[Tagging] [Talk-us] how to tag US townships?

[Alex Mauer]

On 10/20/2010 04:07 PM, Brad Neuhauser wrote:
>> Only in those states, of course. In Pennsylvania and New Jersey (and
>> apparently the Dakotas?) it should remain admin_level=8.
>>
>>
> FYI, it's the same with Minnesota: cities and townships are legally
> different forms of municipalities (one incorporated, one unincorporated).

No, that’s a contradiction in terms. “unincorporated” basically means 
“outside of a municipality”.  Hence people talking about New Jersey 
being “fully incorporated” while Minnesota is not: Every place in NJ is 
part of a municipality.

> Minnesota also has unorganized areas, which are legally under the
> jurisdiction of the county, but which may have clusters of population that
> would warrant a place in OSM (call them what you will--village, hamlet
> whatever)

Unsurprisingly, Wisconsin is similar.  place=hamlet is the thing to use 
for these, but it’s irrelevant to the admin_level as there is no 
administrative boundary for unincorporated communities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unincorporated_area discusses both of these 
topics.