15 CAR Part 282 — Arkansas Digital Cadastral Mapping Standard

Chapter XVIII

Subchapter A

Subpart 1

15 CAR § 282-101 Introduction {#sec-15-car-282-101 omnilex-key=us-ar-regs-official--title-15-part-282--15 CAR § 282-101}

15 CAR § 282-101. Introduction.

(a) The Arkansas State Land Information Board, now the Arkansas Geographic Information Systems Board, first developed this standard in 2004 in order to support the legislative initiatives to establish the Arkansas Spatial Data Infrastructure, Arkansas Code § 15-21-504.

(b) Spatial data layers are often stored digitally and accessed through a relational database management system.

(c) Although digital cadastral data is a component of the Arkansas Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI), the ways in which users format and maintain it can differ, and they may often disagree on the way a particular spatial data layer structure should be organized.

(d) This can pose problems in terms of sharing, locating, and extracting spatial data information.

(e) It is intended that geospatial data standards will benefit geographic information systems (GIS) user communities through consistency and efficiency of sharing the data.

15 CAR § 282-102 Background and purpose {#sec-15-car-282-102 omnilex-key=us-ar-regs-official--title-15-part-282--15 CAR § 282-102}

15 CAR § 282-102. Background and purpose.

(a)(1) As articulated in Arkansas Code § 15-21-504(f)(1), the Arkansas Geographic Information Systems Board, “…shall define technical specifications and standards to use in the collection, distribution, and reporting of spatial information as required by the State of Arkansas Enterprise Architecture.”

(2) Arkansas Code § 15-21-501 further describes the purpose of the board in detail.

(b)(1) The Arkansas Digital Cadastral Mapping Standard is intended to make digital cadastral data more uniform and interoperable.

(2) This will facilitate the sharing of a statewide, seamless, digital cadastral spatial data layer.

(3) Adherence to this standard will:

(A) Enhance the “usability” of the spatial data theme and its attributes by multiple entities;

(B) Ensure a consistent manner in which the cadastral parcel spatial data and attribute data are collected or stored; and

(C) Enable the data to be merged seamlessly and become transferable regardless of creator or jurisdictional boundaries.

(c) “Digital cadastral maps enable the assessor to more efficiently access parcel location and information, reveal geographic relationships that affect property value, and provide a platform for the visualization of data layers and analytical results.” See International Association of Assessing Officers, Standard on Digital Cadastral Maps and Parcel Identifiers (2015).

Subpart 2

15 CAR § 282-201 Procedures — Heads-up digitizing {#sec-15-car-282-201 omnilex-key=us-ar-regs-official--title-15-part-282--15 CAR § 282-201}

15 CAR § 282-201. Procedures — Heads-up digitizing.

(a) Parcel boundaries intended to meet the standard may be produced utilizing heads-up digitizing techniques.

(b)(1) Within the Arkansas Digital Cadastral Mapping Standard, heads-up digitizing methodologies refers to georeferencing scanned paper maps and tracing the relevant parcel boundaries to create the parcel features.

(2) Heads-up digitizing methodologies used may include but are not limited to:

(A) Stream mode; and

(B) Arc/node mode.

(3) Heads-up digitizing shall be performed utilizing the following recommendations:

(A) Capture scale shall not fall outside the range of one to one thousand two hundred (1:1,200) to one to three thousand six hundred (1:3,600);

(B)(i) Projection shall be Arkansas State Plane North or Arkansas State Plane South.

(ii) See Definitions, 15 CAR § 282-205, for projection for each county;

(C) Datum shall be as specified for the State of Arkansas in Arkansas Code § 15-21-306;

(D) Units shall be United States Survey Feet;

(E)(i) Source shall be digital ortho-imagery:

(a) Not more than five (5) years in age;

(b) Meeting industry-recognized standards for radiometry;

(c) A minimum of one foot (1’) resolution; and

(d) Having a minimum positional accuracy plus or minus three and nine-tenths feet (3.9’).

(ii) The Arkansas Digital Orthophotography Program imagery is recommended; and

(F) Heads-up digitizing method should only be used where clear visual ground evidence of ownership is present on the ortho-imagery, i.e., fence line, tree line, grass line, etc.

15 CAR § 282-202 Metes and bounds {#sec-15-car-282-202 omnilex-key=us-ar-regs-official--title-15-part-282--15 CAR § 282-202}

15 CAR § 282-202. Metes and bounds.

(a) Parcel boundaries may also be produced utilizing metes and bounds techniques.

(b) Metes and bounds techniques pertain to the use of coordinate geometry with bearings and distances to accurately map the parcel boundary.

(c) Bearing and distance source data used may include but are not limited to:

(1) Legal descriptions;

(2) Subdivision plats; and

(3) Plats of survey.

(d) Metes and bounds should be used when clear visual ground evidence of ownership is not present.

