Parcel and lot fabric

Parcel polygons with the structures on them, classified so that counting buildings gives you a defensible number.

The outbuilding problem

A parcel with a house and a detached garage has two building footprints. Counting footprints gives you two dwellings, which is wrong. Counting parcels gives you one, which is also wrong if the garage has a suite above it.

This layer classifies every footprint by area and configuration. Structures under 50 m² with no address point are flagged as outbuildings. Structures over that threshold, or with their own address, are treated as buildings. The threshold is a field, not a constant, so you can move it if your local building stock warrants.

Lot splits

Where a parcel has been subdivided but the registry has not caught up, the layer carries a building_was_split flag and a buildings_on_lot count. This is the signal that matters for new construction: a large lot with two new footprints is a duplex or an infill pair, and it will produce address points in a later release.

Fields of note

• area_class: outbuilding or building
• buildings_on_lot: count of qualifying structures
• building_was_split: parcel appears subdivided ahead of registry
• land_use: dominant use from the assessment roll where available
• subdivision_name: where the parcel belongs to a named development

Size warning

This is the largest product in the catalogue. A provincial extract is measured in gigabytes and millions of polygons. Load it into PostGIS rather than opening it in a desktop GIS, and read the loading guide first.