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Counties and Cities & Townships 2000, Twin Cities Metropolitan Area

This page last updated: 07/31/2007
Metadata created using Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines


Metadata Summary

Originator Metropolitan Council, Dakota, Carver, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott & Washington Counties and the Minnesota Dept. of Transportation
Abstract This is a polygon dataset for county boundaries as well as for cities, township and unorganized territory (CTU) boundaries in the Twin Cities 7-county metropolitan area as of April 2000. This dataset will be kept static as of this date to be used with 2000 census data and other year 2000 data.

This is a MetroGIS Regionally Endorsed dataset. (See http://www.metrogis.org/data/about/index.shtml#whatis for more information.)


This dataset is composed of three shape files and a lookup table.

County_2000.shp = county boundaries

CTU_2000.shp = city, township and unorganized territory boundaries

County_CTU_2000.shp = combined county and CTU boundaries

County_CTU_LUT_2000.dbf = a lookup table containing various data related to cities, townships, unorganized territories and any divisions created by county boundaries splitting them.


NOTES:

- The five digit CTU codes in this dataset are identical to the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) ''Place'' codes. They are also used by the Census Bureau and many other organizations and are proposed as a MN state data coding standard.

- Cities and townships have also been referred to as ''MCDs'' (a census term), however this term technically refers to the part of each city or township within a single county. Thus, a few cities in the metro area that are split by county boundaries are actually comprised of two different MCDs. This was part of the impetus for a proposed MN state data standard that uses the ''CTU'' terminology for clarity.

- The boundary line data for this dataset comes primarily from each county, with MN/DOT data being used in Anoka County.

- A variety of civil divisions of the land exist within the United States. In Minnesota, only three types exist - cities, townships and unorganized territories. All three of these exist within the Twin Cities seven county area. The only unorganized territory is Fort Snelling (a large portion of which is occupied by the MSP International Airport).

- Some cities are split between two counties. Only those parts of cities within the 7-county area are included.

- Prior to the 2000 census, the FIPS Place code for the City of Greenwood in Hennepin County was changed from 25928 to 25918. This dataset reflects that change to match 2000 U.S. Census data.
Browse Graphic View a sample of the data.
Time Period of Content Date 07/01/2000
Currentness Reference Data are intended to reflect county, city and township boundaries as of April, 2000.
Access Constraints None
Use Constraints By acceptance of this data, the user agrees to include a copy of this metadata record, including the liability disclaimer, whenever the user transmits or provides the GIS Data (or any portion of it) to another user.

We recommend that other interested parties download this dataset from the Data Finder web site (www.datafinder.org) to ensure that the most current data is obtained.
Distributor Organization Metropolitan Council
Ordering Instructions This dataset is distributed on the internet by clicking below after 'Online Linkage'. Doing so will tell your browser to download a 'ZIP' file which will contain the following:

- ArcView shape files
- dBase IV file
- metadata for the dataset (.htm)
- NOTICE.RTF, an important notice about this dataset that can be read by any word processing software.

This dataset can also be viewed and downloaded from the MetroGIS DataFinder Cafe at http://www.datafinder.org/cafe/ . The Cafe allows users to subset or clip datasets using an existing feature, such as a city or school district boundary or an ad-hoc, user defined area.

Additionally, this dataset is available for direct use via one or more map services. More information about what a web mapping service is can be found at http://www.datafinder.org/services/ The specific map service and layer name for this dataset can be found by clicking the blue or green boxes under the map service column of the DataFinder Catalog at http://www.datafinder.org/catalog/ .
Online Linkage Click here to download data. (See Ordering Instructions above for details.) By clicking here, you agree to the notice in "Distribution Liability" in Section 6 of this metadata.

