1997 Municipal and Private Open Space Property is polygon feature-based data that includes land owned in fee simple interest by the municipalities, land trusts, and other private entities within the State of Connecticut. These data are based on information collected from each Connecticut municipality up to 1997 and mapped at 1:24,000 scale. Generally, partial interests such as easements or development rights are not included in this layer. Types of property (categories) in this layer include cemeteries, conservation land, existing preserved open space, general recreation land, preservation land, recreation land, schools and uncategorized land. This layer is not current and has not been updated since its creation in 1997.
ground condition
Municipally owned open space land (Source: State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection)
Internal feature number. (Source: ESRI)
Generalized type of property used for symbology classification. (Source: State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection)
| Value | Definition |
|---|---|
| Cemetery | A cemetery, either private or municipally owned. |
| Conservation | Land that is considered a conservation area. |
| Existing Preserved Open Space | Existing preserved open space land. |
| General Recreation | Land used for general recreation purposes. |
| Preservation | Any land that is considered preserved. |
| Recreation | Land used for recreation. |
| School | Land than contains a school or a school facility. |
| Uncategorized | Any parcel that does not fit the above classifications. |
Name of the facility (Source: State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection)
Type of ownership of parcel. (Source: State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection)
| Value | Definition |
|---|---|
| Municipal | Municipally owned land |
| Private | Privately owned land |
Code value for each parcel. This field is decoded by the DESC attribute. (Source: State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection)
| Value | Definition |
|---|---|
| M-1 | Code for DESC value: "Municipal, open to public without fee" |
| M-2 | Code for DESC value: "Municipal, open to public with fee" |
| M-3 | Code for DESC value: "Municipal, members or owners only" |
| M-C | Code of DESC value: "Municipal cemetery" |
| MS | Code for DESC value: "Municipal School" |
| MS1 | Code for DESC value: "Municipal school open to public without fee" |
| P | Code for DESC value: "Private, access unknown" |
| P-1 | Code for DESC value: "Private, open to public without fee" |
| P-2 | Code for DESC value: "Private, open to public with fee" |
| P-3 | Code for DESC value: "Private, members or owners only" |
| P-C | Code for DESC value: "Private cemetery" |
| PS | Code for DESC value: "Private school" |
Decodes the FNCT attribute. Description of parcel in terms of its use. (Source: State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection)
| Value | Definition |
|---|---|
| Municipal cemetery | Municipal cemetery; decodes FNCT value of "M-C" |
| Municipal school | Municipal school; decodes FNCT value of "MS" |
| Municipal school open to public without fee | Municipal school property that is open to the public without a fee; decodes FNCT value of "MS1" |
| Municipal, members or owners only | Municipal property that is open to members or owners only; decodes FNCT value of "M-3" |
| Municipal, open to public with fee | Municipal property that is open to the public subject to a fee; decodes FNCT value of "M-2" |
| Municipal, open to public without fee | Municipal property that is open to the public without a fee; decodes FNCT value of "M-1" |
| Private cemetery | Privately owned cemetery; decodes FNCT value of "P-C" |
| Private school | Private school; decodes FNCT value of "PS" |
| Private, access unknown | Private property, access is unknown; decodes FNCT value of "P" |
| Private, members or owners only | Private property open to members or owners only; decodes FNCT value of "P-3" |
| Private, open to public with fee | Private property that is open to the public subject to a fee; decodes FNCT value of "P-2" |
| Private, open to public without fee | Private property that is open to the public without a fee; decodes FNCT value of "P-1" |
Area of feature in acres. (Source: State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection)
Feature geometry. (Source: ESRI)
Includes polygon features for all DEP owned property such as State Parks, State Forests, Wildlife Areas, etc. Information encoded about these features includes property type classification, two standard cartographic symbology classification schemes, and feature acreage. Use the AV_LEGEND attribute to symbolize features by type on a map. Use the IMS_LEGEND attribute to more generally symbolize the features by type.
James Bogar, Cartographer, and Howard W. Sternberg III, Environmental Analyst, State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection
79 Elm Street
Municipal and Private Open Space Property contains parcels owned by municipalities, land trusts and other private entities throughout the state. Generally, these parcels are open space and include schools, cemeteries, recreation, conservation and preservation land. This layer can be used with the Federal Property and DEP Property layers for a more comprehensive understanding of open space and recreation land throughout the State of Connecticut. This layer has not been updated since 1997 and may not be accurate. For more accurate and current open space parcel data, please see the Protected Open Space and the Protected Open Space Phase 1 feature classes. However, please note that the definition of Protected Open Space is not the same. As a result, cemeteries, developed recreation facilities, and schools are not included in the more current Protected Open Space layers.
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.
Municipally owned property delineated at 1:24000 scale from hand drawn delineations on topographic maps, survey maps and sketches.
Municipally owned property in an ArcInfo coverage format (NAD27).
Municipally owned open space property in Shapefile format (NAD83).
Municipally owned open space property in Geodatabase Feature Class format.
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.
79 Elm Street
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.
79 Elm Street
Attributes in the DEP Property layer have valid values. Values are within defined domains. DESC values are based on and decode FNCT values. OWNERSHIP denotes whether the parcel is privately or municipally owned. FNCT values begin with an "M" for municipal, or a "P" for private and this field relates to the OWNERSHIP field in that respect. CATEGORY values are used for the purpose of generating a legend. The values in the above fields have been checked for accuracy by comparing each value to its corresponding value in the related field. ACRE_GIS, SHAPE_AREA, and SHAPE_LENGTH are all software calculated. ACRE_GIS is the feature area in acres, while SHAPE_AREA and SHAPE_LENGTH are the feature area and length in feet.
No overall positional accuracy level can be established since a variety of sources and methods were used to map and compile the parcel features. Consequently, the information can be assumed to be no more positionally accurate than the least accurate method, which involved tablet or heads-up digitizing at 1:24000 scale.
The completeness of the data reflects the best available parcel acquisition records submitted to the State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection from Connecticut's Municipalities up to 1997. However, there may be omissions due to file errors, incomplete files, missing files, or staff error in the file retrieval process. No indication of completeness percentage is possible.
No topological rules were applied. No consistency is assumed or implied. Features were digitized by using the tablet digitizing method.
None. There are no restrictions or legal prerequisites for using the data. Once acquired, any modification made to the data must be noted in the metadata. When printing this information on a map or using it in a software application, please acknowledge the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection as the original source for this information.
79 Elm Street
| Data format: | in format Shapefile, Feature Class (version ArcGIS) |
|---|---|
| Network links: | http://www.ct.gov/deep |
The data distributor does not provide custom GIS analysis or mapping services. Data is available in a standard format and may be converted to other formats, projections, coordinate systems, or selected for specific geographic regions by the party receiving the data.
79 Elm Street