This Feature Class was created in 2014 as a part of the State of Connecticut’s Policy Intergovernmental Policy Division grant to the Southern Connecticut Regional Council of Governments for the Regional Web-Based GIS program.The development of the parcel layer was started in 1998-1999 by East Coast Mapping of New Hampshire. East Coast created CAD Drawings for the Town of Wallingford generated through the digitization of Town of Wallingford’s Tax Maps. By use of stereoscopic techniques East Coast created a seamless parcel base from a 2000 aerial flight’s orthophoto’s (1x600ft scale). The CAD files and base were then given to the Wallingford’s Town Engineer who maintained the base. New England Geosystems of Middletown, CT received the CAD files from Wallingford in 2014 and converted the files to GIS format to create the parcel layer.

See full Data Guide here. This layer includes polygon features that depict protected open space for towns of the Protected Open Space Mapping (POSM) project, which is administered by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Land Acquisition and Management. Only parcels that meet the criteria of protected open space as defined in the POSM project are in this layer. Protected open space is defined as: (1) Land or interest in land acquired for the permanent protection of natural features of the state's landscape or essential habitat for endangered or threatened species; or (2) Land or an interest in land acquired to permanently support and sustain non-facility-based outdoor recreation, forestry and fishery activities, or other wildlife or natural resource conservation or preservation activities. Includes protected open space data for the towns of Andover, Ansonia, Ashford, Avon, Beacon Falls, Canaan, Clinton, Berlin, Bethany, Bethel, Bethlehem, Bloomfield, Bridgewater, Bolton, Brookfield, Brooklyn, Canterbury, Canton, Chaplin, Cheshire, Colchester, Colebrook, Columbia, Cornwall, Coventry, Cromwell, Danbury, Derby, East Granby, East Haddam, East Hampton, East Hartford, East Windsor, Eastford, Ellington, Enfield, Essex, Farmington, Franklin, Glastonbury, Goshen, Granby, Griswold, Groton, Guilford, Haddam, Hampton, Hartford, Hebron, Kent, Killingworth, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Litchfield, Madison, Manchester, Mansfield, Marlborough, Meriden, Middlebury, Middlefield, Middletown, Monroe, Montville, Morris, New Britain, New Canaan, New Fairfield, New Milford, New Hartford, Newington, Newtown, Norfolk, North, Norwich, Preston, Ridgefield, Shelton, Stonington, Oxford, Plainfield, Plainville, Pomfret, Portland, Prospect, Putnam, Redding, Rocky Hill, Roxbury, Salem, Salisbury, Scotland, Seymour, Sharon, Sherman, Simsbury, Somers, South Windsor, Southbury, Southington, Sprague, Sterling, Suffield, Thomaston, Thompson, Tolland, Torrington, Union, Vernon, Wallingford, Windham, Warren, Washington, Waterbury, Watertown, West Hartford, Westbrook, Weston, Wethersfield, Willington, Wilton, Windsor, Windsor Locks, Wolcott, Woodbridge, Woodbury, and Woodstock. Additional towns are added to this list as they are completed. The layer is based on information from various sources collected and compiled during the period from March 2005 through the present. These sources include but are not limited to municipal Assessor's records (the Assessor's database, hard copy maps and deeds) and existing digital parcel data. The layer represents conditions as of the date of research at each city or town hall. The Protected Open Space layer includes the parcel shape (geometry), a project-specific parcel ID based on the Town and Town Assessor's lot numbering system, and system-defined (automatically generated) fields. The Protected Open Space layer has an accompanying table containing more detailed information about each feature (parcel). This table is called Protected Open Space Dat, and can be joined to Protected Open Space in ArcMap using the parcel ID (PAR_ID) field. Detailed information in the Protected Open Space Data attribute table includes the Assessor's Map, Block and Lot numbers (the Assessor's parcel identification numbering system), the official name of the parcel (such as the park or forest name if it has one), address and owner information, the deed volume and page numbers, survey information, open space type, the unique parcel ID number (Par_ID), comments collected by researchers during city/town hall visits, and acreage. This layer does not include parcels that do not meet the definition of open space as defined above. Features are stored as polygons that represent the best available locational information, and are "best fit" to the land base available for each.

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection's (CTDEP) Permanently Protected Open Space Phase Mapping Project Phase 1 (Protected Open Space Phase1) layer includes permanently protected open space parcels in towns in Phase 1 that meet the CTDEP's definition for this project, the Permanently Protected Open Space Mapping (CT POSM) Project. The CTDEP defines permanently protected open space as (1) Land or interest in land acquired for the permanent protection of natural features of the state's landscape or essential habitat for endangered or threatened species; or (2) Land or an interest in land acquired to permanently support and sustain non facility-based outdoor recreations, forestry and fishery activities, or other wildlife or natural resource conservation or preservation activities.

Towns in Phase 1 of the CT POSM project are situated along the CT coast and portions of the Thames River and are the following: Branford, Bridgeport, Chester, Clinton, Darien, Deep River, East Haven, East Lyme, Essex, Fairfield, Greenwich, Groton, Guilford, Hamden, Ledyard, Lyme, Madison, Milford, Montville, New Haven, New London, North Branford, North Haven, Norwalk, Norwich, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Orange, Preston, Shelton, Stamford, Stonington, Stratford, Waterford, West Haven, Westbrook, Westport.