Full Metadata

Counties and Cities & Townships 2000, Twin Cities Metropolitan Area

Go to Section:
1. Identification Information
2. Data Quality Information
3. Spatial Data Organization Information
4. Spatial Reference Information
5. Entity and Attribute Information
6. Distribution Information
7. Metadata Reference Information

 
Section 1 Identification Information   Top of page
Originator Metropolitan Council, Dakota, Carver, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott & Washington Counties and the Minnesota Dept. of Transportation
Title Counties and Cities & Townships 2000, Twin Cities Metropolitan Area
Abstract This is a polygon dataset for county boundaries as well as for cities, township and unorganized territory (CTU) boundaries in the Twin Cities 7-county metropolitan area as of April 2000. This dataset will be kept static as of this date to be used with 2000 census data and other year 2000 data.

This is a MetroGIS Regionally Endorsed dataset. (See http://www.metrogis.org/data/about/index.shtml#whatis for more information.)


This dataset is composed of three shape files and a lookup table.

County_2000.shp = county boundaries

CTU_2000.shp = city, township and unorganized territory boundaries

County_CTU_2000.shp = combined county and CTU boundaries

County_CTU_LUT_2000.dbf = a lookup table containing various data related to cities, townships, unorganized territories and any divisions created by county boundaries splitting them.


NOTES:

- The five digit CTU codes in this dataset are identical to the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) ''Place'' codes. They are also used by the Census Bureau and many other organizations and are proposed as a MN state data coding standard.

- Cities and townships have also been referred to as ''MCDs'' (a census term), however this term technically refers to the part of each city or township within a single county. Thus, a few cities in the metro area that are split by county boundaries are actually comprised of two different MCDs. This was part of the impetus for a proposed MN state data standard that uses the ''CTU'' terminology for clarity.

- The boundary line data for this dataset comes primarily from each county, with MN/DOT data being used in Anoka County.

- A variety of civil divisions of the land exist within the United States. In Minnesota, only three types exist - cities, townships and unorganized territories. All three of these exist within the Twin Cities seven county area. The only unorganized territory is Fort Snelling (a large portion of which is occupied by the MSP International Airport).

- Some cities are split between two counties. Only those parts of cities within the 7-county area are included.

- Prior to the 2000 census, the FIPS Place code for the City of Greenwood in Hennepin County was changed from 25928 to 25918. This dataset reflects that change to match 2000 U.S. Census data.
Purpose This dataset was developed in particular to be used with various demographic data for the year 2000, in particular the 2000 U.S. Census data.
Time Period of Content Date 07/01/2000
Currentness Reference Data are intended to reflect county, city and township boundaries as of April, 2000.
Progress Complete
Maintenance and Update Frequency None planned
Spatial Extent of Data Twin Cities 7 County Metropolitan Area. This includes the counties of Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington in Minnesota.
Bounding Coordinates -94.012
-92.732
45.415
44.471
Place Keywords Twin Cities, Anoka County, Carver County, Dakota County, Hennepin County, Ramsey County, Scott County, Washington County
Theme Keywords counties, cities, political boundaries, townships, FIPS place code, CTU, CTUs, MCD, minor civil divisions, municipal boundaries, county boundaries, city boundaries, communities, community boundaries
Theme Keyword Thesaurus None
Access Constraints None
Use Constraints By acceptance of this data, the user agrees to include a copy of this metadata record, including the liability disclaimer, whenever the user transmits or provides the GIS Data (or any portion of it) to another user.

We recommend that other interested parties download this dataset from the Data Finder web site (www.datafinder.org) to ensure that the most current data is obtained.
Contact Person Information Mark Kotz, GIS Database Administrator
Metropolitan Council
390 Robert Street North
St. Paul, Minnesota 55101-1805
Phone: 651-602-1644
FAX: 651-602-1674
E-mail: mark.kotz@metc.state.mn.us
Browse Graphic View a sample of the data.
Browse Graphic File Description Sample map showing county and city & township boundaries 2000.
Associated Data Sets County & MCD boundary dataset for 1990: http://www.datafinder.org/metadata/comcd_1990.htm

MetroGIS Regional County and CTU boundary dataset (continually updated). http://www.datafinder.org/metadata/county_ctu.htm

