Online Tax Maps and Phase I ESAs

1 Copyright © 2015 EDR, All Rights Reserved.

Paul R. Schiffer

VP, Product Management, EDR

January 28th, 2015

Online Tax Maps and

Phase I ESAs


ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTING PRACTICES

• Consultants report that ~25% of subject properties supplied by

their customers have poor location information

• Many consultants use municipal tax map information

• Conduct research on property location

• Define property boundaries for the site visit

• Define property features, such as acreage

• Define adjoining property locations

• For example, to comply with the ASTM standards on adjoining property


• Originally, U.S. property was “granted” by some authority: a

monarchy, subsequent proprietors, towns, or the U.S. government

• Original colonies and grants before 1785 used “metes and bounds” surveys

• Characterized by running prose, describing movement from one “monument” to

the next along the ground, including the distance and angle between each

• With westward expansion, surveyors adopted the U.S. Rectangular Survey

System / Public Land Survey System (PLSS)

• Characterized by the Township / Range / Section descriptions

• Some western areas also used

systems based on French and

Spanish survey systems

• Detailed description

U.S. SURVEY SYSTEMS

Colored areas surveyed using rectangular PLSS

http://www.p2energysolutions.com/tobin-talk/roots-jeffersonian-public-land-survey


• Land grants typically based on one of the two survey systems

• Property ownership rights were generally documented in text

• To this day, the legally binding definition of a real property

resides in the textual deed description

• Tax maps are not the legal definition of the

property or its boundaries. Tax map

data is “as obtained” not “as recorded”

• Any maps referenced in the deed text are

legally binding.

• The three major systems used by modern deeds

• Metes and Bounds (aka Course & Distance)

• PLSS / Rectangular (aka Fractional System)

• Block and Lot (urban areas)

PROPERTY OWNERSHIP

Deed with metes and bounds survey text


• Property taxation has been driven at various times by Federal,

State and/or Local governments

• Assessors collected information on possessions

• Taxes were levied using lists, often sorted by person

• Historically, tax map usage has varied greatly by municipality

• Difficult to determine when mapping tax began,

except to visit each city

• Prior to the 1970s, its pretty murky

• Appendix to this document includes

news articles about tax map projects

HISTORY OF TAX MAPS

Andrew Jackson, Davidson County, TN, 1829. Tax bill: $66.75 (paid)

Robert Meeres, Boston, MA, 1648, reprint in 1881

NYC Tax map, 1968


IMPROVEMENTS IN TAX ASSESSMENT

• In the 20th century, the quality of practice for property assessment

improved substantially

• Tax collection itself became a “professional” occupation with the

creation of the National Tax Association (1907) and International

Association of Tax Assessors (1934)

• Through the middle of the 20 th Century, states emphasized fair and

equitable taxation

• Tax assessors were asked to represent properties on a map (often by law)

• Aerial photography allowed towns to improve the accuracy of legacy maps

• However, photography was not ortho-rectified, so resulting maps highly

inaccurate by today’s standards

• Until the advent of GIS tax maps, paper maps were rarely consulted and

likely did not lead to full transparency


• Tax Parcel Maps are also known as Cadastral Maps

• Fiscal Cadaster: The totality of information on maps and in

records used to administer a property tax

• Modern map-based fiscal cadasters contain:

• Parcel boundaries in hardcopy or digital format

• Lists of parcels and building (including descriptions)

• Tax history

• Ownership information

• Numbering system marking each parcel as unique

MODERN TAX MAPS


PARCEL NUMBERING SYSTEMS

• Numbering Systems

• Assessors Parcel Number (APN)

• Assessor's identification number (AIN)

• Property identification number (PIN)

• Parcel ID Number (PARID)

• Property account number

• Tax account number

• Sidwell number

• Tax Identification number (Tax ID)

• Borough, Block, Lot (BBL)

• Others

• e.g. “STRAP” in Lee County, FL; “AKPAR” in Chatham County, NC


• Generally each digit points to a specific entity

• Example: Township, range, section, subdivision, parcel identifier

• Examples

• Lee County, FL: STRAP# 04-48-26-B2-00500.2700

• Monroe County, PA Parcel #: 02/113882 PIN# 02632000817630

• Systems vary by municipality

• Average Number of Digits: 12

• Minimum: 4 (e.g. Chatham, NC)

• Maximum: 30 (e.g. Calumet, WI)

PARCEL NUMBERING SYSTEMS

0

50

100

150

200

250

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Co

un

tie

s

Number of Digits in the Assessor Parcel Number

Results based on a study of

100,000,000 parcels

in 2000 counties


COMPUTERIZING TAX ASSESSMENT

• Beginning in ~1970’s municipalities started using “CAMA”

