Hi everyone,

        Here are the responses I've gotten so far. A big thanks to all those who
sent ideas, Cliff, Jeff, Tom, Lon, Jeff, and hamish.

Original Question:
 Hi everyone,
>
> I'm hoping someone will have encountered this problem and will be able
> to help me. We have just fixed a towns parcels and are now joining them
> to a dbf of their assessor records. This was done by taking the
> mapblocklot number and linking that to a billing number that the
> assessor has assigned. The problem is that some of the parcels contain
> condos on the land. For these pieces of land the assessor does not bill
> to the parcel number itself but uses the condos number instead. This
> creates a problem because now we have a one to many situation but one
> were because of the different condo numbers we cannot use the link
> function in arcview which would have solved a one to many problem. What
> I'm looking for is some way to link the parcels without having to create
> a ghost record or having more than one copy of a parcel. Any advice or
> ideas would be greatly welcomed, thanks in advance for any help given.
>
> Matt Franz
> GIS Specialist
> Merrimack Valley Planning Commission
> mfranz@mvpc.org


Responses:

Greetings from Cambridge, Mass.  We had the same problem.  Two
possible solutions

1.  Place all assessing data in a dbf.   Add a field for the mapblock lot
number to every record.  All condos on a single parcel will share the
same mapblock lot number.  Link on mapblocklot, not assessing dept
billing number, which is unique for each entity.

2.  Place all assessing data in a dbf.  Create a second dbf with
mapblocklot number and assessing account number for every
account including condos. Link dbf #2 to dbf #1 then link the shape
file dbf to dbf #2.

Hope this helps.

Cliff Cook

Hi Matt,

I think the easiest way is to set up an intersection table between your
parcel coverage and your assesssor's db.  This seem to be the most
common way of dealing with the 'Condo Issue'.  If you're using ArcGIS
8.1, there is a parcel data model developed in the geodatabase
environment that seems to be very robust.  You can check that out at the
ESRI web page (search for data models).

We at MassGIS have just established a parcel mapping standard and I can
send you that if you like (it deals with levels of linkage to assessor's
databases fairly thoroughly).

Good Luck,
Scott

Dear Matt:

I know that condos represent a real challenge!
Here's how some of the Counties in Colorado
handle condos in GIS:

If you have 25 condos on a parcel, 24 special
'condo boxes' would be added in the parcel.
These 'condo boxes' would be 5 feet on a side,
and their attributes would be coded as 'condo
boxes' / non-parcels.  Then 25 labels would be
added, the first one going into the parcel and
the remaining 24 labels would fill the 'condo
boxes'.

I hope that helps.  Feel free to give me a call
if you need more details!
Tom

Have you thought about adding a field to the assessors dbf file - one that
would
be filled with the 'parent' parcel number?  You still wouldn't be able to do
a
join, but you could link the two.

Lon Sharp

My only idea is to create condo polygons and link those polygons
to the assessor's data.

Good luck.
Jeff

Hey Matt,

You might want to alter your primary key to include one or more digits to
accommodate the condos. I believe that is how many counties accommodate
this.