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

[Anthony]

On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 4:13 PM, Peter Budny <peterb at gatech.edu> wrote:
> Anthony <osm at inbox.org> writes:
>
>> On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 3:49 PM, Peter Budny <peterb at gatech.edu> wrote:
>>> Anthony <osm at inbox.org> writes:
>>>
>>>> On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 1:21 PM, Jim McAndrew <jim at loc8.us> wrote:
>>>>> There are townships in other states that are managed differently, but in PA
>>>>> and NJ, they are just county subdivisions, and are not points to put on a
>>>>> map.
>>>>
>>>> I think you're right here, though I probably would indicate the
>>>> township boundaries on most maps in a similar (though somewhat less
>>>> prominent) manner to county boundaries - at least at certain zoom
>>>> levels.
>>>
>>> It sounds like you may have just found a use for the missing
>>> admin_level=7 in the US.
>>
>> What's wrong with admin_level=8?
>
> According to Wikipedia, many townships are an intermediate form of
> government below the county level but above (or sometimes merely
> separate from) a city/municipality, although it varies by state (New
> Jersey being one of the exceptions).

Pennsylvania is another one of the exceptions, and that's the state
this thread was initiated to talk about.

> So that would give us
>
> County -> admin_level=6
> Township (if they exist) -> admin_level=7
> City/municipality/town/village boundary -> admin_level=8

New Jersey and Pennsylvania townships should be at the same
admin_level as cities and boroughs.

As for "municipality", in NJ and PA, that means city, borough, or
township (or, in NJ, town or village).

Other states would potentially be different.  In Florida, towns,
cities, and villages (which are all just different terms for the same
thing, "municipality") would all be admin_level=8, because they're all
the same thing.  But Florida is not fully incorporated, so not all
areas of Florida would exist within an admin_level=8.

None of this has anything to do with place=*, which discusses
settlements, not administrative divisions.