diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 0ea401c..f7fce91 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -17,5 +17,5 @@ wheelhouse/
 .vagrant/
 .cache/
 rcs.egg-info/
-
+local/
 MANIFEST
diff --git a/config.py b/config.py
index a322afe..39d71a5 100644
--- a/config.py
+++ b/config.py
@@ -23,4 +23,5 @@
 DEBUG_ENDPOINTS = True
 PROD = False
 
-# FEATURE_SERVICE_PROXY='http://127.0.0.1:8001'
+#Leave blank if no proxy required
+HTTP_PROXY = 'http://localhost:8899' 
diff --git a/docs/admin/configuration.rst b/docs/admin/configuration.rst
index 8adb894..5444283 100644
--- a/docs/admin/configuration.rst
+++ b/docs/admin/configuration.rst
@@ -13,8 +13,6 @@ LOG_ROTATE_BYTES
     Size in bytes at which logs should be rotated
 ACCESS_LOG
     Name of the access log file, if not present access requests will not be logged
-FEATURE_SERVICE_PROXY
-    A proxy URL to be used when registering ESRI feature layers.  Should be in the form of ``http://[server]:[port]``.
 URL_PREFIX
     A general prefix for the application, useful if you want to have side by side installs
     of RCS.  It should include an opening / (e.g. ``/rcs_ecdmp``).
@@ -34,3 +32,5 @@ REG_SCHEMA
     Path to the JSON schema to be used for validating PUT requests
 LANGS
     Must match the languages required by the schema (e.g. 'en', 'fr')
+HTTP_PROXY
+    A proxy URL to be used when registering layers.  Should be in the form of ``http://[server]:[port]``.
diff --git a/run.py b/run.py
index 476f471..1d60ba0 100644
--- a/run.py
+++ b/run.py
@@ -62,6 +62,9 @@ def log_response(sender, response):
 def before_request():
     flask.g.get_validator = lambda: jsonschema.validators.Draft4Validator(json.load(open(schema_path)))
     # TODO this is probably a good place to attach proxies for feature retrieval
+    global _proxies
+    _proxies = { 'http': app.config['HTTP_PROXY'], 'https': app.config['HTTP_PROXY']}
+
 
 if app.config.get('DEBUG_ENDPOINTS'):
     @app.after_request
diff --git a/services/regparse/esri.py b/services/regparse/esri.py
index 85a5e94..4f81e5e 100644
--- a/services/regparse/esri.py
+++ b/services/regparse/esri.py
@@ -4,10 +4,10 @@
 Most of the utility functions are exposed but most applications won't use them
 :func:make_node is generally the only point of interest here.
 """
-import requests
+import requests, config
 
 # TODO test me
-
+_proxies = {'http': config.HTTP_PROXY, 'https': config.HTTP_PROXY}
 
 def make_grid_col(**kw):
     """
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ def get_legend_mapping(feature_url, layer_id):
     :param layer_id: The id of the layer to create the mapping for.
     :returns: dict -- a mapping of 'label' => 'data URI encoded image'
     """
-    legend_json = requests.get(get_legend_url(feature_url)).json()
+    legend_json = requests.get(get_legend_url(feature_url), proxies=_proxies).json()
     for layer in legend_json['layers']:
         if layer['layerId'] == layer_id:
             break
@@ -187,8 +187,7 @@ def make_v1_feature_node(json_request, v2_node):
     """
     steal_fields = ['id', 'url', 'metadataUrl', 'catalogueUrl']
     node = {field: v2_node[field] for field in steal_fields if field in v2_node}
-
-    r = requests.get(v2_node['url'] + '?f=json')
+    r = requests.get(v2_node['url'] + '?f=json', proxies=_proxies )
     svc_data = r.json()
     node['displayName'] = json_request.get('service_name', None)
     node['nameField'] = json_request.get('display_field', None)
diff --git a/services/regparse/universal.py b/services/regparse/universal.py
index b13255c..b27a175 100644
--- a/services/regparse/universal.py
+++ b/services/regparse/universal.py
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
-import metadata, requests, ogc, esri, re
+import metadata, requests, ogc, esri, re, config
 
 
 remapped_types = {'esriMapServer': 'esriDynamic', 'esriFeatureServer': 'esriDynamic'}
-
+_proxies = {'http': config.HTTP_PROXY, 'https': config.HTTP_PROXY}
 
 class ServiceTypes:
     WMS = 'ogcWms'
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ def get_endpoint_type(endpoint, type_hint=None):
             # FIXME type detection should be much more robust, add proper XML parsing, ...
             return ServiceTypes.WMS
         elif is_esri:
-            r = requests.get(endpoint+'?f=json')
+            r = requests.get(endpoint+'?f=json',  proxies=_proxies )
             data = r.json()
             if 'type' in data:
                 if data['type'] == 'Feature Layer':