Parcel and CAMA Data Improvement Grants Overview
OPM has allocated $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to support Connecticut’s Councils of Governments (COGs) in addressing parcel and CAMA data issues within their member municipalities. This initiative aims to improve the accuracy, completeness, and recency of these datasets, ensuring municipalities have reliable and well-integrated property records.
The program will run from December 2024 through December 2026. To guide funding distribution, a prioritization framework was established, focusing on recency, match rates, completeness of CAMA fields, and geometric quality of parcel data. The scope of work and framework were refined through discussions with COG GIS Coordinators and municipal parcel and CAMA vendors.
The GIS Office conducted an analysis of 2024 parcel and CAMA data that is voluntarily transmitted to OPM by the COGs.
The analysis includes:
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Recency of updates to digital parcel file
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Match rates (Parcel-to-CAMA and CAMA-to-Parcel)
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Row difference values
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Completeness of CAMA fields
Funding Prioritization
The COGs will follow a three-tiered prioritization system to develop plans and allocate funds to municipalities.
Primary Funding Priorities (To be addressed in order)
- Recency: The highest priority is to ensure that parcel data is up to date. For municipalities that have not submitted updated data, funds should be used to bring their parcel data file to the most current status possible.
- CAMA to Parcel Match Rate: Every CAMA entry must have a corresponding parcel in the parcel layer. Municipalities with a CAMA to parcel match rate below 98% should be prioritized for the funding.
Secondary Funding Priorities (In any order)
- Completeness of CAMA Fields: Ensuring that the 38 attribute fields included in the Connecticut State Parcel Layer are as fully populated as possible for the municipality by addressing any issues or inconsistencies in the data.
- Parcel to CAMA Match Rate: Verifying that non-assessable parcels, such as rights-of-way and public lands, are correctly identified and that all assessable properties have a corresponding parcel in the GIS and are correctly linked to CAMA. Municipalities with a match rate lower than 99% should be prioritized.
Tertiary Funding Priority
- Geometric Quality of Parcels: Remaining funds may be used for the improvement of the geometric quality of parcels following recommendations from the GIS Office and GIS Advisory Council.
Next Steps
Each COG must submit a plan of work to OPM by March 31, 2025, outlining how the funds will be used to address these data issues within their municipalities. For further details, municipalities should contact their Regional COG for guidance on funding allocation and project implementation.
For any additional questions contact: Ashley.Benitez@ct.gov, GIS Coordinator.