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February
2005 The Statewide Parcel Map Inventory has been updated with new results, and more units reporting. The state’s two National Forests, 4 tribal governments, and all 87 counties are part of this year’s survey. The accompanying map shows status in the counties: 56 counties doing parcel mapping (up from 54 in 2003) and 46 counties more than 75% complete with their work (compared to 41 in 2003). Inventory results are available at http://www.lmic.state.mn.us/chouse/SPMI/Reporting/. These include maps, reports for each county, and various methodology and summary reports. Standard maps can be presented, like the one accompanying this article, or two themes can be mapped together; e.g., development status and whether the county employs a surveyor. Custom reports can be generated for any county by clicking on desired items. Maps and reports are quickly presented on the screen, but can be transformed into print friendly output.
The 2004 inventory was conducted by the Land Management Information Center (LMIC) in the Department of Administration and allowed respondents to update their own information on the web using a password to protect response integrity. Some significant changes appear compared to the 2003 inventory, possibly due to question clarification and evolving respondent understanding of question meaning. MnDOT hopes to update this inventory on a regular basis. | |
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2003 By Will Craig, University of Minnesota Jay Krafthefer, MnDOT Annette Theroux, Pro-West & Associates
Every county would like to have up-to-date parcel maps to assist the assessor, E-911, environmental, and a wide variety of other applications. Having the maps in digital form allows for rapid updating whenever a change takes place. It also facilitates GIS applications like producing letters addressed to adjacent property owners. Until now, no one had a good idea of how many counties were on this path – or which ones are on track. A recent inventory has changed all that.
The accompanying map of Minnesota tells the story. Nearly 2/3 of Minnesota Counties are creating digital parcel maps – 54 of 86 reporting. In well over half (33 of 54) those counties parcel work is approaching completion; these counties are distributed across the state. Many of the remaining 21 counties are just getting started with their digital parcel mapping. Most of the 32 non-digital counties are small and rural. Detailed Survey Results are available for each county. Maps on that website show summary results for some 22 related questions in the inventory.
Our major goal was to create an inventory of existing digital parcel systems in Minnesota, along with contact information. A secondary goal of the inventory involved identifying the method of parcel data development, the frequency of maintenance, data development standards and distribution practices, remonumentation efforts, and other key information. All that information is on the website for 86 of the Minnesota counties, seven non-metro cities, and one Indian Reservation.
The inventory was sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Its Office of Land Management needs information about land ownership whenever highway construction or maintenance is planned, so knowing current status and contact names is useful to them. Other state and local government agencies also have a need for such information, so the results are posted on the website for use by everyone. The Minnesota Governor’s Council on Geographic Information has a strong interest in developing parcel mapping statewide and was happy to learn about the level of activity across the state.
The inventory is very current and plans are in place to keep it current. Data was collected from fall 2002 and into early winter 2003. Plans are to update the inventory annually. Ideally, key county staff would be given a password that would allow them make changes directly into an on-line database. The current version on the web is in PDF format and not amenable to this approach. Contact jay.krafthefer@dot.state.mn.us if you see mistakes in the current version that need to be corrected.
The University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies administered the research project. The University’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) was the lead research organization. Data was collected or organized by Pro-West & Associates. |
Click for larger image. MnDOT Resources to Aid Parcel Mapping MnDOT has data and map products available that could assist local governments with their parcel work. These resources are scattered across the department, but a new brochure – Survey and Land Information – has been developed providing contacts to relevant MnDOT people and websites. Maps and related documents are in a variety of formats, ranging from paper to scanned images to CAD files to GIS datasets. They include:
Download a pdf version of the Survey and Land Information brochure.
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