DELAWARE MUNICIPAL BOUNDARIES
The Delaware Office of State Planning Coordination maintains a statewide GIS data set of the boundaries of Delaware's incorporated towns and cities. The data set was developed over time with assistance from the University of Delaware Institute for Public Administration and in cooperation with municipal and county leaders. This data set is part of the Delaware Spatial Data Framework. This data set was used to create the collection of PDF maps of each city or town found on the Delaware Municipalities page.
GIS Data: munbounds.zip
For those using desktop GIS systems, the data set is available as
an ESRI Shapefile, stored as a ZIPPED collection of files -- munbounds.zip.
The data are in NAD 83 (HARN), DE State Plane coordinates, in meters.
If your GIS software is capable of accessing a web-map service via
the internet, point your system to datamil.delaware.gov to connect
directly. You will want the image service "DE_Boundaries" or the Municipal
Boundaries feature class within "DE_featureservice." (Note:
The version available via the DataMIL may not always be the latest
version. The DataMIL data set is updated monthly.)
Metadata
Metadata for this data set is included in the ZIPPED data collection.
Data Background
All annexations -- the acts that change municipal boundaries --
are required under state law to be reviewed by the Office of State Planning Coordination. When annexations are reported as approved by local governments, the Office
updates the municipal boundary file.
To establish a baseline, the Office worked with municipal leaders -- mayors, managers and staff -- to correct municipal boundaries found in sources including the US Census Bureau's TIGER database, state agency GIS data, USGS Digital Line Graphs, and various paper maps. The lines have also been adjusted, where possible, to match county-maintained cadastral (tax parcel) data.
For each polygon, there is attribute data providing basic information about the municipality, the process of creating the polygon, and about the municipality's comprehensive planning efforts.
| Field Name | Attribute | Type | Comment |
| FID | Internal Feature Number | Automatic | Assigned by GIS Software |
| SHAPE | Feature Geometry | Automatic | Assigned by GIS Software |
| NAME | Place Name | Text | Name of Incorporated Place |
| LOCALEDIT | Local Edit Check | "y" or "n" | Whether Checked With Local Officials |
| FIPSCODE | Federal Information Processing Standards Code | Numerical | ID for Links to Federal Data |
| LASTEDIT | Last Edit Date | Date | Date Feature Last Edited |
| CENSUS2000 | Population | Numerical | Population from 2000 US Census |
| PLANSTATUS | Status of Comprehensive Plan | Text | Information About Most Recent Comprehensive Planning Efforts |
| PLANDATE | Plan Publication Date | Date | Date of Last Known Comprehensive Plan |
| PLANURL | Plan Web Link | URL | Web Site URL for Comprehensive Plan or Draft plan |
| WEB_URL | Town Web Site | URL | Web Site URL for Municipal Government |
This data file is not intended to be used as a definitive boundary for any municipality. The municipal charters and other legal documents give the legal boundaries of each municipality. This data is intended to be used as a descriptive planning tool.
Please refer all questions, comments, and corrections to Mike Mahaffie, by e-mail or at (302) 739-3090.