For the purposes of the project a number of categories or classifications of open space have also been created. These include: Land Trust, Land Trust with buidlings, Private, Private with buildings, Utility Company, Utility Company with buildings, Federal, State, Municipal, Municipal with buildings, Conservation easement, and non-DEP State land. The layer is based on information from various sources collected and compiled during the period from August 2002 trhough October 2003. These sources include municipal Assessor's records (the Assessor's database, hard copy maps and deeds) and existing digital parcel data. The layer represents conditions on the date of research at each city or town hall.

The Protected Open Space Phase1 layer includes the parcel shape (geometry), a project-specific parcel ID based on the Town and Town's Assessor lot numbering system, and system-defined (automatically generated) fields. In addition, the Protected_Open_Space_Phase1 layer has an accompanying table containing more detailed information about each parcel's collection, standardization and storage. This table is called Protected Open Space Phase1 Data and can be joined to Protected Open Space Phase1 in ArcMap using the parcel ID (PAR_ID) field. Detailed information includes the Assessor's Map, Block and Lot numbers (the Assessor's parcel identification numbering system), the official name of the parcel (such as the park or forest name if it has one), address and owner information, the deed volume and page numbers, survey information, open space type, the project-specific parcel ID number (Par_ID), comments collected by researchers during city/town hall visits, acreage collected during site reconaissance and the data source. This layer does not include parcels that do not meet the definition of open space as defined above. Features are stored as polygon feature type that represent the best available locational information, i.e. "best fit" to the land base available for each.

Phase 1 of the Protected Open Space Mapping (POSM) Project was accomplished by a contractor using only a querying process to identify open space. The contractor obtained assessor's data from the various towns and created programs to cull open space parcels strictly by query processes. We have found many errors and omissions in the data, but at this point in the project we cannot revisit all the coastal towns. Therefore, this data is being sent with a disclaimer for accuracy. You are welcome to use it but not to publish it. Please note that we do not include any water company parcels despite them being listed as part of our criteria because we must first obtain written clarification and clearance from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

We have since changed our data collection method for Phase 2 of this project. DEP staff now visit each town hall and thoroughly research the land records. The project is expected to be complete by 2010.

Connecticut Parcels for Protected Open Space Mapping is a polygon feature-based layer that includes basic parcel-level information for some towns in Connecticut. This parcel layer includes information provided by individual municipalities. These parcel data are incomplete and out of date. The accuracy, currency and completeness of the data reflect the content of the data at the time DEEP acquired the data from the individual municipalities. Attribute information is comprised of values such as town name and map lot block number. These data are not updated by CT DEEP and should only be used as a general reference. Critical decisions involving parcel-level information should be based on more recently acquired information from the respective municipalities. These parcels are not to be considered legal boundaries such as boundaries determined from certain classified survey maps or deed descriptions. Parcel boundaries shown in this layer are based on information from municipalities used for property tax purposes. Largely due to differences in horizontal accuracy among various data layers, do not expect these parcel boundaries to line up exactly with or be properly postioned relative to features shown on other layers available from CT DEEP such as scanned USGS topography quadrangle maps, roads, hydrography, town boundaries, and even orthophotograpy.

The data in the parcel layer was obtained from individual Connecticut municipalities. An effort was made to collect data once from each municipality. The data acquisition date for each set of municipally-supplied parcel data was not recorded and CT DEEP does not keep this information up-to-date. Consequently, these data are out-of-date, incomplete and do not reflect the current state of property ownership in these municipalities. These parcels are not to be considered legal boundaries such as boundaries determined from certain classified survey maps or deed descriptions. Parcel boundaries shown in this layer are based on information from municipalities used for property tax purposes. Parcel boundaries and attribute information have not been updated in this layer since the time the information was originally acquired by CT DEEP. For example, property boundaries are incorrect where subdivisions have occurred. Also, field attribute values are populated only if the information was supplied to CT DEEP. For example, parcels in some towns lack location (street name) information or possibly map lot block values. Therefore, field attributes are inconsistent, may include gaps, and do not represent complete sets of values among all towns. They should not be compared and analyzed across towns. It is emphasized that critical decisions involving parcel-level information be based on more recently obtained information from the respective municipalities. These data are only suitable for general reference purposes. Be cautious when using these data. Many Connecticut municipalities provide access to more up-to-date and more detailed property ownership information on the Internet. This dataset includes parcel information for the following towns: Andover, Ansonia, Ashford, Avon, Beacon Falls, Berlin, Bethany, Bethel, Bethlehem, Bloomfield, Bolton, Branford, Bridgewater, Brookfield, Brooklyn, Canaan, Canterbury, Canton, Chaplin, Cheshire, Chester, Clinton, Colchester, Colebrook, Columbia, Cornwall, Coventry, Cromwell, Danbury, Darien, Deep River, Derby, East Granby, East Haddam, East Hampton, East Hartford, East Lyme, East Windsor, Eastford, Ellington, Enfield, Essex, Farmington, Franklin, Glastonbury, Granby, Greenwich, Griswold, Groton, Guilford, Haddam, Hamden, Hartford, Hebron, Kent, Killingly, Killingworth, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Litchfield, Lyme, Madison, Manchester, Mansfield, Marlborough, Meriden, Middlebury, Middlefield, Middletown, Milford, Monroe, Montville, Morri