State wide county and city boundary layers developed by the Minnesota Department of Transportation

 
Section 2 Data Quality Information Top of full metadata Top of page
Attribute Accuracy Valid code tests have been conducted. No known attribute errors exist.
Logical Consistency The dataset is topologically 'clean'.
Completeness Entire seven county geographic area is covered.
Horizontal Positional Accuracy The estimated positional accuracy of the dataset varies with the source of the data as follows:

Anoka County
Used MnDOT's 1996 Municipal and County boundaries layers from ''BaseMap '97'' CD. Positional accuracy estimate is 40 ft. Boundary changes since 1996 were derived from paper city Comprehensive Plan Amendments digitized using Metropolitan Council digital orthophotos for reference. Lines are estimated to generally have a 40 ft. positional accuracy. No testing of the positional accuracy has been done.
Note: When compared to a municipal boundary dataset received from Anoka County in 2002, postional differences of up to 50 meters were observed in a some places.

Carver County
County has GPS data for all 1/4 Section corners accurate to 1/50th foot. Township boundaries that follow PLS lines are estimated at between 0.2 ft. and 0.5 ft. of true location. City boundaries that follow PLS lines are also expected to be near this range of accuracy. Other boundaries are within .5' to 5' of horizontal accuracy.

Dakota County
Estimated +or- 0.2 feet on lines that follow the PLS or well described parcels. 90% of lines are estimated to be within 0.5 feet of true location. Some problem areas exist. For example, many questions exist as to where the boundary of Mendota is supposed to be.

Hennepin County
Estimated +or- 2 to 4 feet at section corners. Positional accuracy decreases with distance from section corners.

Ramsey County
The majority of the municipal boundary layer possesses a horizontal positional accuracy equivalent to that of our digitized parcels. (+-7 feet) Exceptions to this include unresolved boundary issues and interpreted boundary positions such as the thread of the Mississippi River. Some areas could deviate in position by more than 100 feet. Further municipal boundary annexation information may be found at the Minnesota Planning agency, the municipality in question or at the Minnesota Department of Transportation which performs most annexation mapping functions. Public Land Survey (PLS) and parcel mapping information can be found at the Ramsey County Surveyors Office.

Scott County
Township boundaries that follow PLS lines are estimated at between 0.4 ft. and 1 ft. of true location. City boundaries that follow PLS lines are also expected to be near this range of accuracy. Other boundaries are thought to be within 20 or 40 ft.

Washington County
Boundaries shown that coincide with hydrological features or those that have generalized definitions with little supporting detail of their location are digitized from partially rectified aerial photographs at 1 inch equals 200 feet. These features have been tested 23 feet horizontal accuracy at the 95% confidence level using NSSDA testing procedures except in areas of high vertical relief where such features tested 120 feet horizontal accuracy by use of other testing procedures. Boundaries defined as center of main channel on Mississippi and St. Croix rivers are approximations only (source U.S.G.S. quadrangle maps). All other boundary segments are generated by coordinate geometry based on a framework of accurately located PLSS corner positions. Legal boundary definitions were interpreted and analyzed according to records available and are not based on field survey. The nature of these definitions present situations where documents of record may not coincide with known ground position or that their ambiguity makes it difficult to identify precise ground location. As a result, caution is necessary in use of the municipal boundary data when using it in site specific applications. For more information contact the Washington County Surveyor's Office.
Lineage SOURCES USED:

This dataset consist of lines from several sources. They are:
- Carver County
- Dakota County
- Hennepin County
- Ramsey County
- Scott County
- Washington County
- Minnesota Department of Transportation (used for Anoka County)
- City comprehensive plan amendments (used in Anoka County)


ASSEMBLING THE DATA:

Linework was taken directly as provided from the counties with the following exceptions:

Anoka County lines were derived from January 1996 MNDOT data. Where annexations occurred in Anoka Co. since 1996, the CTU boundaries were digitized from city comprehensive plan amendment maps using the Metropolitan Council digital orthophotos as a reference.

