- A parcel is a piece of land or a lot (real property) identified by a unique Assessor Parcel Number (APN)
- The APN is comprised of a block number and a lot number
- Block number format: 4 numerical digits + 1 optional letter character (0012A)
- Lot number format: 3 numerical digits + 1 optional letter character (037B)
- Blocks are groupings of lots which are usually contiguous and usually bounded by streets or other features on all sides
- Blocks can be discontiguous and split by other blocks or streets
- The City is broken up into over 6,000 blocks and over 200,000 individual lots
Note: You will see reference to
mapblklot
in some City data. This is to reference a 1:M relationship of vertical parcels to a base parcel; e.g. condo or timeshare lots.The practice of representing a vertical lot digitally is to duplicate and "stack" the base parcel for each vertical lot in the building, assigning each a unique
blklot
number. Themapblklot
is the reference to the base APN. Soblklot
will be unique, whilemapblklot
will duplicate across vertical lots.
- Block 0117 above is bounded:
- On the North and South by Union and Green Streets
- On the East and West by Stockton and Powell Streets
- Columbus Avenue bisects it, but both sides are still part of the same block
- The block is subdivided into lots numbered from 001 through 021
- A full Assessor Parcel Number would be the concatenation of the block and lot
- Blocks are 4 digits with an optional letter suffix - 117 becomes 0117
- Lots are 3 digits with an optional letter suffix - 4 becomes 004
- The full APN for lot 4 in block 117 is 0117004
- These are recorded in paper maps in the Office of the Assessor Recorder and digitized
- Recordation of final parcel maps happens with the Office of the Assessor-Recorder
- Before recordation, subdivision maps are approved by the County Surveyor, the Public Works Director and the Board of Supervisors
- More information about the subdivision process and related codes on the Public Works website
- Assessor Parcel Numbers are used to tie deeds and legal records to property
- Assessor Parcel Numbers used to assess and collect taxes on land and improvements
- As a common administrative identifier for a number of processes like permitting
- Must be provided in a dataset as 2 separate fields:
- Block as
blk
orblock
orblock_num
- must have 4 numeric digits and an optional letter suffix - Lot as
lot
orlot_num
- must have 3 numeric digits and an optional letter suffix
- Block as
- When representing the fully qualified APN as a single field:
- Name the column either
apn
orassessor_parcel_number
orblklot
orblock_and_lot
- Concatenate the block and lot values together
- Do not separate the block and lot number with space or other characters
- 0585012D instead of 0585/012D
- Do not prepend with additional text like
APN
orBlock and Lot Number
- Name the column either
- Current parcels and corresponding identifiers in the current subdivision parcels below
- Historic parcels and corresponding identifiers in the recorded parcel geography below (note limitations)
Dataset | Description and Constraints | Block Column | Lot Column | APN Column |
---|---|---|---|---|
Current Subdivision Parcels | These are the current active recorded parcels. The geography can be used as reference but should not be used for anything requiring precision. | block_num |
lot_num |
blklot |
Recorded Parcel Geography with Transaction Date History | These are the current and historic parcels with recorded dates. Historic parcels only go back to about 1995 with some exceptions. Useful for tying historic administrative records to a location. The geography can be used as reference but should not be used for anything requiring precision. | block_num |
lot_num |
blklot |
San Francisco Assessor Blocks | Just the blocks without lots | block_num |
N/A | N/A |