Internal feature number.

ESRI

Generalized type of property used for symbology classification.

State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection

Name of the facility

State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection

Type of ownership of parcel.

State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection

Code value for each parcel.  This field is decoded by the DESC attribute.

State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection

Decodes the FNCT attribute.  Description of parcel in terms of its use.

State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection

Area of feature in acres.

State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection

Feature geometry.

ESRI

This source represents the original data submitted to the State of Connecticut by the municipalities.  Data format varied and was not consistent in any way.  

publication date

Municipally owned property delineated at 1:24000 scale from hand drawn delineations on topographic maps, survey maps and sketches.  

publication date

Municipally owned property in an ArcInfo coverage format (NAD27).

Municipally owned open space property in Shapefile format (NAD83).

publication date

Municipally owned open space property in Geodatabase Feature Class format.  

publication date

Create 1:24,000-scale Municipal Property Mylars - The initial Municipal Property Coverage was based on information mapped and subsequently digitized from a series of 1:24,000-scale Mylar overlays maintained by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The following briefly describes a mapping effort comprised of delineating the outer property boundary of municipal properties (facilities) such as cemeteries, schools, preserved open space and recreation areas, and other uncategorized open space areas on Mylar overlays. This was an ongoing mapping effort at DEP in the mid 1990's.

Municipal Property Mylar overlays for each 1:24,000-scale, 7.5 minute topographic quadrangle map were made by placing a blank sheet of 2 millimeter Mylar on each topographic quadrangle map and manually drafting the neat lines (boundaries) of the topographic quadrangle map on the Mylar. The neat lines were drafted in India ink and are the basis for manually registering (lining up) the overlay to the corresponding topographic quadrangle map. These overlays were not prepared with the intent of creating a data source for digitizing. Rather, they were meant to be used with and the basis for other 1:50,000 and 1:125,000 scale-overlays for regional assessments of dedicated open space, acreage calculations, and map publication purposes. These Mylars were susceptible to expansion and contraction under varying humidity conditions due to a 2-millimeter thickness. Also, the neat lines drawn on the overlays registered each overlay to the paper topographic quadrangle map and not a stable-base Mylar of the topographic quadrangle map. 

Although most municipally owned open space parcels are not shown on the USGS 7.5 minute topographic quadrangle maps, some cemeteries are depicted.  These cemetery parcels were transferred to Mylar by registering the overlays to the topographic quadrangle maps and tracing the boundaries of these cemeteries published on the USGS topographic quadrangle maps.  Each polygon was labeled and matched to the quadrangle neat lines, if necessary. All line work was done in ink. 

Parcels other than cemeteries were drawn onto the mylar using a best fit method by reducing the size of the original parcel map to approximate a scale of 1:24,000 and then tracing this onto the mylar.  The media and sources of the municipal parcel maps within each town varied and no record was kept regarding the exact office or department from which the data originated.  

Subsequent to the completion of this layer in 1997, no further updates were performed, except for municipal properties that were transferred to the Dept. of Environmental Protection as part of the DEP's land exchange program.  

Create 1:24,000-scale Municipal Open Space Property Coverage - The initial Municipal Open Space Property Coverage was based on information mapped and subsequently digitized from a series of 1:24,000-scale Mylar overlays maintained by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The Municipal Open Space Property Mylars.

The Municipal Open Space Property Coverage was first created in 1994 using information from the 1:24,000-scale Mylar overlays. The process of creating the coverage involved developing and testing methods to accurately register the Municipal Property Mylar overlays to a digitizing tablet; digitize boundary lines delineated on the overlays that do not coincide with other 1:24,000-scale base-map features (roads, streams, shorelines and town boundaries); use linear features from 1:24,000-scale base-map layers (road, streams, shorelines and town boundaries) as data sources when coincident with property boundaries; edge-match boundaries along quadrangle neat lines; append boundary lines to form and close polygon features; and attribute polygon features. Line feature topology was established with ArcInfo Fuzzy and Dangle tolerances verified at 4 and 10 feet, respectively. Polygon feature topology was established to ensure that no polygons overlapped. Digitizing was performed using PC ArcInfo 3.4d. All other processing tasks were accomplished using either ArcInfo 5 or 6.

Polygon attributes distinguish municipal parcels from one another and include the CATEGORY, FNCT, DESC and  NAME to uniquely identify, name, and classify properties and facilities by municipal function (Cemetery, Conservation, Existing Preserved Open Space, General Recreation, Preservation, Recreation, School, and Uncategorized).

This layer was not updated subsequent to its publication date in 1997.  

Datum Conversion - Using ESRI ArcInfo software, the Municipal Open Space Property layer was converted from the Connecticut State Plane Coordinate System of 1927 (NAD 27) to the Connecticut State Plane Coordinate System of 1983 (NAD 83).  The NADCON (North American Datum CONversion) data transformation was used.  A shapefile was then created from the coverage for use with ArcView 3.x.

Attribute Edits for Milford - It was found that 37 parcels located in Milford, Connecticut were named incorrectly.  They contained duplicate names of features in Greenwich.  The names of these parcels were changed to a value of "Unknown" as they were not field researched.  When the data becomes available, these data will be corrected to reflect the actual name of the open space parcel.