• CAMA software (computerized assisted mass appraisal) helps to more easily

assess properties, track inventory and ownership, and send bills

• In 1990’s ESRI introduced PC-based GIS software

• A wave of digitation of legacy paper, mylar, and linen maps followed

• Scanning legacy hardcopy maps

• Overlaying scans on orthorectified aerials and street maps

• Other methods included following the coordinate geometry shown on maps

(COGO) or converting the legal descriptions

• Drivers included

• Desire for more accuracy in taxation (reassessments)

• Multiple municipal department uses (e.g. planning, zoning, engineering,

emergency services)

• EPA storm water requirements for separate sewage and runoff and the

resulting need to tax based on quantity of impermeable surface around a

property


DIGITAL TAX MAPS

• ~85% of municipalities have digitized tax maps

• Areas with higher funding are more likely to be digital

• Most are managed locally, either at the town or county level

• Several states manage the data centrally

• Impacts of Digital Tax Maps

• Help bring together municipal departments such as engineering and planning

that formerly did not work well together

• Enable assessors to accurately locate, inventory, appraise property and thus

fairly distribute taxes

• When used with mass appraisal programs, the GIS can highlight geographic

areas of change for uniformity of measurements and tax models.

• Enable 911 and emergency services to precisely know incident location and

adjoining property locations. (e.g. through a printout or onboard computer

monitor)

• Support infrastructure studies (e.g. zoning overlays)


DIGITAL TAX MAPS

• Accuracy ranges anywhere from 2 ft. to 30 ft.

• Depends on methods used and the expense the town is willing to bear

• Updates to property boundaries continue

• Towns may do themselves or outsource to specialists

• Data layers

• Municipal boundaries, zoning, soil types, flood plains, street centerlines,

crime scenes, airport influence areas, property boundaries, sales data,

ownership information, impermeable land such as parking lots, utilities,

vegetation and trees, sewer systems, parks, fences, sidewalks, manholes,

landfills, spillways, towers/antennas, hydrants, railroads, patio/deck, etc.


ONLINE ACCESS

• Many municipalities provide online access

• Online access is usually free

• Reduces “counter activity” related to fulfilling requests

• Allows assessors to do their job, e.g. reassessment

• Types of access

• Multi-point access sites

• Unified Systems

• Limited access sites

• Extensive data sites

• Commercial providers serving municipalities (e.g. Vision in New England)


PROVIDENCE, RI – MULTI-POINT ACCESS

Assessor Plat Maps from

Planning Dept.

PDF of Plat 82

Online Assessment Database by Vision

Providence Open Data Portal


STATE OF MONTANA – UNIFIED SYSTEM

Montana Cadastral Mapping Project


NEW YORK CITY, NY – KEYED TO BLOCK/LOT

Address Block/Lot Converter Address Block/Lot

NYC Dept. of Finance

Digital Tax Map


ORANGE COUNTY, CA – LIMITED DATA

Tax Bill Lookup Form


CLARK COUNTY, WA – EXTENSIVE DATA

Data Layers List

Data Viewer


TIPS

• Use online search engines to find municipal sources

• Use keywords like GIS, Tax Assessor, Parcel Maps

• Poke around

• Sometimes information will be on two separate systems, both valid.

• Take your time

• Municipalities present the data to their own liking

• Key buttons and functions may be hard to find

• Some can be slow and unresponsive

• Study the site

• Not always clear what data is available or not

• Expect variability and difficulty to find the property

• Search tools are not necessarily high quality

• Be aware that the data may not be perfect

• Data update schedules vary (anywhere from days to many months)

• Property changes may not make it into the assessor database quickly


RELATION TO ASTM E1527 AND AAI DEFINITIONS

• 20 years ago, ASTM E1527-93

described how to observe current and

historical uses of adjoining properties

during a site visit.

• In defining records review, ASTM

E1527-93 chose to use the term

“approximate minimum search distance”

instead of radius, precisely to indicate

searching from property boundary and

not radial searches.

• AAI is similar

E1527-93

E1527-93

U.S. EPA AAI Rule, 40 CFR Part 312


THE FUTURE

• Data improvement

• Redrawing / Retracing property lines to improve accuracy

• Better tools to enable emergency services (e.g. ingress / egress photos from

oblique photography)

• 3D data to measure many types of objects and topography

• LiDAR, photogrammetric layers, and oblique aerial photography

• Building footprints, which are drawn through a combination of automated and

manually intensive work

• Increased geographic coverage and faster data updates

• Questions related to transparency vs. privacy

• In some municipalities, public offices are exempt from online inclusion

• Federal government continues to study a national tax parcel

system, but with little progress


Paul R. Schiffer

Vice President, Product Management

EDR

6 Armstrong Road

Shelton, CT

[email protected]

800-352-0050

THANK YOU

mailto:[email protected]


Property tax maps are the tangible embodiment of the history and growth of the United States, taxation and

public policy, legal history and constitutional rights, finance and assessment, surveying techniques, and

geographic information systems.

