August 5, 2013 by Greg Bazhaw

This dataset was created using the following procedures:

1. Selected all parcels adjacent to Conservation Analysis Zones (CAZs) with a moderate or high priority rating for land acquisition (using the "ConservationAnalysisZones_High_Mod" feature class located in the "BaseData_NonICF_2013" feature dataset. Because the CAZs appeared to not align correctly with the current parcel layer (June 2013) in places where it is obvious that they should align, it was necessary to buffer out from the CAZ boundaries in order to select parcels that were truly adjacent to the CAZs. A selection distance of 50 feet was used. This may have resulted in a few additional parcels being incorrectly selected that are not truly adjacent.

2. Select all parcels from the above selection process that are adjacent to the Planned Limits of Urban Growth (PLUG) boundaries. Although the PLUG boundaries appeared to better match the current parcel layer (June 2013) than the CAZs did, to be consistent, a selection distance of 50 feet was also used. NOTE: There are three exceptions to the assumption of full urban development within the PLUG. These areas were not excepted from the PLUG for this analysis. See Chapter 2.2.3 for details of these areas.

3. To create zones from the parcels, the dissolve function was used. A temporary field was added to the feature class and was populated with a single value; the dissolve was based on this attribute.