Boundary and Annexation Survey BAS

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Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS)

• Laura Waggoner
• Legal Areas Team Lead
• Boundary and Annexation Survey Project Manager
• Michael Clements
• Geographer
• Boundary and Annexation Survey
• Geographic Areas Branch, Geography Division
• U.S. Census Bureau

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Presentation Overview

• Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS)
• - What is the BAS?
• - Why do we conduct the BAS?
• - What are the current and future BAS submission
  methods?
• - What are important dates for the current BAS
  year?
• - Who should you contact if you have questions?

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What is the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS)?
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Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS)

• Voluntary survey conducted annually to collect
  boundaries for legal areas
• Primary source of information regarding
• legal boundaries
• names of governments
• legal status
• types of governmental units
• new governments
• boundary changes
• geographic relationships
• e.g. a place annexes into a new county or minor
  civil division (MCD)

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Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS)

• Governmental units (entities) included in the
  survey
• counties and their equivalents
• MCDs
• incorporated places
• American Indian reservations and off-reservation
  trust lands (federally recognized)

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Why do we conduct the Boundary and Annexation
Survey (BAS)?
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Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS)

• Ensures that population and housing counts are
  assigned to the correct geography
• Used to present statistics for various censuses
  and surveys
• American Community Survey (ACS)
• Population Estimates Program
• 2010 Decennial Census Programs

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Legal Boundary Changes versus Boundary
Corrections
The two types of modifications that can be made
to a boundary are legal boundary changes and
boundary corrections. A boundary change is an
alteration to a boundary as a result of a legal
action (i.e., ordinance). Reporting legal
boundary changes is the primary goal of the BAS.
A boundary correction is the adjustment of a
boundary to correct an error in how the Census
Bureau depicts an existing boundary and does not
require legal documentation.
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Preparing for the Boundary and Annexation Survey
(BAS)
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Determining the BAS Contact

• Each year BAS materials are mailed to our BAS
  contacts
• How do we determine who the BAS contact is?
• We are instructed by a local official as to who
  should receive the BAS package
• A local government employee responds to the BAS
  multiple consecutive years, the Legal Areas team
  will make them the BAS contact.
• If we have not received a BAS response for
  several years, the Legal Areas team will attempt
  to establish a contact in either a planning or
  GIS department.
• The Advance Response phase (non-decennial phase)
  of BAS provides contact updates
• State Data Center staff provide contact updates
  to the Census Bureau during the telephone
  follow-up phase of BAS.
• If there is no BAS contact and the Census Bureau
  is unable to establish a contact, the package
  will be mailed to the Highest Elected Official
  (HEO)

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Advance Response (non-decennial years)

• Sent in September-October
• Participants receive a letter, one-page form, and
  one-page informational insert about the BAS via
• Mail
• E-mail
• Fax
• Requests participants to
• Verify contact information
• Indicate if they have boundary updates to report
• Indicate the method they would like to submit
  their boundary updates

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Submission Methods

• Paper Submission
• Web-BAS
• MAF/TIGER Partnership Software
• Digital BAS

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Paper Submission

• Census Bureau
• mails paper maps and a BAS form to the BAS
  contact
• Participants
• annotate and return large scale paper maps and
  forms
• provide documentation for each legal boundary
  change (date, number, acreage)
• If the participant does not have any changes to
  report, they can return a No Change postcard

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WEB-BAS

• Participants
• Currently (E-BAS)
• are able to
• login to a secure website
• submit a No Change postcard or form updates.
• are not able to
• submit map updates
• In 2009 (Web-BAS)
• are able to
• submit spatial data
• The E-BAS website is linked off of the BAS
  homepage (http//www.census.gov/geo/www/bas/bashom
  e.html) and the username and password are
  provided in the Special Instructions section on
  the paper form.

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MAF/TIGER Partnership Software

• Available for 2008 BAS
• Participants will receive
• a CD containing the software to install on to
  their computer
• one or more CD(s) containing the data for their
  entity and the surrounding area
• a user name and password to access the data in
  the software
• Participants will be able to submit map and form
  updates.

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Digital BAS

• First offered during the 2005 BAS for a limited
  number of entities
• Designed to accept submissions from experienced
  users of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) who
  modify Census Bureau spatial data
• Spatial data provided in GIS shapefile format
• Goal is to permit governmental units to
• update digital files in place of paper maps
• submit boundary change information through
  digital file metadata
• Participants are required to
• follow the detailed requirements posted on the
  BAS website http//www.census.gov/geo/www/bas/ba
  shome.html
• Limited to entities and counties
• that have gone through the Census Bureaus
  MAF-TIGER Accuracy Improvement Project (MTAIP)
  process

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Digital BAS
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Digital BAS Symbolized Incorporated Place
Layer in ArcGIS
add an annexation here
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• What are important dates for the current BAS year?

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Typical BAS Year Activities

• Important Dates
• Advance Letter
• September
• Package Mailout
• January
• Change in Material
• January 15th in 2009 and 2010, February 15th in
  non-decennial years
• Paper maps to Digital Submission
• Digital Submission to Paper
• MAF/TIGER Partnership Software to Paper
• Changing to Web submission doesnt have a deadline

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Future Goals

• Boundary Validation Program (BVP)
• After the 2010 BAS, the Census Bureau will send a
  Boundary Validation Map to the Highest Elected
  Official of every legal entity in the United
  States for final review before tabulation.

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• Who should you contact if you have questions?

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Contact Information

• Laura Waggoner
• Legal Areas Team Lead
• Boundary and Annexation Survey Project Manager
• Geographic Areas Branch
• Geography Division
• U.S. Census Bureau
• 4700 Silver Hill Road, 4H134F
• Washington, DC 20233-7400
• Phone [phone]
• Email laura.l.waggoner_at_census.gov