[Talk-us] Townships, Counties, Great Lakes

[Clifford Snow]

On Sat, Oct 5, 2019 at 10:18 AM Max Erickson <maxerickson at gmail.com> wrote:

> I've recently been working on adding administrative boundaries for
> townships in Michigan (old USGS paper maps show the boundaries, I'm tracing
> those). Previously I've concluded that counties in Michigan don't really
> extend into the Great Lakes. The sheriff has jurisdiction on the water
> (extending into the water near adjacent counties), but that's about the end
> of it. For the most part Michigan counties are modeled like that, using the
> shoreline as part of the boundary.
>
> What I am wondering about is whether townships should also use the
> shoreline, splitting it into quite a few more pieces than currently exist.
> The alternative would be a ways that share nodes with the shoreline. I'm
> leaning in that direction but I figure it will be a pretty noisy change, so
> I'm asking what people think before proceeding.
>
> Just recently I looked at some of the county borders in Washington State.
For example, Skagit County, where I reside, extends into Puget Sound where
it shares boundaries with Island County, San Juan County and Whatcom County
to the north. Each of the counties like you said have jurisdiction not only
of the water but also tide flats. Other counties share boundaries using the
middle of rivers. Having the boundaries exactly as the state specifies can
help OSM users determine which agency to contact. In fact, I reported to
our county gis their parcel layer doesn't match the states description of
the county boundary. (Whether or not they fix it is a whole different can
of worms.)

On the other hand, State Parks often extend into lakes and ocean. I've
talked to the state parks department who is okay with the boundary stopping
at the shoreline.

Best,
Clifford
-- 
@osm_washington
www.snowandsnow.us
OpenStreetMap: Maps with a human touch
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