The statewide composite of parcels (cadastral) data for New Jersey was developed during the Parcels Normalization Project in 2008-2014 by the NJ Office of Information Technology, Office of GIS (NJOGIS.) The normalized parcels data are compatible with the NJ Department of the Treasury system currently used by Tax Assessors, and those records have been joined in this dataset. This composite of parcels data serves as one of the framework GIS datasets for New Jersey. Stewardship and maintenance of the data will continue to be the purview of county and municipal governments, but the statewide composite will be maintained by NJOGIS.

Parcel attributes were normalized to a standard structure, specified in the NJ GIS Parcel Mapping Standard, to store parcel information and provide a PIN (parcel identification number) field that can be used to match records with suitably-processed property tax data. The standard is available for viewing and download at https://njgin.state.nj.us/oit/gis/NJ_NJGINExplorer/docs/NJGIS_ParcelMappingStandardv3.2.pdf. The PIN also can be constructed from attributes available in the MOD-IV Tax List Search table (see below).

This feature class includes a large number of additional attributes from matched MOD-IV records; however, not all MOD-IV records match to a parcel, for reasons explained elsewhere in this metadata record. The statewide property tax table, including all MOD-IV records, is available as a separate download "MOD-IV Tax List Search Plus Database of New Jersey." Users who need only the parcel boundaries with limited attributes may obtain those from a separate download "Parcels Composite of New Jersey". Also available separately are countywide parcels and tables of property ownership and tax information extracted from the NJ Division of Taxation database.

The polygons delineated in this dataset do not represent legal boundaries and should not be used to provide a legal determination of land ownership. Parcels are not survey data and should not be used as such. Please note that these parcel datasets are not intended for use as tax maps. They are intended to provide reasonable representations of parcel boundaries for planning and other purposes. Please see Data Quality / Process Steps for details about updates to this composite since its first publication.

***NOTE*** For users who incorporate NJOGIS services into web maps and/or web applications, please sign up for the NJ Geospatial Forum discussion listserv for early notification of service changes. Visit https://nj.gov/njgf/about/listserv/ for more information.