topic Historic Parcel Creation Without Changing Boundaries in ArcGIS Parcel Fabric Questions

Historic Parcel Creation Without Changing Boundaries

ClayNorris — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 16:05:06 GMT

I am wondering what the workflow is for retiring parcels just by changing attributes? I have a good handle on how to do this when changing boundaries (splits, merges) but when I just change attributes such as OWNER, nothing shows for historic parcels. I know this is possible because of Quit Claim Deeds being recorded, but I can't find the documentation and Im not sure what step I am missing. Thanks.

Re: Historic Parcel Creation Without Changing Boundaries

AmirBar-Maor — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 12:56:36 GMT

@ClayNorris

The workflow is (if I understand it correctly):

Create a new active record for the quit claim
Select the parcel or parcels that need to be retired and press the Set Historic button

Does this work for you?

Re: Historic Parcel Creation Without Changing Boundaries

ClayNorris — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 19:10:39 GMT

The problem with that is I still need something that is current. One workflow that we will use this is with a re-zoning. The boundary doesn't change, just an attribute in one field. I was hoping that by changing attributes while a record is active, that a historic parcel could be created to show the previous Zoning classification and an active/current parcel would show the updated zoning classification.

So far to achieve this we have done the following workflow:

1. Create record.

2. Select parcel.

3. "Copy lines to."

4. "Build active."

5. Copy attributes from previous parcel to new.

6. "Set Historic" for previous parcel.

This is a bit cumbersome with quite a few clicks and steps. I was hoping there was a better workflow out there.

Re: Historic Parcel Creation Without Changing Boundaries

AmirBar-Maor — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 08:12:18 GMT

@ClayNorris

Changing an attribute does not create a duplicate historic parcel.

FWIW - if you are using ArcGIS Enterprise, branch versioning allows you to view historic moments in time. For example: you can have 2 maps side by side, one pointing to the current time and one to an historic moment.

As for your workflow here is a shorter version:

1. Create record.

2. Select parcel.

3. Duplicate parcel

4. "Set Historic" the source parcel

If you do a lot of those, you can consider using a task that will automate this process.

Re: Historic Parcel Creation Without Changing Boundaries

ClayNorris — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 11:00:29 GMT

Thank you for the replies. We have tried this workflow, however when the duplicate parcel tool is used, all parcels are duplicated, not just the selected or active parcel. Maybe we are using this tool incorrectly.

It's unfortunate that an attribute change can't trigger the creation of historic parcels. This would be helpful in not just zoning, but also in parcel ownership tracking. We will continue to try and build out a workflow that works.

Re: Historic Parcel Creation Without Changing Boundaries

AmirBar-Maor — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 19:52:44 GMT

@ClayNorris

I have tested the suggested workflow - it works.

Here is how I did it - does this meet your requirements?

(view in My Videos)

Re: Historic Parcel Creation Without Changing Boundaries

ClayNorris — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 11:16:11 GMT

Thank you for that. When I tried to replicate that workflow, you can see that all parcels are duplicated, not just the selected parcel. You can skip through the video from 25 seconds to about 2 minutes as that is how long it takes for the duplicate process. Could there be a setting wrong with my test parcel fabric? That workflow would work very well for us if we can get the duplicate feature to function correctly.

(view in My Videos)