Ownership Dimension

The LBCS ownership dimension — every code from 1000 to 9999 for the legal and quasi-legal constraints on land ownership, with the full APA category descriptions.

Legal and quasi-legal ownership constraints of the land.

The ownership dimension classifies the relationship between a land use and its land rights. Because the function of most land uses is either public or private and not both, the distinction can look obvious — but relying on functional character alone obscures private parks, public theaters, private stadiums, private prisons, and jointly held property.

The dimension also carries easements and similar legal devices, which constrain what activities and functions are possible on a parcel without changing who holds title. The 2000 series is effectively a taxonomy of easement types; the 4000 and 5000 series cover public ownership by level of government, including tribal lands.

Ownership is the dimension where LBCS most closely tracks the records a recorder of deeds or assessor already maintains, and where local practice most often needs to extend the standard.

Top-level categories

Every code in this dimension descends from one of these nine one-digit categories.

Code	Category
`1000`	No constraints — private ownership
`2000`	Some constraints — easements or other use restrictions
`3000`	Limited restrictions — leased and other tenancy restrictions
`4000`	Public restrictions — local, state, and federal ownership
`5000`	Other public use restrictions — regional, special districts, etc
`6000`	Nonprofit ownership restrictions
`7000`	Joint ownership character — public entities
`8000`	Joint ownership character — public, private, nonprofit, etc.
`9000`	Not applicable to this dimension

How to read the code tables

The tables below list all 50 codes in the ownership dimension, one section per top-level category. Indentation shows the hierarchy: a 1100 code is a subcategory of 1000, an 1110 code a subcategory of 1100, and an 1111 code a subcategory of 1110. Trailing zeros mark the level, so the number of significant digits tells you the depth of any code without looking it up.

A dash in the description column means the standard publishes the category name without an accompanying note.

1000 No constraints — private ownership

Code	Category	Description
`1000`	No constraints — private ownership	Most private property falls into this category. Some private property may, however, have additional legal constraints to ownership. For some planning applications, tracking such constraints may be useful in determining the limits of the use of the property.
`1100`	Private — fee simple	—
`1110`	Private — fee simple, conditional	The owner enjoys the property as in fee simple absolute until a condition has been met or not met, as set by the grantor of the condition.
`1120`	Private — fee simple, defeasible	Fee simple defeasible is an ownership right forever unless a specified event happens. On the happening of the event, the rights revert to the grantor.
`1130`	Private — fee simple, determinable	A fee simple ownership with a provision for automatic revocation of rights if the specified or "determinable" event occurs. The determinable event is specified in the conveyance.
`1200`	Private — less than fee simple	Create additional subcategories, if necessary, but the major types of fee simple ownership based on current legal precedents are provided here.

2000 Some constraints — easements or other use restrictions

Code	Category	Description
`2000`	Some constraints — easements or other use restrictions	Easements are subordinate conditions to the owner or the user of the property. Besides whatever effects they have on the character of the land use, easements also vary in their application. For example, consider a public easement on a private property versus a private easement on a public property. However, from a land-use perspective, the concern is primarily the effect, if any, of such easement restrictions on the land use. For example, a dedicated public open space is an example of a public easement that may exist on a private or public property. In such cases, whatever public or private ownership of the land, we characterize the land-use as having a public easement constraint. Some planning applications track easements and similar restrictions on private property that may affect the existing and future land-use characteristics. Such restrictions derive from private contracts between adjacent property owners, owners and local governments, or owners and federal and other government agencies. Since the land-use characteristics depend on the owner's use of the land, this category is separate from public ownership. An easement is the right of use over another property. Historically, easements are applied to specific properties and not the property owner; a dominant-servient relationship. The burden is on the owner of land that constitutes a servient tenement, although the easement is held by the dominant tenement. This category refers to the servient tenement; that is, properties that have restrictions on them due to easements held by others (often adjacent property owners or public entities). Easements affect how a servient land is used in a variety of ways, not all of which affect land-use characteristics. Land-use databases do not always maintain such ownership characteristics even though many planning applications encounter these legal definitions. Subcategories here, therefore, reflect commonly accepted legal terms and descriptions. Many parcel databases from tax assessment records contain some form of easement characteristics although they may not employ the same terminology. Use only those categories that are applicable and revise the terms to suit locally used phrases. If applications need to track both the servient and dominant tenements, use additional attributes or fields in the database to record such characteristics. On the other hand, if the application needs precise links between the servient and dominant tenements in an easement (for example, transfer of development rights), employ linked or relational tables to link the records.
`2100`	Standard easements	—
`2110`	Private easement	Only a few private individuals benefit from the easement.
`2120`	Public easement	The right is vested in the public or the entire community.
`2130`	Access easement	The abutting property owner has access for ingress and egress; also includes easements for streets
`2140`	Affirmative easement	Servient tenement must permit access over the property or to discharge water on it.
`2150`	Appurtenant easement	Refers to an incorporeal right as part of a covenant attached to the land and cannot exist separate from other aspects of the covenant.
`2160`	Discontinuing easement	Also known as nonapparent or noncontinuous easement, this easement recognizes interference from people on the property, such as when using the right-of-way (in an access easement) or accessing water (in a water access easement).
`2170`	Estoppel easement	Owner of the land imposes voluntary restrictions on the tenants or users of the property.
`2200`	Other easements	—
`2210`	Easement by necessity	This category refers to a situation in which a land-locked parcel is conveyed legally and does not have any access to roads or access. Note that easement of necessity refers to an easement necessary for the dominant tenement.
`2220`	Easement by prescription	An easement right tied to a specific person and granted for personal usage.
`2230`	Easement by gross	An easement right tied to a specific person and granted for personal usage and ends with the death of the grantee.
`2240`	Easement of convenience	An easement that increases the convenience of dominant tenement.
`2250`	Easement of natural support	An easement that creates lateral support of land in its natural state and such support structures are held in place on neighboring land (the kind normally seen in hillside or shoreline subdivisions).
`2260`	Equitable easement	Often tied to a building deed for common usage and enjoyment of adjacent properties.
`2270`	Intermittent easement	The dominant tenement enjoys the easement sometimes, not continuously.
`2280`	Negative easement	Often used with access to light where the servient tenement is prohibited from blocking or interrupting light or air.