Hennepin County linework is derived from CTU boundaries received from Hennepin Co. in 1998. Linework for boundary changes since that time was taken from 2002 CTU boundary data provided by Hennepin County. Note Hennepin County has made a number of changes to the alignment of CTU boundaries between the 1998 data and the 2002 data. The 1998 data is the primary source for this 2000 CTU dataset.


County boundaries were taken from the county datasets as follows:

Dakota/Scott boundary: Dakota County dataset was used.

Dakota/Washington: Dakota County dataset was used.

Washington/Ramsey: Washington County dataset was used.

Dakota/Ramsey: Dakota County dataset was used.

Hennepin/Ramsey: Ramsey County dataset was used with the the exception of one strip in the south along the river.

Scott/Hennepin: Hennepin County dataset was used.

Carver/Hennepin: Hennepin County dataset was used.

Carver/Scott: Carver County dataset was used with the exception of one segment where the Carver data appeared to go over land in Scott County as viewed on the Met. Council's orthophotos.

Ramsey/Anoka: Ramsey County dataset was used.

Washington/Anoka: Washington County dataset was used.

Hennepin/Anoka: Hennepin County dataset was used.



Washington County Note: Digital mapping of the city and township boundaries by Washington County resulted in the discovery of three separate polygon areas, where each was found not to have a corresponding FIPS place code. These polygons fall with the water bodies of the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers and are the result of an apparent discrepancy in the chain of record defining city and township boundaries for their adjoining city or township. They have been merged with adjacent cities or townships in this dataset.
Source Scale Denominator
 
Section 3 Spatial Data Organization Information Top of full metadata Top of page
Native Data Set Environment ArcGIS Version 9x
Geographic Reference for Tabular Data County code, CTU code, county name, CTU name, COMCD code
Spatial Object Type Vector
Vendor Specific Object Types polygon shapes
Tiling Scheme One layer for entire seven county region.
 
Section 4 Spatial Reference Information Top of full metadata Top of page
Horizontal Coordinate Scheme UTM
Ellipsoid GRS80
Horizontal Datum NAD83
Horizontal Units Meters
Distance Resolution
UTM Zone Number 15
 
Section 5 Entity and Attribute Information Top of full metadata Top of page
Entity and Attribute Overview 
This dataset is composed of three shape files and a lookup table.  
  
County_2000.shp = county boundaries 
  
CTU_2000.shp = city, township and unorganized territory boundaries 
  
County_CTU_2000.shp = combined county and CTU boundaries 
  
County_CTU_LUT_2000.dbf = a lookup table containing various data related to  
     cities, townships, unorganized territories and any divisions created by  
     county boundaries splitting them. 
  
  
Definitions for each attribute table follow.  Field lengths and types for all 
attributes are listed at the bottom. 
  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  
Attributes for County_2000.shp: 
  
CO_CODE:    3 digit FIPS and state standard county ID code; e.g. 163, 003 
  
CO_NAME:    Name of the county, upper case e.g. WASHINGTON 
  
CO_NAME_FU: Full county name, mixed case e.g. Washington County 
  
CO_ABBREV:  Four character county abbreviation e.g. WASH 
  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  
Attributes for CTU_2000.shp 
  
CTU_CODE:   5 digit FIPS 'Place' code, Census Bureau standard code and  
            proposed state standard ID code for cities, townships and  
            unorganized territories 
  
CTU_NAME:   Name of the city, township or unorganized territory,   
            e.g. Burns Twp., Blaine 
  
CTU_ABBREV: 6 character unique abbreviation for the CTU developed by Met.  
            Council GIS staff for file naming purposes  e.g. ANDOVE, ANOKAX. 
  
