DOI: 10.6075/j0kh0njx
title: Parcels, San Diego County, California, 2023 (December). In San Diego County GIS Data

description: Parcels represent taxable pieces of property. A parcel is created by the San Diego County Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk (ARCC) to identify a specific portion of real property that is taxed at a certain rate for a certain owner. Tax parcels are typically the same as a legally subdivided lot but are not necessarily so. For example, a single owner may own a legally subdivided piece of property but there may be two or more tax parcels covering that property. Legal subdivisions are shown in the LOTS layer. 

Parcels are keyed to the Assessor Parcel Number (APN) and the parcel polygon identifier (PARCELID). The SanGIS parcel layers are "stacked" parcels. That means that for any piece of ground there may be multiple parcels. For example, a condominium building in downtown San Diego may have 200 individual condos. Each condo is a separate taxable parcel. All 200 parcels will be associated with the same physical lot on the ground. 

When the SanGIS parcel layer is created each individual condo has a polygon representing the physical location of the parent parcel. In this example there will be 200 polygons all stacked on top of each other that represent the taxable parcels and each polygon will have the same physical characteristics (shape, size, area, location) - they are, essentially, copies of each other. However, other associated information (owner, document numbers, etc.) will be different for each. In this case, each condo unit will have its own parcel number and there will be no single parcel representing the lot on the ground. 

Besides condominiums there are two other cases where you will see stacked parcels - possessory interest and mobile homes. Possessory interests have Assessor Parcel Numbers (APNs) that start with 76x. A possessory interest (or PI) parcel represents a taxable interest in the underlying, or parent, parcel but not necessarily ownership. For instance, a private company may have an arrangement with a University to operate a business on campus - a coffee shop or gift shop for example. The private business is taxable and is assigned a 76x APN and that APN is associated with the parent parcel which is owned by the University. 

Possessory interests do not represent ownership on the parcel, only a taxable interest in the underlying parent parcel. Mobile home parcel APNs start with 77x. In a manner similar to the possessory interests, mobile home owners own their home (coach) but not the underlying property on which the house sits. The actual mobile home is a separate taxable parcel associated with the mobile home park parent parcel. These taxable parcels all have the same polygon as the underlying parent parcel and will show as stacked parcels as well. 

This dataset contains parcels as shown on the Assessor Parcel Maps (APM). However, parcels shown in this layer may lag that of the official APM by a number of weeks due to how SanGIS is notified of the newly created parcel and the timing of publication of the parcel layer. This dataset contains the parcel polygon and associated parcel information provided by the County ARCC in their Master Property Record (MPR file) and Parcel Assessment Record (PAR file). In addition to the MPR and PAR data assigned by ARCC, SanGIS may add situs address information if it has been provided by the addressing authority in which the parcel is situated. 

The situs address information provided by SanGIS may not be the same as the SITUS address data in the MPR. This dataset contains site address information along with owner names and addresses, and other property information. Key fields in this dataset include: Land use information provided in the NUCLEUS_USE_CD field (225 types with a 3-digit domain). The ASR_LANDUSE field is an older version of this field but comprises more generalized land uses (91 types). Generalized land use zoning information is provided in the NUCLEUS_ZONE_CD field. The ASR_ZONE field is an older version of this field. Land use zoning is generalized comprising 9 zone types. 

This can provide a useful approximation for parcels that are outside of the San Diego City and County zoning jurisdictions. Please note that land use and zoning fields are not regularly maintained by the Assessor's Office and should only be used as an approximate guide. Updates are only made when there is new construction, or a change in ownership. They are not updated when the County and Local Cities update their zoning data or when permit changes to properties are completed. Please refer to city and County official zoning datasets for official zoning information, and to SANDAG for more current land use data. 

NOTE: If the name of this layer includes "_NORTH", "_SOUTH", or "_EAST" it represents a subset of the entire San Diego County Parcel Base. That is, the "_NORTH" layer includes only parcels generally in the Northwestern portion of the County. The "_SOUTH" layer includes parcels in the Southwestern portion. And the "_EAST" layer includes parcels in the approximate Eastern half of the County. 

While we constantly seek to improve accuracy, SanGIS are not a replacement for the services and products of a Licensed Land Surveyor for ground data. SanGIS creates and maintains parcels to aid the County Assessor's Office for TAX PURPOSES. Our data CANNOT be used in place of the legal description of a property - legal descriptions are the purview of a Licensed Land Surveyor. Additional note on Parcels: There are over 1 million parcels in the SanGIS database, and much of the data (and inaccuracies inherent therein) is old and unverified. SanGIS editors can only adjust parcel boundaries in specific areas where a licensed survey has been completed with the use of control points recorded in NAD 83 State Plane. Therefore, the accuracy of data varies.