[Talk-us-maine] Maine admin_level

Alex Hennings blackboxlogic at gmail.com
Sat Jan 16 20:18:15 UTC 2021


Team,

I'd like guidance on admin_level in Maine. Brian S (ZeLonewolf) is working
on boundaries (which is awesome) and I'd like to make sure we've got it
right.

- Maine "townships" (example [8]) are administered by the state [6] and
have no governing body of their own. I think they fit the description of
"Survey Townships" [3]. *I propose Maine "townships" should have
admin_level= 9 * (possibly 8, but not 7).

- admin_level=7 in the US is for "Civil Townships" [1] which "are fully
functioning municipalities that provide most local services" [2]. As a
local, I wonder if this describes Maine's towns and cities better than a
"Municipality" [4]. *I propose Maine towns and cities have admin_level=8
(or possibly 7)*.

- Maine "townships" and cities are geographically mutually exclusive, so
they *could* share an admin_level, but I feel that city/town having a
government (and "township" not) is an argument for different admin_levels. *I
propose Maine uses different admin_levels for "township" vs city/town*.

- Maine has "villages", which have no governing body of their own and are
contained within a city/town. *I propose Maine villages have admin_level=9*.
I don't have documentation supporting this.

I'd like your thoughts on updating the wiki[5] and the map.

-Alex (blackboxlogic)

References:
[1] OSM Definition of US admin_level
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:boundary%3Dadministrative#10_admin_level_values_for_specific_countries
[2] OSM US Definition of admin_level=7
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_township
[3] OSM Definition of Survey Township
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survey_township

[4] OSM US Definition of admin_level=8
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/United_States/Boundaries#Municipalities
[5] OSM wiki on admin_level in Maine
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/United_States_admin_level

[6] A guide to maine townships: https://maineanencyclopedia.com/townships/
[7] An example of a Maine city https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/132500
[8] An example of a Maine township
https://maineanencyclopedia.com/t1-r5-wels/
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