If you would like to learn more, I recommend the following sources as a good starting point.

• Taxation

• History of Property Taxes in the United States, http://eh.net/encyclopedia/history-of-property-taxes-in-the-united-states/

• The Worst Tax?: A History of the Property Tax in America (Studies in Government & Public Policy) by Glenn W. Fisher

• Historical Tax Lists for Tennessee: http://www.tn.gov/tsla/history/county/taxlist.htm

• Assessor Parcel Number: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assessor%27s_parcel_number

• Tax Assessment Standards:

http://www.iaao.org/wcm/Resources/Publications_access/Technical_Standards/wmc/Resources_Content/Pubs/Technical_Standards

.aspx?hkey=93ba7851-659f-4d02-80a2-9a52ef21f995

• Surveying Systems

• Public Land Survey System

• Metes and Bounds System

• COGO

• Federal Studies and Documents

• Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records

• The Feasibility of Developing a National Parcel Database: County Data Records Project Final Report, HUD, 2013

• Municipal Storm water: http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/npdes/stormwater/Municipal -Separate-Storm-Sewer-System-MS4-Main-

Page.cfm

SELECT REFERENCES

http://eh.net/encyclopedia/history-of-property-taxes-in-the-united-states/















http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0700611207/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

http://www.tn.gov/tsla/history/county/taxlist.htm

http://www.tn.gov/tsla/history/county/taxlist.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assessor's_parcel_number

http://www.iaao.org/wcm/Resources/Publications_access/Technical_Standards/wmc/Resources_Content/Pubs/Technical_Standards.aspx?hkey=93ba7851-659f-4d02-80a2-9a52ef21f995










http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metes_and_bounds

http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.2/index.cfm?TopicName=An_overview_of_COGO

http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx#searchTabIndex=0

http://www.huduser.org/portal/publications/polleg/feasibility_natl_db.html

http://www.huduser.org/portal/publications/polleg/feasibility_natl_db.html

http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/npdes/stormwater/Municipal-Separate-Storm-Sewer-System-MS4-Main-Page.cfm

















• Organizations

• International Association of Assessing Officers

• National Tax Association

• Books

• The Zoning of America: Euclid v. Ambler (Landmark Law Cases and American Society) , Wolf, Michael Allan

• American Property: A History of How, Why, and What We Own , Banner, Stuart

• Who Owns the Sky?: The Struggle to Control Airspace from the Wright Brothers On , Banner, Stuart

• Interpreting Land Records , Wilson, Donald A.

• Dividing the Land: Early American Beginnings of Our Private Property Mosaic , Price, Edward T.

• Measuring America: How the United States Was Shaped By the Greatest Land Sale in History , Andro Linklater

• Businesses Consulted

• Business Process Solutions, LLC , http://www.bpsllc.net/

• Digital Map Products, http://www.digmap.com/

• Sanborn Map Company, http://www.sanborn.com/

• Surdex, http://www.surdex.com/

• Smart Data Strategies, Inc., http://www.sds-inc.com/

• Southland Business Strategies, LLC (Athens, GA) [email protected]

• Buonicore Partners, http://www.buonicorepartners.com/

• Boundary Solutions, http://www.boundarysolutions.com/

SELECT REFERENCES

http://www.iaao.org/

http://www.ntanet.org/

http://www.ntanet.org/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0700616217/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674030826/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471715433/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1



http://www.bpsllc.net/

http://www.digmap.com/

http://www.sanborn.com/

http://www.surdex.com/

http://www.sds-inc.com/



mailto:[email protected]

http://www.buonicorepartners.com/

http://www.boundarysolutions.com/

http://www.boundarysolutions.com/


APPENDIX – NEWS ARTICLES

PSchiffer

Sticky Note

DailyHerald Biloxi, MS Sep 21, 1906

PSchiffer

Sticky Note

Aberdeen Daily News Aberdeen, SD Feb 4, 1922

PSchiffer

Sticky Note

Greensboro Record Greensboro, NC Jun 15, 1939

PSchiffer

Sticky Note

Trenton Evening Times Trenton, NJ Nov, 28 1954

PSchiffer

Sticky Note

Rockford Register Star Rockford, IL Jul 4, 1960

PSchiffer

Sticky Note

Oregonian Portland, OR Mar 28, 1979

Online Tax Maps and Phase I ESAs

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