A Business Plan for Statewide Parcel Data Integration for Minnesota
Development of a statewide parcel data set is one of the top data priorities for stakeholders in Minnesota. While several programs exist to collect parcel data and distribute it within regional groups or single agencies, a comprehensive process for combining parcels statewide has never been established.
This business plan, published September 2012, proposes a prudent and effective approach for aggregating a seamless, statewide parcel data layer. It is based on extensive input obtained from surveys, a workshop and research.
MnGeo coordinated the project with substantial input and assistance from the
advisory committee and the consultant team. Work was done collaboratively with
numerous stakeholders,
including local governmental
units through their statewide organizations and Minnesota’s
Parcels and Land Records Committee. The work
was funded in part by a Federal Geographic Data Committee
CAP grant.
The Business Plan
- Final Parcel Business Plan (54 p., 1.8 MB, PDF)
- Appendices
(67 p., 2.5 MB, PDF)
Plan Contents
- Executive summary
- Benefits to counties, state agencies, and others
- County issues, needs and concerns
- Project risks
- Tactics to address the variety of circumstances found among the state’s 87 counties including: data availability, technical capacity, policies and practices, funding needs, financial and legal issues
- Implementation strategies including suggested guidelines, protocols, procedures, agreements and legislation
- Proposed technical approach
- Estimated costs and resource requirements
- Suggested timeline
Project Activity
Extensive information gathering was key to producing a viable business plan. Input was gathered from stakeholders representing federal, tribal, state, county, city and regional government; higher education; non-profits and the private sector. Project activity included:
- A phone survey of all 87 counties to identify their needs, circumstances, policies and practices
- A web-based survey of parcel data providers and consumers (over 250 people responded)
- A stakeholder workshop that included over 50 people at the main site as well as participants at 11 remote locations
- Research on what is being done in other states
- Analysis of regional and state agency parcel data collection efforts
- Input and advice from a steering committee
Much of the information gathered can be found in the
Appendices.
Background and Credits
-
Project proposal for the FGDC CAP Grant
- Advisory Committee members
- Curt Carlson, Digital Cadastral Data Committee
- Doug Hansen, Crow Wing County
- Brad Henry, University of Minnesota
- Mark Kotz, Metropolitan Council
- Rick Morey, Minnesota Department of Transportation
- Jane Mueller, Beltrami County
- Bart Richardson, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
- Mark Sloan, Clay County and City of Moorhead
- Jeff Storlie, Minnesota Counties GIS Association
- Michelle Trager, Rice County
- Consultant team: Pro-West
& Associates, Inc. and Applied Geographics
This project built upon several prior efforts dating back to the mid-1990s, including:
- Work done by several committees of the former Minnesota Governor’s Council on Geographic Information
- 2003 Cadastral Implementation Plan developed as part of the Governor’s Council's effort to build out the NSDI framework data layers for Minnesota
- 2004 strategic plan for an integrated Minnesota Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) that supports the National SDI and a vision for integrated parcel data for the nation
- MetroGIS strategy for sharing parcel data within the seven county Twin Cities metropolitan area
- Strategies suggested by Minnesota’s Parcels and Land Records Committee
- Work done by several State agencies (Transportation, Natural Resources
and Education) which have each secured limited access to parcel data from a
number of counties to meet their internal business needs, but which have not
established formal or sustainable processes supporting statewide integration
and public availability of the data
Related Efforts
- Parcel Data Standard for Minnesota
-
PRISM project:
The Minnesota Department of Revenue modernized its Property Tax data processes
and systems by developing a centralized database that standardized the
collection, storage, retrieval, and distribution of property data.
Contact Information
The business plan is complete. As work on implementing the plan progresses, we will provide updates.
If you have questions, contact Dan Ross at dan.ross@state.mn.us, or 651-201-2460.