Using the Tax Assessor’s Database

& Other land use datasets

Background

• LA County Tax Assessor’s roll• Usually for purchase from • Used to locate addresses• Wealth of information• HUGE FILE!!

Using the Behemoth

• P drive: LA_Assessor– Please do not make any changes directly– When copying to another computer, must copy

whole file– Access file links to the TXT tax roll– Read me file and PDF is there for reference

• Open Access• Click on one of the

tables (they are the same thing)

• Need to get out a manageable size such as a zip code

• Highlight zip code field – wait a couple minutes or so and click ESC

• Filter should pop up• Text filter – begins

with– Enter your 5 digit

zip code– Wait for the filter to

complete• Go to the last record

using the arrows at the bottom

• Scroll to the top – press shift and then click on top record

• All records should now be selected

• Right click on the table name

• Export – select excel• Make sure to click

export data with formatting and layout

• And – export only selected records

• Open file in Excel • Create a new column

named “AIN”• You need to

concatenate the first three fields to get to create the AIN

• Drag that formula down to the end of your spreadsheet

• Ready to bring into ArcGIS!

Working in ArcGIS

• Make sure you have a boundary file – eg. 90024

• Add the parcel shapefile• Clip the county wide parcel shapefile to your

boundary file• Join the small assessor data to the small parcel

layer

Using the Land Use File

• Clip the county wide to your boundary file• Dissolve your parcels so they just become an

outline• Clip the boundary land use to the dissolved

parcels