(e)(1) Coordinate geometry (COGO) should be implemented as much as possible to ensure consistency between:

(A) Recorded instruments;

(B) Other available digital maps; and

(C) The base map.

(2) Although coordinate geometry is usually regarded as the most accurate method of base map construction, it is sound practice to integrate the COGO work with existing reliable digital sources to:

(A) Ensure accuracy and consistency; and

(B) Minimize the expense and effort of the duplication of existing digital work. (f)(1) When inconsistencies between the property records and other mapping sources, i.e., photo evidence, appear, a thorough investigation should be initiated to discover all the relevant evidence to make the judgment for locating the element on the map accurately.

(2) The recorded instrument remains the authoritative record upon which all property valuations must rely.

(3) If the record conflicts with the evidence of the map, the recourse for the cadastral mapping specialist is to identify the discrepancy for reconciliation by the proper authorized parties.

(g) The purpose of the cadastral map is to help locate tax parcels, not to identify property boundaries.

15 CAR § 282-203 Relative dimension accuracy {#sec-15-car-282-203 omnilex-key=us-ar-regs-official--title-15-part-282--15 CAR § 282-203}

15 CAR § 282-203. Relative dimension accuracy.

(a) Relative dimension accuracy refers to the accuracy of the digital representation of the parcel boundary on the ortho-imagery, in comparison with the legal description from the recorded deed or plat.

(b) The relative accuracy is checked by measuring the difference in the calculated acreage versus the acreage recorded from the deed or plat that is stored in the Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) system.

(c)(1) As compared to the parcel acreage recorded in the CAMA system, it is strongly recommended that the calculated acreage for each parcel polygon be within acceptable suggested tolerances as defined in Table 1.

(2) However, due to inherent variability in the various types of cadastral records, e.g. CAMA records, deeds, plats, etc., strict adherence to these tolerances may not be practical.

Table 1: Acreage tolerances

15 CAR § 282-204 Cadastral data characteristics {#sec-15-car-282-204 omnilex-key=us-ar-regs-official--title-15-part-282--15 CAR § 282-204}

15 CAR § 282-204. Cadastral data characteristics.

(a) The following standards apply to the collection and maintenance of the parcel characteristics that are intended to meet the standard.

(b) The characteristics for the parcel shall contain but are not limited to the following:

(1) Geometry.

(A)(i) Parcel outline (polygon).

(ii) This is the geographic extent of the parcel, the parcel boundaries forming a closed polygon.

(iii) The collection of parcel outlines forms the parcel map.

(B)(i) Parcel centroid (point).

(ii) This is a point within the parcel that can be used to attach related information.

(iii) The parcel centroid is the mathematical center of the parcel polygon generated by GIS software based on the parcel polygon provided; and

(2) Attributes.

Table 2: Cadastral Data Attribute Table

History

• Codification Notes: “GIS” means geographic information systems. Authority: Arkansas Code § 15-21-504

15 CAR § 282-205 Definitions — Cadastral data attributes {#sec-15-car-282-205 omnilex-key=us-ar-regs-official--title-15-part-282--15 CAR § 282-205}

15 CAR § 282-205. Definitions — Cadastral data attributes.

As used in this part:

(1)(A) “Acreage” means the common square measure of land described in the land tenure system.

(B) One (1) acre equals forty-three thousand five hundred sixty square feet (43,560 square feet);

(2) “AdrCity” means the city associated with the physical address of the property;

(3)(A) “AdrLabel” means the concatenated physical address of property.

(B) This can be composed of variable elements depending on road names.

(C) Examples could be:

(i) 123 Main St;

(ii) 211 S Mountain Dr; and

(iii) 2307 Highway 35 S, among others;

(4) “AdrNum” means the physical address road number of the property as seen in the address point recommendations;

(5) “AdrZip5” means the physical address zip code of property as seen in the address point recommendations;

(6) “Assessed value” means the monetary amount attribute at which a property is put on the assessment roll;

(7) “Assessment date” means the date on which the most recent assessment has been completed;

(8) “Attribute or attributes” means the properties and characteristics of spatial data entities;

(9) “Cadastral” means showing or recording:

(A) Property boundaries;

(B) Subdivision lines;

(C) Buildings; and

(D) Related details;

(10) “Cadastre” means an official register of the quantity, value, and ownership of real estate used in apportioning taxes;

(11) “CAMA” means computer assisted mass appraisal;

(12)(A) “CAMADate” means the effective date of the CAMA database.

(B) Typically, this would be the date the database was extracted from a county’s CAMA system;

(13) “CAMAKey” means the unique key used by the county’s CAMA company;

(14)(A) “CAMAProv” means a county’s CAMA system provider.

