ILRIS: surveyor benefits

Land surveyors are the last word in accuracy where geospatial geometry is concerned. Metes and bounds information - dimensions of property boundaries measured to sub-inch increments - is essential for conveyance of property. But most GIS applications do not require data of this accuracy.

Much of the benefit of a statewide, dynamic cadastral datalayer will accrue at planning scales, where land can be quantified, symbolized and characterized at the parcel level.

But this shouldn't be taken to mean that surveyors do not have a role in a statewide integrated land records information system. The composite of surveys should be available as a kind of reference frame for orienting the far inferior quality of planning level parcel data. The coverage of this layer would be extremely spotty to be sure, but over time it would begin to fill itself in and help to sew the overall fabric together.

If only this simple improvement were made - if all registered surveys were anchored to Maine's UTM Zone 19 NAD83 meters coordinate system and made readily available as a public, transparent and accessible resoource - the ILRIS exercise could be considered successful.

ILRIS: introduction and goals

An Integrated Land Records Information System (ILRIS) is anticipated to provide accurate and current data describing the pattern of land ownership across the State of Maine. Imagine this as a huge map showing parcel lines as they currently exist and changes that have recently occurred.

In a perfect world, with perfect information, it would be possible to scroll backward and forward through time and observe the changes over this map. Such an animation might begin by showing the entire area of Maine (in the 1600's) with only the original grant lines imposed on it. As the timeline moved forward, these original tracts would fracture into the increasingly complex and intricate pattern of the more than 700,000 parcels comprising the state today.

Of course, information is not perfect. Not even close. And even if a statewide composite existed for current parcel status it would require enormous time and resources to reconstruct the past 400 years of changes.

The thing is, while the 400-year animation is an unrealistic goal given present data and resources, the current statewide composite is well within the realm of the attainable. The technology for producing, storing and delivering such a system has become almost unimaginably cheaper and more accessible than it was even a decade ago. Many municipalities throughout the state have grown their own parcel composites from the ground up. All that is really necessary is a will to proceed and a willingness to collaborate.

some maine parcel history (2)

In the interest of tracing a deed, some more on the early parcelization of land along the Kennebec River:

On January 13, 1629, the Kennebec or Plymouth Patent was granted to new Plymouth. It was from the old Plymouth colony to William Bradford and his associates as follows;

The said Council further granted and assigned unto the said William Bradford, his Heirs, Associates and Assigns, All that Track of Land or part of New England in America, aforesaid, which lyeth within or between and extendeth itself between the utmost limits of Cobbiseconte, alias Comaseconte, which adjoineth to the river of Kennebeck, alias Kennebekike, towards the western ocean, and a place called the Falls at Neguamkike, in America aforesaid, and the space of fifteen English miles on each side of the said river commonly called the Kennebeck river, and all the said river called Kennebeck, that lies within the said limits."
(Deed. Statement of Kennebec Claim, etc.)

There's another map at the Maine Historical Commission that describes this huge parcel grant. It looks like this (area in the green parallel lines (centered on the Kennebec) on the map's right side)):


If you want to see how some of these data fit on a current satellite/road map, click here.

some maine parcel history (1)

The complex history of Maine's property mosaic reaches back almost 400 years. Of course there are no lines on the map before French and English settlement in the early 1600s, but a lot of interesting stuff happened quickly after that. From Dividing the Land:

Important parts of Maine were covered by a number of early land grants. One of the most comprehensive of these was the royal grant to Ferdinando Gorges in 1639, finally sold by his heirs to the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1677. Maine remained under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts until 1820. Before the Gorges grant, however, the Council for New England had made more than two dozen grants that together embraced the whole coast of Maine as far east as the Penobscot River and extended varying distances inland.

One of these two dozen grants was to the Kennebeck Company in 1630 by the Plymouth Colony, extending along both sides of the Kennebec River upstream to the falls at Skowhegan. The original strategy of the grant was as a base for trade in furs and other commodities with Indians. When the grant was revived and the proprietors incorporated in 1749, they began promoting settlement. One hundred acres were offered each settler as underpinning for the efforts to recruit groups in Europe, and land was broken out in longlots with frontage on the river and extending east or west in perpendicular parcels. By the early 1760s the company had settled at least eleven townships.

An overview of this original grant area (1719):


A great collection of associated maps is available at the Maine Historical Society Memory Network.