer (state 911 address points, diffed monthly)
catches new construction that no permit feed covers.
Zoning: we carry every Montana jurisdiction that both zones land and publishes GIS — 19 jurisdictions covering all
major population centers. Most of Montana's land area is genuinely unzoned; a handful of small towns have paper/PDF-only zoning maps.
Septic: Missoula County is the only Montana county publishing septic permits as data (we carry the documented era, with permit PDFs).
Other counties keep records offline.
Dates: a few agency sources publish no dates (DEQ mining) or year-only (septic) — we show exactly what the agency publishes.
Reference layers
Disclaimer
data4 is an aggregation and screening tool. It is
not a substitute for official records, a licensed survey,
a FEMA flood determination, a wetland delineation, a title search, or agency permit review. Data reflects
the publishing agency as of the harvest dates shown; agencies revise records. Verify all findings with the
issuing agency before relying on them. Questions or corrections:
itogeospatial@gmail.com.