{"@type": "dcat:Dataset", "accessLevel": "public", "contactPoint": {"@type": "vcard:Contact", "fn": "CDT_GIS", "hasEmail": "mailto:odsdataservices@state.ca.gov"}, "description": "

WARNING: This is a pre-release dataset\n and its fields names and data structures are subject to change. It \nshould be considered pre-release until the end of March 2025. The schema changed in February 2025 - please see below. We will post a roadmap of upcoming changes, but service URLs and schema are now stable. For deployment status of new services in February 2025, see https://gis.data.ca.gov/pages/city-and-county-boundary-data-status. Additional roadmap and status links at the bottom of this metadata.

This dataset is continuously updated as the source data from CDTFA\n is updated, as often as many times a month. If you require unchanging \npoint-in-time data, export a copy for your own use rather than using the\n service directly in your applications.

Purpose

City\n boundaries along with third party identifiers used to join in external \ndata. Boundaries are from the California \nDepartment of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA). These boundaries are \nthe best available statewide data source in that CDTFA receives changes \nin incorporation and \nboundary lines from the Board of Equalization, who receives them from \nlocal jurisdictions for tax purposes. Boundary accuracy is *not* \nguaranteed, and though CDTFA works to align boundaries based on \nhistorical records and local changes, errors will exist. If you require a\n legal assessment of boundary location, contact a licensed surveyor.

This\n dataset joins in multiple attributes and identifiers from the US Census\n Bureau and Board on Geographic Names to facilitate adding additional \nthird party data sources. In addition, we attach attributes of our own \nto ease and reduce common processing needs and questions. Finally, \ncoastal \nbuffers are separated into separate polygons, leaving the land-based \nportions of jurisdictions and coastal buffers in adjacent polygons. \nThis feature layer is for public use.

Related Layers

This dataset is part of a grouping of many datasets:

  1. Cities: Only the city boundaries and attributes, without any unincorporated areas
  2. Counties: Full county boundaries and attributes, including all cities within as a single polygon
  3. Cities and Full Counties:\n A merge of the other two layers, so polygons overlap within city \nboundaries. Some customers require this behavior, so we provide it as a \nseparate service.
  4. City and County Abbreviations
  5. Unincorporated Areas (Coming Soon)
  6. Census Designated Places
  7. Cartographic Coastline

Working with Coastal Buffers
The dataset you are currently viewing excludes\n the coastal buffers for cities and counties that have them in the \nsource data from CDTFA. In the versions where they are \nincluded, they remain as a second polygon on cities or counties that \nhave them, with all the same identifiers, and a value in the COASTAL \nfield indicating if it"s an ocean or a bay buffer. If you wish to have a\n single polygon per jurisdiction that includes the coastal buffers, you \ncan run a Dissolve on the version that has the coastal buffers on all \nthe fields except OFFSHORE and AREA_SQMI to get a version with the correct identifiers.

Point of Contact

California Department of Technology, Office of Digital Services, odsdataservices@state.ca.gov

Field and Abbreviation Definitions

Boundary Accuracy
County \nboundaries were originally derived from a 1:24,000 accuracy dataset, \nwith improvements made in some places to boundary alignments based on \nresearch into historical records and boundary changes as CDTFA learns of\n them. City boundary data are derived from pre-GIS tax maps, digitized \nat BOE and CDTFA, with adjustments made directly in GIS for new \nannexations, detachments, and corrections.

\nBoundary accuracy within the dataset varies. While CDTFA strives to \ncorrectly include or exclude parcels from jurisdictions for accurate tax\n assessment, this dataset does not guarantee that a parcel is placed in \nthe correct jurisdiction. When a parcel is in the correct \njurisdiction, this dataset cannot guarantee accurate placement of \nboundary lines within or between parcels or rights of way. This dataset \nalso provides no information on parcel boundaries. For exact \njurisdictional or parcel boundary locations, please consult the county \nassessor's office and a licensed surveyor.

CDTFA's data is used as the best available source because BOE and CDTFA receive information about changes in jurisdictions which otherwise need to be collected independently by an agency or company to compile into usable map boundaries. CDTFA maintains the best available statewide boundary information.