CTU_TYPE:   Type of CTU 
            C = city 
            T = township 
            U = unorganized territory 
            O = other (not a CTU, but useful as an entity in this table  
                e.g. MSP airport) 
  
ABC_SORT:   3 digit integer that will sort alphabetically e.g. 'St.' is  
            sorted as 'Saint' 
  
FIVE_COLOR: Numbers 1 to 5 for shading CTUs so adjacent CTUs have different 
            colors 
  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  
Attributes for County_CTU_2000.shp 
  
COCTU_CODE: 8 digit code (concatenation of CO_CODE and CTU_CODE below) 
  
COCTU_DESC: Description of the COCTU; e.g. Burns Township, Blaine  
            (Anoka Co. part) 
  
CO_CODE:    3 digit FIPS and state standard county ID code; e.g. 163, 003 
  
CO_NAME:    Name of the county 
  
CTU_CODE:   5 digit FIPS 'Place' code, Census Bureau standard code and  
            proposed state standard ID code for cities, townships and  
            unorganized territories 
  
CTU_NAME:   Name of the city, township or unorganized territory,   
            e.g. Burns Twp., Blaine 
  
COMCD_CENS: The Census Bureau's old 6 digit county-MCD code (concatenation of  
            FIPS county code and old Census MCD code) 
  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  
Attributes for County_CTU_LUT_2000.dbf table: 
  
COCTU_CODE: 8 digit code (concatenation of CO_CODE and CTU_CODE below) 
  
COCTU_DESC: Description of the COCTU; e.g. Burns Township, Blaine  
            (Anoka Co. part) 
  
CO_CODE:    3 digit FIPS and state standard county ID code; e.g. 163, 003 
  
CO_NAME:    Name of the county 
  
CTU_CODE:   5 digit FIPS 'Place' code, Census Bureau standard code and  
            proposed state standard ID code for cities, townships and  
            unorganized territories 
  
CTU_NAME:   Name of the city, township or unorganized territory,   
            e.g. Burns Twp., Blaine 
  
CTU_ABBREV: 6 character unique abbreviation for the CTU developed by Met.  
            Council GIS staff for file naming purposes  e.g. ANDOVE, ANOKAX. 
  
COMCD_CENS: The Census Bureau's old 6 digit county-MCD code (concatenation of  
            FIPS county code and old Census MCD code) 
  
CTU_TYPE:   Type of CTU 
            C = city 
            T = township 
            U = unorganized territory 
            O = other (not a CTU, but useful as an entity in this table  
                e.g. MSP airport) 
  
DUP_CTYTWP: Identifies cities and townships with the same name (e.g. City of  
            New Market and New Market Township) 
  
ABC_SORT:   3 digit integer that will sort alphabetically e.g. 'St.' is  
            sorted as 'Saint' 
  
FIVE_COLOR: Numbers 1 to 5 for shading CTUs so adjacent CTUs have different 
            colors 
  
POP_1990:   1990 population for county-CTU based on the 1990 census  
            (including subsequent corrections of the data by the Census  
            Bureau) 
  
POP_2000:   2000 population for county-CTU based on the 2000 census (does  
            not yet including any subsequent corrections of the data by the  
            Census Bureau) 
   
PPOP_2020:  County-CTU population projection for 2020.  These projections  
            were developed by Metropolitan Council Research Dept. staff for  
            growth management work. 
  
CHANGE_DAT: The date of the most recent change to a record in this table 
  
NOTES:      A place to document changes that have occurred for particular  
            CTUs (e.g. mergers, new FIPS codes, corrections to table, etc.) 
  
