Contact the GIS Department for current maps, aerials, and custom maps. 1979 aerial photos are available from Nederveld and Associates in Hudsonville. Older aerial photos flown in 2004, 1999, 1994, 1989, 1984 & 1973 are available from GIS. Ottawa County Plat Books are also available through GIS.

Parcel information is available at no charge by using the Real Property Search on this website.

Equalization

The Equalization Department assists the county Board of Commissioner in examining the assessment rolls of the townships and cities and ascertaining whether the real and personal property in the respective townships and cities has been equally and uniformly assessed at true cash value.

The County Board of Commissioners equalizes separately personal property, and the following classes of real property; agricultural, developmental, residential, commercial, industrial, and timber cutover real property. This is done by adding to or deducting from the valuation of personal property and each class of real property in each township and city an amount that will produce a sum, which represents 50% of true cash value.

In the residential class, there is sufficient data to directly compare sales to assessments to determine whether the residential property class in each of the 17 townships and 6 cities has been equally and uniformly assessed at 50% of true cash value. Sales from a one-year period are used in these sales studies. The study periods run from October 1 through September 30

Appraisal studies are done in the other classes of real property where sufficient sales are not available. In these classes, a random sample is selected to be representative of the entire class of property. Four staff appraisers and the deputy director then draw up property record cards, collect the field data and determine the true cash value of each property selected.

The Equalization Department does not determine individual assessments. The appraisals made by the equalization staff are used to determine the true cash value of an entire class of property.

The studies conducted by the department are subject to review, audit and change by the Michigan State Tax Commission.

A personal property auditor conducts audits of a sample of the personal property in each of the 17 townships and 6 cities to determine whether the personal property in the respective townships and cities has been equally and uniformly assessed at 50% of true cash value.

The department also calculates all millage rollback fractions required by law (Headlee, Truth in Assessing, Truth in County Equalization and Truth in Taxation)

The department provides assistance to local assessing officers when requested, as well as assistance to School Districts, Intermediate School Districts, authorities, etc.

Property Description & Mapping

Property Description and Mapping maintains the parcel related layers in the County Geographic Information System for all parcels in Ottawa County. The staff assigns new parcel numbers, writes new tax descriptions and updates the county computer and website for all property splits.

Property Description and Mapping imports assessment rolls, tax rolls and names and addresses from local units thereby maintaining the data used in the Property Search function on this website.

Equalization

Property Description & Mapping

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