CDTFA's source data notes the following about accuracy:

City\n boundary changes and county boundary line adjustments filed with the \nBoard of Equalization per Government Code 54900. This GIS layer contains\n the boundaries of the unincorporated county and incorporated cities \nwithin the state of California. The initial dataset was created in March\n of 2015 and was based on the State Board of Equalization tax rate area \nboundaries. As of April 1, 2024, the maintenance of this dataset is \nprovided by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration for \nthe purpose of determining sales and use tax rates. The boundaries are \ncontinuously being revised to align with aerial imagery when areas of \nconflict are discovered between the original boundary provided by the \nCalifornia State Board of Equalization and the boundary made publicly \navailable by local, state, and federal government. Some differences may \noccur between actual recorded boundaries and the boundaries used for \nsales and use tax purposes. The boundaries in this map are \nrepresentations of taxing jurisdictions for the purpose of determining \nsales and use tax rates and should not be used to determine precise city\n or county boundary line locations.

Boundary Processing
These\n data make a structural change from the source data. While the full \nboundaries provided by CDTFA include coastal buffers of varying sizes, \nmany users need boundaries to end at the shoreline of the ocean or a \nbay. As a result, after examining existing city and county boundary \nlayers, these datasets provide a coastline cut generally along the ocean\n facing coastline. For county boundaries in northern California, the cut\n runs near the Golden Gate Bridge, while for cities, we cut along the \nbay shoreline and into the edge of the Delta at the boundaries of \nSolano, Contra Costa, and Sacramento counties.

In\n the services linked above, the versions that include the coastal \nbuffers contain them as a second (or third) polygon for the city or \ncounty, with the value in the COASTAL field set to whether it"s a bay or\n ocean polygon. These can be processed back into a single polygon by \ndissolving on all the fields you wish to keep, since the attributes, \nother than the COASTAL field and geometry attributes (like areas) remain\n the same between the polygons for this purpose.

Slivers
In\n cases where a city or county"s boundary ends near a coastline, our \ncoastline data may cross back and forth many times while roughly \nparalleling the jurisdiction"s boundary, resulting in many polygon \nslivers. We post-process the data to remove these slivers using a \ncity/county boundary priority algorithm. That is, when the data run \nparallel to each other, we discard the coastline cut and keep the \nCDTFA-provided boundary, even if it extends into the ocean a small \namount. This processing supports consistent boundaries for Fort Bragg, \nPoint Arena, San Francisco, Pacifica, Half Moon Bay, and Capitola, in \naddition to others. More information on this algorithm will be provided \nsoon.

Coastline Caveats
Some\n cities have buffers extending into water bodies that we do not cut at \nthe shoreline. These include South Lake Tahoe and Folsom, which extend \ninto neighboring lakes, and San Diego and surrounding cities that extend\n into San Diego Bay, which our shoreline encloses. If you have feedback \non the exclusion of these items, or others, from the shoreline cuts, \nplease reach out using the contact information above.

Offline Use
This\n service is fully enabled for sync and export using Esri Field Maps or \nother similar tools. Importantly, the GlobalID field exists only to \nsupport that use case and should not be used for any other purpose (see \nnote in field descriptions).

Updates and Date of Processing
Concurrent\n with CDTFA updates, \napproximately every two weeks, Last Processed: 02/24/2025 by Nick Santos\n using code path at\u00a0https://github.com/Office-of-Digital-Services/gis-city-county at commit \n1ecb474343f85747bdf106dbefac1ed18809f23b. It incorporates updates from \nCDTFA as of 02/21/2025. Future updates will include improvements to \nmetadata and update frequency.

Software, Changes, Issues, and Roadmap
The\n code that builds and deploys this dataset is a work in progress and \nreceives updates that change data, features, metadata, and more. To \ncontribute a change, please reach out to the email address above or see \nthe links below:
  1. Software repository
  2. File an issue, request a change, or report a problem
  3. Service deployment status page
  4. Software roadmap
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