1 county indexed. ArcGIS FeatureServer and MapServer URLs, with supported search fields per layer.
| County | Endpoints | Searchable fields | Status | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnson County | 1 | Parcel Permanent Number · Deed Holder 1 (Owner) · Deed Holder 2 +4 | LIVE | OPEN |
Iowa property assessment is administered by elected Assessors in each of the state's 99 counties, with cities over 10,000 population maintaining their own city assessors. The Iowa Department of Revenue coordinates valuation standards and conducts equalization reviews but does not centralize parcel spatial data. Iowa assessors often use Beacon, a vendor portal by Schneider Geospatial, as their public-facing parcel search interface — but the REST layer underneath is county-hosted and queryable independently. Johnson County (Iowa City metro) exposes a FeatureServer with DeedHolder and ContractOwner fields, which distinguishes Iowa from many states where ownership data is withheld from public REST layers.
The Iowa Geographic Information Council (IGIC) coordinates statewide GIS policy and maintains the Iowa Geospatial Data Clearinghouse at geodata.iowa.gov. Parcel data, however, remains county-controlled with no federated statewide REST endpoint. Beacon (beacon.schneidercorp.com) is a widely adopted portal among Iowa counties: it provides a common search UI backed by each county's own CAMA and GIS data, typically refreshed in sync with annual assessments. Counties running Beacon often publish a separate raw ArcGIS REST endpoint; the Beacon portal and the REST layer are maintained in parallel. Iowa Land Records (iowalandrecords.org), operated by county recorders, covers deed and mortgage documents for all 99 counties but is a document system, not a parcel GIS.
Johnson County's FeatureServer distinguishes DeedHolder (the legal owner of record per the deed) from MailingName (the taxpayer of record who receives tax bills). These can differ when a property is held in a trust or LLC while the tax bill goes to an individual trustee. The layer supports up to three DeedHolder fields (DeedHolder1/2/3) and up to four ContractOwner fields (ContractOwner1/2/3/4) for land contracts. For straightforward ownership searches, query UPPER(DeedHolder1) LIKE '%SMITH%'. For trust-held properties where the trust name is in DeedHolder1 but the human trustee is in MailingName, search both fields. This field granularity is more detailed than most county parcel REST layers in neighboring Midwest states.
Iowa statutes require each county to assign a Parcel Permanent Number (PPN) to every parcel. The PPN format varies by county but is meant to be stable across ownership transfers — it identifies the land, not the owner. Johnson County stores PPN in the PPN field. Unlike Illinois PINs, Iowa PPNs do not follow a statewide digit-length standard; the county Auditor assigns the format locally. The CityTownship field records whether the parcel is within an incorporated city or an unincorporated township, which affects which assessor (city or county) has jurisdiction and which tax levy applies.
There are multiple Johnson Counties in the US — Iowa (FIPS 19103), Kansas (FIPS 20091), Indiana (FIPS 18081), and Texas (FIPS 48251) among them. Iowa's Johnson County is the Iowa City metro and home to the University of Iowa. When constructing REST queries or interpreting results, confirm the FIPS code or state context. The gis.johnsoncountyiowa.gov hostname is a reliable identifier. Schneider Geospatial's Beacon portal also hosts data for other states' Johnson Counties at different AppID values, so a Beacon URL alone does not confirm Iowa context.
Johnson County (Iowa City metro, University of Iowa, pop. ~155,000). FeatureServer at gis.johnsoncountyiowa.gov exposes PPN, DeedHolder1/2/3, ContractOwner1-4, MailingName, MailingAddress1, CityTownship, and legal description fields. Owner-name queries confirmed live. Layer 0 is address points, layer 1 road centerlines, layer 2 is the parcel polygon layer.
Johnson County owner search: ?where=UPPER(DeedHolder1)+LIKE+UPPER('%25SMITH%25')&outFields=PPN,DeedHolder1,MailingName,MailingAddress1,CityTownship&returnGeometry=false&f=json&resultRecordCount=10 (base: gis.johnsoncountyiowa.gov/arcgis/rest/services/Parcels_AddressPoints_Roads_IC/FeatureServer/2). PPN lookup: ?where=PPN='<value>'&outFields=*&returnGeometry=false&f=json. Mailing name search (for trusts): ?where=UPPER(MailingName)+LIKE+UPPER('%25TRUST%25')&outFields=PPN,DeedHolder1,MailingName,MailingAddress1&returnGeometry=false&f=json. City/township filter: ?where=CityTownship='Iowa City'+AND+UPPER(DeedHolder1)+LIKE+UPPER('%25SMITH%25')&outFields=PPN,DeedHolder1,MailingName&returnGeometry=false&f=json.
Last updated 2026-05-24.
1 Iowa county is indexed in the UrbanKit atlas with a verified public REST endpoint: Johnson. It exposes an owner-name field you can search directly on the public layer.
Johnson expose an owner-name field on the public REST layer. Johnson, for example, uses the DeedHolder1 field — a case-insensitive search is ?where=UPPER(DeedHolder1)%20LIKE%20UPPER('%25SMITH%25')&outFields=*&f=json. Open a county's page here for its full field list and a ready-to-run sample query.
Johnson publishes parcels at https://gis.johnsoncountyiowa.gov/arcgis/rest/services/Parcels_AddressPoints_Roads_IC/FeatureServer/2 — a FeatureServer (layer 2). It indexes by Parcel Permanent Number, Deed Holder 1 (Owner), Deed Holder 2, and Deed Holder 3. Owner-name search: UPPER(DeedHolder1) LIKE UPPER('%25SMITH%25').
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