(B) This is the vendor from which a county procures its CAMA system;

(15) “County” means the attribute which contains the name of the county responsible for the parcel polygons;

(16) “County FIPS code” means the FIPS county code, which is a five-digit Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) code, see Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 6-4 (FIPS 6-4), that uniquely identifies:

(A) Counties and county equivalents in the United States;

(B) Certain United States possessions; and

(C) Certain freely associated states;

(17) “County identification numbers” means a unique identifier for the parcel, using a combination of the county FIPS code and the parcel identification number;

(18) “DataProv” means the attribute that contains the name of the entity who provided parcel data to the Arkansas Geographic Information Systems Office;

(19) “Digital cadastre” means the storage and manipulation of computerized representations of parcel map and linked parcel databases as defined by Arkansas Code § 15-21-502(5);

(20) “Entity” means any object about which an organization chooses to collect data;

(21)(A) “Geometry source reference” means a pointer to or an attribute describing the source reference for the parcel.

(B)(i) This can be a:

(a) Document number;

(b) Book/page; or

(c) Map of survey.

(ii) The geometry source reference should describe the source of the parcel geometry, either the centroid or the parcel outline.

(iii) This should represent the latest and most accurate document available;

(22)(A) “Geometry source reference date” means the effective date of the geometry source reference.

(B) This date is a general indication of the currency of the source.

(C) This is the date entered into the CAMA system as the date the deed was filed.

(D) It is the date as of which the source documentation was valid;

(23) “Georeferencing” means a software procedure that consists in positioning, through points with known coordinates, known as check points, scanned paper images in the respective area of the real territory according to a given reference system;

(24) “Improved value” means the attribute of the monetary amount of any improvements that have been made to the land;

(25) “Land value” means the attribute of the monetary amount of the land without improvement;

(26) “NatCoord” means the attribute that indicates whether the native coordinate system for the county is Arkansas State Plane North or Arkansas State Plane South;

(27) “Neighborhood” means the attribute used to represent geographical or market areas;

(28) “Owner name” means the name of the property owner;

(29) “Parcel identification number” means a unique identifier for the parcel as defined by the CAMA system;

(30) “Parcel legal description” means the deeded legal boundary for the parcel contained in the CAMA system;

(31) “PreDir” means primary directional prefix as defined in the State Addressing standard;

(32)(A) “Projection” means State Plane Arkansas North Zone and State Plane Arkansas South Zone.

(B) State Plane Arkansas North Zone includes the following counties:

(i) Baxter;

(ii) Benton;

(iii) Boone;

(iv) Carroll;

(v) Clay;

(vi) Cleburne;

(vii) Conway;

(viii) Craighead;

(ix) Crawford;

(x) Crittenden;

(xi) Cross;

(xii) Faulkner;

(xiii) Franklin;

(xiv) Fulton;

(xv) Greene;

(xvi) Independence;

(xvii) Izard;

(xviii) Jackson;

(xix) Johnson;

(xx) Lawrence;

(xxi) Logan;

(xxii) Madison;

(xxiii) Marion;

(xxiv) Mississippi;

(xxv) Newton;

(xxvi) Perry;

(xxvii) Poinsett;

(xxviii) Pope;

(xxix) Pulaski;

(xxx) Randolph;

(xxxi) Scott;

(xxxii) Searcy;

(xxxiii) Sebastian;

(xxxiv) Sharp;

(xxxv) St. Francis;

(xxxvi) Stone;

(xxxvii) Van Buren;

(xxxviii) Washington;

(xxxix) White;

(xl) Woodruff; and

(xli) Yell.

(C) State Plane Arkansas South Zone includes the following counties:

(i) Arkansas;

(ii) Ashley;

(iii) Bradley;

(iv) Calhoun;

(v) Chicot;

(vi) Clark;

(vii) Cleveland;

(viii) Columbia;

(ix) Dallas;

(x) Desha;

(xi) Drew;

(xii) Garland;

(xiii) Grant;

(xiv) Hempstead;

(xv) Hot Spring;

(xvi) Howard;

(xvii) Jefferson;

(xviii) Lafayette;

(xix) Lee;

(xx) Lincoln;

(xxi) Little River;

(xxii) Lonoke;

(xxiii) Miller;

(xxiv) Monroe;

(xxv) Montgomery;

(xxvi) Nevada;

(xxvii) Ouachita;

(xxviii) Phillips;

(xxix) Pike;

(xxx) Polk;

(xxxi) Prairie;

(xxxii) Saline;

(xxxiii) Sevier; and

(xxxiv) Union;

(33)(A) “Property type code” means a code indicating the property’s use or classification at the time of reappraisal.

(B) Commonly used codes:

(i) Would represent uses such as:

(a) Residential;

(b) Commercial; or

(c) Agricultural, among others; and

(ii) Typically indicate the presence of an improvement on the property.

(C) A list of approved property type codes is available from the Arkansas Assessment Coordination Division.

