FrontCounterBC
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FrontCounter BC Discovery Tool

Launch Discovery Tool

Discovery Tool Tutorial (PDF file)

The FrontCounter BC Discovery Tool is designed to help clients view an area of land within the Province of British Columbia. It provides basic information on how the land is currently being used and how it is used relative to your proposed application area.

For example, lands that are privately held or designated as a Provincial Park, National Park or First Nations Reserve are highly constrained in their potential for Crown authorizations and will require a call to FrontCounter BC staff to determine whether the proposed activity is permissible. Avoiding these areas when seeking potential candidate areas for your proposed application may improve your likelihood of success.

Because this tool does not show all land interests, you should contact FrontCounter BC to see if other interests exist that may conflict with your application before submitting it. Create an electronic file of your area of interest, called a Geomark, to submit with your application. Click here for more information on using the Geomark Web Service.

To use the FrontCounter BC Discovery Tool, you must have Google Earth loaded on your computer. Google Earth is a free internet product that is safe and easy to use.

The main purposes of this tool are:

  1. To discover general land use;
  2. To create your Area of Interest in the correct location you are interested in;
  3. To look at your Area of Interest in relation to other land interests to see if it is available, and;
  4. To create an electronic file of your Area of Interest to submit with your electronic application.

Download Google Earth

What's New!

The following enhancements have been incorporated into the FrontCounter BC Discovery Tool:

  1. New Data Layers:

    • A new folder called 'Tenures and Interests - Details' contains 4 new layers which are turned OFF by default:

      • ICF Private Ownership (Ownership Class and the respective PID number) visible at an eye altitude of 2 km

      • ICF Crown Ownership (Ownership Class and the respective PID number) visible at an eye altitude of 2 km

      • Crown Lease Tenures (detailed information about a particular tenure or interest)

      • Crown Lease Applications (detailed information about a particular tenure or interest)

    • The First Nations Consultations Areas Report is now included in the Discovery Tool. This layer is turned OFF by default. This report can be viewed below an eye altitude of 300km and will be displayed every time the map stops.

    • Under the folder 'Imagery', there is now an air photo viewer which displays printable, low-resolution air photos and their associated photo centres and flight lines.

  2. New Functionality:

    1. There are 2 new 'Search Tools' available in the Discovery Tool:

      • Find a Geographical Name in BC

      • Find an Address in BC

  3. The Discovery Tool now incorporates the new features in Geomark v4.0 released in January, 2013:

    1. You can now create geomarks from points and lines as well as polygons.

    2. There is a snappy new look and feel.

    3. There is also a new geomark group API that registered, government applications can use to make geomarks permanent.

  4. The Discovery Tool now incorporates the new features in Geomark v3.0.  These new features include:

    1. the buffering of points, lines, and polygons. In Google Earth, you can now create a point, line, or polygon, copy it to the clipboard, paste it into the Placemark KML text box of the Create Geomark layer, enter a buffer width (in metres) and create a buffered geomark.

    2. HTML representation now displays results of geometry validation (is simple, is valid, is robust, minimum clearance)

If you are not familiar with interactive web applications, view the on-line tutorial to help you get started or view the Frequently Asked Questions.

If you require assistance, contact FrontCounter BC:

Toll Free: 1-877-855-3222    E-Mail: frontcounterbc@gov.bc.ca

Disclaimer: This service is provided for information purposes and is intended to assist the general public in gathering information prior to submitting a Crown Land use application. The accuracy of the information displayed, including specific references to data sources and other government web sources, has not been verified and is presented without warranty or liability. Prior to making a land use decision based on the information provided by the FrontCounter BC Discovery Tool, consult a FrontCounter BC office to interpret and verify the land information.