3000 Limited restrictions — leased and other tenancy restrictions

Code	Category	Description
`3000`	Limited restrictions — leased and other tenancy restrictions	Refers to a contract between the owner (lessee) and the tenant (lessor) of the property to convey the owner's rights to the lessor. In legal terms, there exist many forms of leases. Create subcategories if any application needs to track them. Also create separate categories here for tracking rental ownership. In legal terms, lease and tenancy constraints are subordinate conditions to the owner or the user of the property. That is, every property is either publicly or privately owned. Even so, when classifying in this dimension, it is the effect of lease or tenancy on the use that is of concern. Consider for example a gift shop located in a leased area of a publicly owned public park. If the shop is leased to a private entity for that specific activity, then we say that the use has an ownership constraint through the lease or tenancy arrangement. If tracking specific lease types are necessary, then users should create subcategories under the lease and tenancy category. LBCS does not provide them because they vary widely and any data classified beyond the broad categories will have limited relevance to other applications.

4000 Public restrictions — local, state, and federal ownership

Code	Category	Description
`4000`	Public restrictions — local, state, and federal ownership	Refers to the public entity that the property belongs to, or the public entity responsible for the property. Public entities are agencies from local, regional, state, or federal governments.
`4100`	Local government	Some regional land-use databases may keep track of individual municipality names as part of this dimension. When using such names, consider using the U.S. Census Bureau's place names extracted from census databases. Each place name in the country has an unique Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) code. The same files also have FIPS codes for states and counties. Note that this dimension is mainly to identify the ownership, not location of the property. If you want to specify the geographic location of the place name, see the LBCS metadata standards for appropriate locations to enter such information.
`4110`	City, Village, Township, etc.	To track specific departments (park authority, school district, etc.), use the appropriate functional dimension along with this dimension to filter records. Do not create subcategories here for such departments; they will conflict with functional categories as many of them are involved in a variety of functions.
`4120`	County, Parish, Province, etc.	To track specific departments (park authority, school district, etc.), use the appropriate functional dimension along with this dimension to filter records. Do not create subcategories here for such departments; they will conflict with functional categories as many of them are involved in a variety of functions.
`4200`	State government	—
`4300`	Federal government	—

