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The protected and recreational open space datalayer contains the boundaries of conservation lands and outdoor recreational facilities in Massachusetts. The associated database contains relevant information about each parcel, including ownership, level of protection, public accessibility, assessor’s map and lot numbers, and related legal interests held on the land, including conservation restrictions. Conservation and outdoor recreational facilities owned by federal, state, county, municipal, and nonprofit enterprises are included in this datalayer. Not all lands in this layer are protected in perpetuity, though nearly all have at least some level of protection.
Although the initial data collection effort for this data layer has been completed, open space changes continually and this data layer is therefore considered to be under development. Additionally, due to the collaborative nature of this data collection effort, the accuracy and completeness of open space data varies across the state’s municipalities. Attributes, while comprehensive in scope, may be incomplete for many parcels.
The OpenSpace layer includes two feature classes:
OPENSPACE_POLY - polygons of recreational and conservation lands as described above
OPENSPACE_ARC - attributed lines that represent boundaries of the polygons
These feature classes are stored in an ArcSDE feature dataset named OPENSPACE that includes ArcGIS geodatabase topology.
OPENSPACE_POLY - The following types of land are included in this datalayer:
conservation land- habitat protection with minimal recreation, such as walking trails
recreation land- outdoor facilities such as town parks, commons, playing fields, school fields, golf courses, bike paths, scout camps, and fish and game clubs. These may be privately or publicly owned facilities.
town forests
parkways - green buffers along roads, if they are a recognized conservation resource
agricultural land- land protected under an Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) and administered by the state Department of Agricultural Resources (DAR, formerly the Dept. of Food and Agriculture (DFA))
aquifer protection land - not zoning overlay districts
watershed protection land - not zoning overlay districts
cemeteries - if a recognized conservation or recreation resource
forest land -- if designated as a Forest Legacy Area
The political boundary datalayer is a polygon representation of town boundaries created from arcs developed from survey coordinates extracted from the 68-volume Harbor and Lands Commission Town Boundary Atlas for the 351 communities (cities and towns) in Massachusetts. The Atlas was published in the early 1900's and is maintained by the Survey Section of Massachusetts Highway Department. For communities with a coastal boundary, MassGIS has collaborated with Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and the Department of Environmental Protection to complete a 1:12000 scale coastline. The boundary for the coastline was defined as being the upland side of tidal flats and rocky inter-tidal zones. Note that the 351 communities are the official municipal names, not including "villages" or other sections of towns.
The political boundary datalayer is a polygon representation of town boundaries created from arcs developed from survey coordinates extracted from the 68-volume Harbor and Lands Commission Town Boundary Atlas for the 351 communities (cities and towns) in Massachusetts. The Atlas was published in the early 1900's and is maintained by the Survey Section of Massachusetts Highway Department. For communities with a coastal boundary, MassGIS has collaborated with Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and the Department of Environmental Protection to complete a 1:12000 scale coastline. The boundary for the coastline was defined as being the upland side of tidal flats and rocky inter-tidal zones. Note that the 351 communities are the official municipal names, not including "villages" or other sections of towns.