Description: This polygon data set represents the boundaries of all election precincts within the County of Berks. Additionally, the associated attributes reflect information regarding which state and congressional districts by which its consituents are represented.
Copyright Text: County of Berks GIS; Elections Services
UPDATED: 9-2014
Description: This dataset depicts the future land use for Berks County Pennsylvania. To determine the future land use, each tax parcel was first designated an existing land use. Further analysis of municipal zoning, comprehensive plans, the County Future Land Use Plan (2020), municipal sewer service areas (existing and proposed) from Act 537 plans, preserved/eased land, soils, floodplains, steep slopes, 2008 aerial photography and highway accessibility was used to designate a future land use for each tax parcel. In some instances, there are multiple future land use designations on a parcel. The Berks County Comprehensive Plan 2030 was adopted on September 26, 2013.The following are descriptions of the 8 future land use designations used:Existing Development: Land that has already experienced concentrated commercial, industrial, institutional, and residential development at various densities. Larger areas typically serve as multi-purpose centers; and provide opportunities for in-fill development, rehabilitation and revitalization efforts.Designated Growth: Areas of vacant land that typically surround existing development areas; located within an existing sewer service area; and are zoned for multi-purpose development at concentrated densities. Areas with this designation is suitable for mixed-use development in the immediate future due to the presence of public infrastructure services needed to accommodate concentrated growth.Future Growth: Areas of vacant land located within development-based zoning districts and are typically adjacent to or within a proposed sewer service area. Public infrastructure is planned to accommodate multi-purpose concentrated growth.Rural Conservation: Land characterized by low density development; is predominately wooded and may contain steep slopes or isolated farmland. Due to the absence of public infrastructure services, this area is appropriate for flexible development paterns that reflect any environmental constraints. The area includes land eased for open space, natural resource or woodland conservation.Agricutural Preservation: Lands that show a strong presence of agricultural activity with prime agricultural soils; is typically zoned as Effective Agricultural Preservation; or farms preserved by agricultural conservation easements. Objectives are to protect the agricultural land base, minimize land use conflicts and promote the long-term viability of the agricultural community.Environmental Hazard: Land located within a floodplain, wetland watercourse, water body and their associated riparian buffers. The purpose is to recognize their environmental importance, as well as protect the components and their natural function. Theses areas should be left in their natural state and are inappropriate for infrastructure investment.Permanent Open Space and Recreation: Land owned by Federal, State, County, local government, and homeowner associations for the purpose of providing public park and recreation opportunities, open space conservation and the protection of watershed lands.Transportation Network: Federal, state, and local roads, as well as railroad networks. Maintenance of existing facilities and improvement services to increase safety and capacity will be supported.
Description: County of Berks digital parcel boundaries were originally created by L. Robert Kimball & Associates, Ebensberg, PA, working under contract to the County of Berks between 1988 and 1992. The parcel boundaries have been continually corrected, updated, and otherwise maintained by the County of Berks. The parcel polygon information is based upon recorded deeds, plans and assessment information, plotted on, and digitized from rectified orthophotographs dated 1988 and 1989.The parcel base was originally digitized at the scale of 1” = 400’ (1:4800) in rural areas, 1” = 200’ (1:2400) and 1” = 100’ (1:1200) in suburban areas, and 1” = 50’ (1:600) in urban areas (City of Reading). The initial scale was determined by the apparent parcel density at the time of the photography. Subsequent work was sometimes digitized at the original scale, but new work was more likely added using deed and plan bearings and distances, input using coordinate geometry. Please note that if large scale hard copy is produced using data digitized at a much smaller scale, apparent errors are greatly magnified. All coordinates are derived from rectified orthophotographs produced by L. Robert Kimball & Associates, in accordance with national map accuracy standards at the time of creation. Ground control points for the photography were set or recovered using a combination of GPS and traditional surveying methods. The County of Berks parcel base was converted from native ArcInfo coverage data in 2019 to Esri parcel fabric feature class and was reprojected from State Plane Coordinate System PA South NAD 27 (Pennsylvania South FIPS 3702 NAD27 Datum) to State Plane Coordinate System PA South NAD 83 (Pennsylvania South FIPS 3701 NAD83 Datum) at that time.