MNREV_CODE: Minnesota Department of Revenue code for CTU; e.g. 1400, 500, 6  
            (unique within county only) 
  
MNDES_CODE: Minnesota Department of Economic Security 'community' code for  
            CTU, e.g. 0025, 0215  (unique within county only) 
  
HENN_CODE:  'Municipal' code used by Hennepin County 
  
MCFIN_CODE: The Metropolitan Council Finance Dept. accounting codes for those  
            cities and townships that are connected to Council owned waste  
            water treatment plants and are paying sewer access charges (SAC).   
            Not all cities and townships in the metro area will have a code. 
  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  
Field types and lengths using ArcGIS 8x terminology 
  
COCTU_CODE  string   8 
COCTU_DESC  string   40 
CO_CODE     string   3 
CO_NAME     string   24 
CO_NAME_FU  string   24 
CO_ABBREV   string   4 
CTU_CODE    string   5 
CTU_NAME    string   24 
CTU_ABBREV  string   6 
COMCD_CENS  integer  long 
CTU_TYPE    string   1 
DUP_CTYTWP  string   1 
ABC_SORT    integer  short 
FIVE_COLOR  integer  short 
SYMBOL      integer  short 
POP_1990    integer  long 
POP_2000    integer  long 
PPOP_2020   integer  long 
CHANGE_DAT  date     8 
NOTES       string   250 
MNREV_CODE  integer  short 
MNDES_CODE  string   7 
HENN_CODE   integer  short 
MCFIN_CODE  string   4
Entity and Attribute Detailed Citation None
 
Section 6 Distribution Information Top of full metadata Top of page
Publisher Metropolitan Council
Publication Date 09/05/2002
Contact Person Information Mark Kotz
GIS Database Administrator
Metropolitan Council
390 Robert Street North
St. Paul, Minnesota 55101-1805
Phone: 651-602-1644
FAX: 651-602-1674
E-mail: mark.kotz@metc.state.mn.us
Distributor's Data Set Identifier county_ctu_2000
Distribution Liability NOTICE: The Geographic Information System (GIS) Data to which this notice is attached are made available pursuant to the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13). THE GIS DATA ARE PROVIDED TO YOU AS IS AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY AS TO THEIR PERFORMANCE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The GIS Data were developed by the Metropolitan Council for its own internal business purposes. The Metropolitan Council does not represent or warrant that the GIS Data or the data documentation are error-free, complete, current, or accurate. You are responsible for any consequences resulting from your use of the GIS Data or your reliance on the GIS Data. You should consult the data documentation for this particular GIS Data to determine the limitations of the GIS Data and the precision with which the GIS Data may depict distance, direction, location, or other geographic features. If you transmit or provide the GIS Data (or any portion of it) to another user, the GIS Data must include a copy of this disclaimer.
Transfer Format Name ArcView Shape files
Transfer Format Version Number ArcGIS 9x
Transfer Size 3 MB for zip file.
Ordering Instructions This dataset is distributed on the internet by clicking below after 'Online Linkage'. Doing so will tell your browser to download a 'ZIP' file which will contain the following:

- ArcView shape files
- dBase IV file
- metadata for the dataset (.htm)
- NOTICE.RTF, an important notice about this dataset that can be read by any word processing software.

This dataset can also be viewed and downloaded from the MetroGIS DataFinder Cafe at http://www.datafinder.org/cafe/ . The Cafe allows users to subset or clip datasets using an existing feature, such as a city or school district boundary or an ad-hoc, user defined area.

Additionally, this dataset is available for direct use via one or more map services. More information about what a web mapping service is can be found at http://www.datafinder.org/services/ The specific map service and layer name for this dataset can be found by clicking the blue or green boxes under the map service column of the DataFinder Catalog at http://www.datafinder.org/catalog/ .
Online Linkage Click here to download data. (See Ordering Instructions above for details.) By clicking here, you agree to the notice in "Distribution Liability" above.
 
Section 7 Metadata Reference Information Top of full metadata Top of page
Metadata Date 07/31/2007
Contact Person Information Mark Kotz, GIS Database Administrator
Metropolitan Council
390 Robert Street North
St. Paul, Minnesota 55101-1805
Phone: 651-602-1644
FAX: 651-602-1674
E-mail: mark.kotz@metc.state.mn.us
Metadata Standard Name Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines
Metadata Standard Version 1.2
Metadata Standard Online Linkage http://www.gis.state.mn.us/stds/metadata.htm

This page last updated: 07/31/2007