Product Name:  GEOCODES

Description: GEOCODES includes several DBF files containing standard codes for various geographic areas. These codes are described in greater detail in the "Geographic Area Codes" Standard of the VGIS Handbook.

COUNTY.DBF has 14 records, one for each county. Fields include CNTY (the county FIPS code), a short name, and a long name.

COMMCODE.DBF is the master database of Vermont 'communities'. It has 318 records, including communities recognized by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and 'urban compacts' used by the VT Agency of Transportation. The 325 records are categorized in the COMMTYPE field, as follows:

COMMTYPE Records
 Content
TOWN
 242
 Towns
CITY
 9
 Cities
GORE
 3
 Gores (Avery's, Buel's and Warren's)
GRANT
 1
 Warners Grant
VILLAGE
 41
 Villages (Refer HISTORICAL.DBF for old villages)
CDP
 19
 Census Defined Places (Bethel CDP is in HISTORICAL.DBF)
URBCOMP
 9
 Urban compacts not otherwise classified as villages or CDPs (in all there are 25 VAOT urban compacts)


COMMCODE.DBF is used to generate MCDCODES.DBF as described below.

COMMCODE.DBF fields include:

  • FIPSNAME (Character 29) FIPS name for the community
  • COMMTYPE (Character 7) Community type (TOWN, CITY, etc.)
  • COMMNAME (Character 18) Common, simple name
  • STATEFP (Numeric 2) FIPS state (Vermont = 50, all records)
  • CNTY (Numeric 3) FIPS county
  • COUSUBFP (Numeric 5) FIPS sub-county (the MCD-level code)
  • PLACEFP (Numeric 5) FIPS place (for communities below the MCD level and cities; otherwise = 0)
  • FIPSPLACE (Numeric 5) A derived field equal to the PLACEFP, or to COUSUBCE if PLACEFP = 0
  • STATECE (Numeric 2) Census State (Vermont = 13, all records)
  • COUSUBCE (Numeric 3) Census Minor Civil Division (MCD); sub-county (255 in Vermont)
  • PLACECE (Numeric 4) Census place
  • FIPS6 (Numeric 5) FIPS6 = (CNTY * 1000) + COUSUBCE. Standard Vermont code for each of VT's 255 Minor Civil Divisions. Note that COUSUBCE is a census code, not a FIPS code.
  • FIPS10 (Numeric 10) FIPS10 = (FIPS6 * 10000) + PLACECE. Common, unique code for communities at and below the MCD level.
  • MCD (Logical 1 True/False): is this record for one of the 255 Census Minor Civil Divisions (Towns, Cities, Gores and Grants)?
  • CENSUS1990 (Logical 1 True/False): was this geographic area recognized in the 1990 census? If True, record has been copied to HISTORICAL.DBF and deleted from COMMCODES.DBF
  • CENSUS2000 (Logical 1 True/False): was this geographic area recognized in the 1990 census? If True, record has been copied to HISTORICAL.DBF and deleted from COMMCODES.DBF
  • PATHCODE (Character 8) Abbreviated, 8-character code for each community; can be used as a standard DOS directory name
  • RPC (Character 2) 2-character code for the Regional Planning Commission each community falls into
  • CT_CODE (Numeric 4) A VAOT 'County/Town' code for each of VT's 255 MCDs. Format 'cctt', where 'cc' = county (01 to 14, alphabetical) and 'tt' = town (alphabetical within county). The FIPS6 is the preferred standard code for Minor Civil Divisions.
  • UA (Numeric 1) Urban Area code, used for 'urban areas' beneath the MCD level, including some without FIPS10 codes. These were defined for uniquely identifying VAOT highway maps (by combining the FIPS6 and UA codes).
  • VAOTNAME (Character 38) The VAOT community name for identifying VAOT highway maps 
  • HISTORICAL (Logical 1 True/False): Used to flag historical records.  If True, record has been copied to HISTORICAL.DBF and deleted from COMMCODES.DBF
  • BNDHASH  (Logical 1 True/False): Flags whether this record is represented in the BoundaryOther_BNDHASH data layer.  If True the record is represented in the ArcInfo coverage's the VILLAGES or TOWNS region subclass.
  • UPDACT  (Character 1) Update action field. D = Deleted (refer to records in HISTORICAL.DBF)
  • UPDNOTES  (Character 100) Update action notes.

COMMCODE.DBF was originally created by typing in values from an old Census Bureau code listing ("Geographic Identification Code Scheme"). FIPS code fields COUSUBFP and PLACEFP were added later (8/25/92) from records extracted from census data file STF1A0VT.DBF, obtained from the UVM Baily Howe Library.   Revisions have been made since then.  Refer to Update Records below.

A number of records have been archived to HISTORICAL.DBF.  These are generally Villages which have been merged with their parent town (the merged must be formalized by the State Legislature via a Legislative Act and Resolve).

Of note, COUSUBFP = PLACEFP for incorporated cities.

Several logical expressions of note include:

Logical expression Selects records

MCD = .TRUE.                 255 Minor Civil Divisions - 242 towns, 9 cities, 3 gores and 1 grant

COMMTYPE = 'CITY'     9 cities

VAOTNAME <> ''           Areas for which VTrans generates "official" Town Highway Maps (note: certain records in HISTORICAL.DBF include areas that are still mapped by VTrans even though they are no longer incorporated villages or CDPs.  VTrans has reclassified some old villages and "Urban Compacts")

GNIS_POPULATEDPLACES.DBF is an extract from the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).  It includes only those GNIS records with GNTYPE = 'Populated Place' or 'Civil'.

MCDCODES.DBF is derived from COMMCODE.DBF, including 255 records for Vermont's Minor Civil Divisions. Unnecessary fields have been dropped. These records correspond with the REGION.TOWNS subclass within Vermont's master boundary layer (BoundaryOther_BNDHASH).

HISTORICAL.DBF includes records archived COMMCODE.DBF because they are considered historical divisions.  Villages and other divisions dissolved by the VT General Assembly have been archived to HISTORICAL.DBF.

RPC.DBF has 11 records, one for each Regional Planning Commission. Fields include RPC (2-character code), RPCID (2-digit code used by the Department of Employment and Training), a short name and a long name.  Note: Upper Valley-Lake Sunapee Commission was dropped from this table on 7/1/2004.  It no longer services towns in Vermont.

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