(D) Information on codes used by specific counties should be obtained directly from the county assessor’s office;

(34) “PstrNam” means primary street name as defined in the State Addressing standard;

(35) “PstrType” means the primary street type as defined in the State Addressing standard;

(36) “PsufDir” means the primary directional suffix as defined in the State Addressing standard;

(37) “Relative accuracy” means a measure of the accuracy of individual features on a map when compared to other features on the same map;

(38)(A) “Section, township, and range” means the attribute that indicates the parcel location by:

(i) Section;

(ii) Township; and

(iii) Range.

(B) The format for this field should be SXX_TXXDirection_RXXDirection, Direction for Townships being N or S and Direction for Ranges being E or W;

(39)(A) “Subdivision” means the name of any subdivision the parcel is located in.

(B) Examples are:

(i) Jones Addition;

(ii) Original City of Little Rock; and

(iii) Smith Subdivision, etc.;

(40)(A) “Tax area” means the attribute containing the area being taxed.

(B) This is the value that should be used on all cartographic displays of the data;

(41) “Tax code” means the attribute which represents the tax district;

(42)(A) “Topology” means spatial relationships and connectivity among graphic GIS features, such as:

(i) Points;

(ii) Lines; and

(iii) Polygons.

(B) These relationships allow display and analysis of intelligent data in GIS.

(C) Many topological structures incorporate:

(i) Begin and end relationships;

(ii) Direction; and

(iii) Right or left identification.

(D) Accurate topology will ensure that there are no gaps or slivers between adjacent parcels, as well as no overlapping parcels; and

(43) “Total value” means the attribute which is the monetary amount of the improved value plus the land value.

History

• Codification Notes: “GIS” means geographic information systems. Authority: Arkansas Code § 15-21-504

Subpart 3

15 CAR § 282-301 Update — Maintenance {#sec-15-car-282-301 omnilex-key=us-ar-regs-official--title-15-part-282--15 CAR § 282-301}

15 CAR § 282-301. Update — Maintenance.

(a) The county assessor’s office is the responsible entity tasked with creating, maintaining, and updating the parcel data.

(b) The data shall be:

(1) Maintained in the native coordinate system defined for the county; and

(2) Delivered to the state in the same coordinate system.

(c) Following spatial or attribute updates or modifications performed to the parcel boundary data, it shall be submitted to the entity responsible for performing quality control practices.

15 CAR § 282-302 Quality control {#sec-15-car-282-302 omnilex-key=us-ar-regs-official--title-15-part-282--15 CAR § 282-302}

15 CAR § 282-302. Quality control.

Rigorous quality control techniques shall be implemented to ensure the parcel data has acceptable horizontal accuracy and attribute integrity, such as:

(1) Building and maintaining topology; and

(2) Visual and measurement accuracy checks.

15 CAR § 282-303 Metadata {#sec-15-car-282-303 omnilex-key=us-ar-regs-official--title-15-part-282--15 CAR § 282-303}

15 CAR § 282-303. Metadata.

(a)(1) Cadastral data intended to meet the standard shall have Federal Geographic Data Committee compliant metadata created for each spatial data file.

(2) Compliant metadata shall be provided with digital cadastre that are created, updated, or distributed by any parties intended to meet the standard.

(b) The metadata shall be supplied anytime it is distributed or transferred among participants or other entities responsible for creating, performing quality control, maintaining, updating, and/or distributing the data.

(c) The metadata:

(1) Shall be transferred in a Federal Geographic Data Committee standard format, i.e., Z39.50, text, HTML file, etc.; and

(2) Must have successfully passed through a Federal Geographic Data Committee compliant metadata parser.

15 CAR § 282-304 Distribution of the digital cadastre data {#sec-15-car-282-304 omnilex-key=us-ar-regs-official--title-15-part-282--15 CAR § 282-304}

15 CAR § 282-304. Distribution of the digital cadastre data.

The digital cadastre data shall be distributed digitally via https://gis.arkansas.gov/, Arkansas Spatial Data Infrastructure, at no fee to private or public users.

15 CAR § 282-305 Inquiries {#sec-15-car-282-305 omnilex-key=us-ar-regs-official--title-15-part-282--15 CAR § 282-305}

15 CAR § 282-305 Inquiries.

(a) Direct inquiries about this standard to:

Arkansas Geographic Information Systems Office 501 Woodland Street, Ste. G4 Little Rock, AR 72201 https://gis.arkansas.gov/ 501-682-2767

(b) All inquiries regarding property taxes and associated assessments or approved property type codes within the State of Arkansas should be directed to:

Arkansas Assessment Coordination Division 1900 W. 7^th St., Room 2140 Little Rock, AR 72201 (501) 324-9240 https://www.arkansasassessment.com/

(c) For inquiries regarding specific properties, please contact the appropriate county assessor.