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PLSS Township Boundary Lines

Layer Thumbnail Map

This metadata information is subject to our disclaimer. Metadata information presented here is maintained manually. Therefore, date-sensitive fields such as date of last update may not be up-to-date. All metadata is subject to errors inherent in a manual process.


Descriptive namePLSS Township Boundary Lines
File nametrln
Spatial domainPima County
AbstractTownship/Ranges are the basis of the Public Land Survey system with 36 square miles per township.

This layer represents the boundaries of the Townships in line form. See tr for the polygon form.
Known errors/qualificationsTownship Boundary Lines store an estimated Bearing and Distance value for each segment, as well as an accuracy estimate on a scale of 1(high accuracy) to 7(low) in the COGO Accuracy field. All lines start at a 4, due to the lineage (see below).

As information from official documents is added, the Accuracy field will be upgraded based on how well the measure matches a document, as well as the age of the document itself to account for differences in available survey technology.

These fields are not to be used in place of legal descriptions from official documents.
Feature typeline
Feature count 6,131
Thumbnail Map trln.pdf PDF file format   (459,053 bytes, PDF created 04/25/2024 )
ProjectionNAD83 HPGN (Parameters)
Rectificationparcel
Field/value metadata Field metadata
Source organizationALRIS
Source contact
Source document or file name
Source date1988
Source scale 1:24,000
Source formatCoverage
Second source nameUSGS
Second source contact
Second source document or file name7.5 minute quad maps
Second source date1992
Second source scale 1:24,000
Second source formatUnknown
Date of last data update
(This date may not be current.)
20110118
Last data update bySteve Whitney
Date/time last touched - Meaning? 2024-04-25  12:57 AM - Enterprise GDB - Library input format
  2024-04-24  07:07 PM - Shapefile - Back-level date-time by 5.83 hours
  See coverage files, if any, for date.
LineageThe TR layer for Pima County was extracted from a state-wide layer of PLSS Township boundaries as received from ALRIS. The ALRIS layer was tablet digitized from USGS 7.5 minute topographic quadrangle paper maps.
In 2011, Township boundaries were adjusted to match the updated Section boundaries in the layer TRS. The half-Township, T12.5S R14E was reintroduced.
In 2021, the township boundaries were converted from AutoCAD .dwg to feature class, converted to lines, and maintained in the Parcel Fabric.
On maintenance?Yes
Maintenance organizationPima County ITD
Maintenance frequencyVaries
Maintenance descriptionBoundaries are updated on a case by case basis, usually to be in congruence with Sections or parcels that border Township lines, and occasionally to reflect the traverse information found on official documents.
Original conversion byALRIS
Pima County ITD GIS contactSteve Whitney
Alternate Pima County ITD GIS contacte-mail address
On  Pima County Geospatial Data Portal? No

See Metadata Field Descriptions.
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