5000 Other public use restrictions — regional, special districts, etc

Code	Category	Description
`5000`	Other public use restrictions — regional, special districts, etc	—
`5100`	Regional government	Some of these governmental entities have holdings that may cut across local jurisdictional lines. If the classification has to maintain detailed jurisdictional distinctions, then create a multidimensional table to assign multiple codes for this dimension.
`5200`	Port authorities	Some of these governmental entities have holdings that may cut across local jurisdictional lines. If the classification has to maintain detailed jurisdictional distinctions, then create a multidimensional table to assign multiple codes for this dimension.
`5300`	Tribal Lands	Because of the unique nature of ownership constraints of tribal lands and Indian Reservations in the U.S., this category has special significance for land-use planning. It may also serve as a guide to developing appropriate categories for complex ownership constraints in LBCS for countries outside the U.S. Ownership constraint plays a vital role in most tribal planning efforts, which includes geographies beyond those lands that are commonly known as Indian Reservations. “Reservation” is a special federal designation for certain federal lands, and “Indian Reservation” along with “Military Reservation” are probably the most well known in the planning profession. Areas (including pueblos, rancherias, communities, etc.) designated as Indian Reservations, mainly through long-standing treaties and current established federal government processes (such as congressional acts, executive orders, and administrative acts), are only a subset of tribal lands. Some states also recognize other tribes and groups that do not currently have the federal designation. Moreover, some tribes are seeking federal recognition, therefore, it is possible that what constitutes tribal lands will not remain constant. More than 550 tribes, which include 223 village groups in Alaska, are federally recognized. About 350 tribes have land holdings in roughly 275 Indian land areas covering over 56 million acres. These lands are held in trust by the federal government (the Secretary of the Interior serves as the trustee) for the various tribes, and in some cases for individuals. Hence the term “trust land,” which is sometimes mistaken for reservation land though not all reservation land is trust land. In short, reservation lands are a subset of trust lands, which in turn are a subset of tribal lands. A single reservation may extend across one or more state boundaries, such as the 16 million-acre Navajo Reservation, which spreads across three states: Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. Any power the states have over the reservations is limited to what the federal law has granted. Each reservation has a local governing authority, commonly referred to as the tribal government. Land-use planning operates in much the same way as in other local governments with some significant differences when it comes to ownership constraints. It is these differences that form the subcategories of this major category. 1). Tribal land in federal trust (primarily reservations) 2). Tribal fee land (private corporate ownership) 3). Individual tribal member allotted land in federal trust Tribal land in federal trust is constrained by federal regulations much in the same way as other lands although the process for federal approvals is not similar. Tribal fee land is subject to the same zoning and subdivision regulations of the local government where the land is located. Although many reservations are entirely tribally owned, it is not uncommon for non-tribal members to own and occupy tribal lands. Allotted land refers to the federal trust lands that have been parceled out to individual tribal members in 160-acre units as part of a 1920s and 1930s federal policy. Land-use plans extend over all three types of ownership constraints. Another aspect that requires clarification when classifying ownership constraints relates to tribal and state compacts. Depending on their purposes, compacts may affect ownership constraints. For example, following the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which allows traditional Indian gaming as well as bingo, pull tabs, lotto, punch boards, tip jars, and certain card games on tribal land, many tribes used compacts for other forms of gaming, such as cards or slot machines. Hence the growth in number of casinos and gaming-type developments on Indian lands. Twenty-four states and 130 tribes use such compacts to regulate gaming and gambling uses. To classifying such multi-tiered ownership in LBCS, assign multiple ownership codes, where each code refers to one or more forms of tribal ownership along with the appropriate state government category.
`5310`	Tribal lands in federal trust	See Tribal Lands for details.
`5320`	Tribal fee land	See Tribal Lands for details.
`5330`	Tribal allotted land in federal trust	See Tribal Lands for details.

6000 Nonprofit ownership restrictions

Code	Category	Description
`6000`	Nonprofit ownership restrictions	This category corresponds to assessors' categories for nontaxable entities. These may vary widely between jurisdictions, but the subcategories reflect the most commonly used classes.
`6100`	Nonprofit educational	—
`6200`	Nonprofit philanthropic	—
`6300`	Nonprofit religious	—
`6400`	Nonprofit other	—

7000 Joint ownership character — public entities

Code	Category	Description
`7000`	Joint ownership character — public entities	Includes all forms of public and nonprofit ownership.

8000 Joint ownership character — public, private, nonprofit, etc.

Code	Category	Description
`8000`	Joint ownership character — public, private, nonprofit, etc.	A catch-all category for any combination of ownership.

9000 Not applicable to this dimension

Code	Category	Description
`9000`	Not applicable to this dimension	Use this code as a permanent code for those records that will never be classified in this dimension. It is normal for land-use databases to have records that may never be classified and left blank instead. But LBCS recommends that all records have a code because some computer applications may not be able handle blank entries (null values in database terminology).
`9100`	Unclassifiable ownership or restriction on the use	Use this category as a temporary placeholder for ownership characteristics that cannot be grouped anywhere until the classification scheme is updated. Check the LBCS web site to see how others have dealt with such unique activities before revising the classification scheme.
`9900`	To be determined	Use this code as a placeholder until an appropriate code can be assigned. It is normal for land-use databases to have records that may never be classified and left blank instead. But LBCS recommends that all records have a code because some computer applications may not be able handle blank entries (null values in database terminology). This code could also be used as the default value for data-entry work. The subcategories serve the same purpose for other coding levels.
`9990`	To be determined	—
`9999`	To be determined	—

Notes on applying these codes

The nine top-level codes run on a spectrum of constraint: no constraints (private) → some constraints (easements) → limited restrictions (leases and tenancy) → public restrictions → joint ownership.
Ownership constraints change without any physical change on the ground. Where a parcel database is refreshed on a schedule, this dimension usually needs the most frequent updates.

Source

Code numbers, category names, and category descriptions on this page are reproduced from the American Planning Association's LBCS standard tables (1 April 2001).

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