Description: The seamless, county-wide addresses layer was developed from a combination of sources including official County and City addresses, address aliases assigned by local agencies or the property owner, and common place names assigned by local agencies and/or commonly used by the public. This layer provides point locations, usually associated with known residences or businesses where known, or at the center of a parcel if the address location is unknown. This data may include multiple addresses on a single parcel such as in the case of an apartment building, business complex, or additional units where there would exist multiple units or office spaces on a single parcel each necessitating an individual address. It may also include situations where an address has been assigned, but no structures exist. Each address is assigned by the agency jurisdiction under which the parcel is found, either unincorporated County or incorporated city government. The Information Systems Department/Geographic Information Systems (ISD/GIS) staff obtain address updates, aliases, and common place names from SCPSC and from official notices provided by local jurisdictions. The seamless county-wide addresses layer is updated as notices are received, typically daily, and the seamless place layer is updated and published to the Internet on a weekly basis.
Copyright Text: The Sonoma County Public Safety Consortium is the owner of this data; the County of Sonoma, ISD-GIS Central is the steward of this data. You must source attribution “County of Sonoma” when displaying this data (see “Use Limitations” below).
Description: The seamless, county-wide parcel layer was digitized from official Assessor Parcel (AP) Maps which were originally maintained on mylar sheets and/or maintained as individual Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawing files (e.g., DWG). The CRA office continues to maintain the official AP Maps in CAD drawings and Information Systems Department/Geographic Information Systems (ISD/GIS) staff apply updates from these maps to the seamless parcel base in the County’s Enterprise GIS. The seamless parcel layer is updated and published to the Internet on a monthly basis. The primary difference between this version and the ‘Parcels Public’ layer is the inclusion of additional attributes licensed for internal use ONLY.The seamless parcel layer was developed from the source data using the general methodology outlined below. The mylar sheets were scanned and saved to standard image file format (e.g., TIFF). The individual scanned maps or CAD drawing files were imported into GIS software and geo-referenced to their corresponding real-world locations using high resolution orthophotography as control. The standard approach was to rescale and rotate the scanned drawing (or CAD file) to match the general location on the orthophotograph. Then, appropriate control points were selected to register and rectify features on the scanned map (or CAD drawing file) to the orthophotography. In the process, features in the scanned map (or CAD drawing file) were transformed to real-world coordinates, and line features were created using “heads-up digitizing” and stored in new GIS feature classes. Recommended industry best practices were followed to minimize root mean square (RMS) error in the transformation of the data, and to ensure the integrity of the overall pattern of each AP map relative to neighboring pages. Where available Coordinate Geometry (COGO) & survey data, tied to global positioning systems (GPS) coordinates, were also referenced and input to improve the fit and absolute location of each page. The vector lines were then assembled into a polygon features, with each polygon being assigned a unique identifier, the Assessor Parcel Number (APN). The APN field in the parcel table was joined to the corresponding APN field in the assessor property characteristics table extracted from the MPTS database to create the final parcel layer. The result is a seamless parcel land base, each parcel polygon coded with a unique APN, assembled from approximately 6,000 individual map page of varying scale and accuracy, but ensuring the correct topology of each feature within the whole (i.e., no gaps or overlaps). The accuracy and quality of the parcels varies depending on the source. See the fields RANK and DESCRIPTION fields below for information on the fit assessment for each source page. These data should be used only for general reference and planning purposes. It is important to note that while these data were generated from authoritative public records, and checked for quality assurance, they do not provide survey-quality spatial accuracy and should NOT be used to interpret the true location of individual property boundary lines. Please contact the Sonoma County CRA and/or a licensed land surveyor before making a business decision that involves official boundary descriptions.
Copyright Text: County of Sonoma, Clerk Recorder Assessor (CRA), is the owner of this data; the County of Sonoma, ISD-GIS Central is the steward of this data. You must source attribution “County of Sonoma” when distributing this data (see “Use Limitations” below).
Description: The county-wide GIS street centerlines data were originally captured from panchromatic orthophotography flown by Merrick & Company in 2000. The road centerline was generated from the “apparent centerline” to display an interconnected road network, and as such, does not display physical road pavement, road width or shoulder dimensions. Additional spatial adjustments were made to the layer from color-infrared orthophotography and LiDAR data flown in 2013. In particular, the physical location of some street segments in the 2000 imagery were often obscured by continuous canopy. Where needed, the original street centerline features were moved to more closely align to the physical locations shown in the LiDAR. Street attributes such as left and right from/to address range, street name, and type, were conflated from US Census TIGER data and augmented by street attributes from the County’s 911 dispatch system. Subsequently staff engaged in an extensive QC process to correct errors in the conflation process. This information was provided to the US Census in 2005 and incorporated into the Census US TIGER data set for the 2010 decennial census.
Copyright Text: The County of Sonoma, ISD-GIS Central is the owner of the data and stewards the GIS layer on behalf of all County departments and agencies. You must source attribution “County of Sonoma” when displaying this data (see “Use Limitations” below).
Description: The Basezoning by Area dataset represents the detailed countywide distribution, location and extent of land development by base zoning districts, density and parcel specific combining districts (P, TS, Z) as specified in Sonoma County Code Zoning Regulations Chapter 26.Chapter 26 has been adopted to promote and protect the public health, safety, peace, comfort, convenience and general welfare. It is also adopted for the following specified purposes:(a) To provide for the orderly and beneficial land use of the county;(b) To protect the character and social and economic stability of agricultural, residential, commercial, industrial and other communities within the county;(c) To protect the public safety and welfare by regulating the location and uses of all structures and land;(d) To protect and conserve the scenic, recreational and natural resource characteristics of the county; (Ord. No. 2392, 4)(e) To provide for the orderly and timely processing of development projects as anticipated by the California Permit Streamlining Act. Development projects do not include rezoning, plan amendments or other applications accompanied by a request for a rezoning or plan amendment. (Ord. No. 4643, 1993.)Chapter 26 specifies the applicability of base zoning districts to general plan land use categories (designations). Therefore, base zoning districts and the general plan land uses are interdependent. While the general plan land use specifies broader land use development policies, guidelines, and standards, each base zoning district is specific in stating purpose, permitted uses, uses permitted with a use permit and permitted residential density and development criteria. Related ResourcesSonoma County Zoning RegulationsSonoma County General Plan 2020 Index[includes amendments since adoption]