What is the best way to merge parcel types after migration?

Question

I'm working on migrating from an ArcMap Parcel Fabric to the newest version. The Migrate Parcel fabric tool works great. All features are migrated, and records are created in the records table. The only issue is that over 20 parcel types are created in the new fabric. Many of these types should be merged together; for example, three different Lot parcel types are created.

I want to merge many of these parcel types together. Since records have already been created, I also want to preserve them. I think I can append some parcel types into others and remove them from the fabric, but I'm considering whether this will cause problems.

So my question is, can anybody see problems with this approach?

For example, If I want to append three parcel types, LotA, LotB, and LotC, the basic steps would be

* Disable topology
* Add LotType attribute to LotA
* Append LotB and LotC into LotA
* Calc LotType attribute
* Remove LotB and LotC parcel types from the Fabric

Once the Created By Record attribute is appended correctly, then Lots should still be related to the records that created them.

If I do an append

JasonCamerano · Accepted Answer

Hello Drew,

If you haven't gotten to far after the Migrate tool maybe I could make a suggestion.  Go back to the ArcMap Parcel Fabric and do field calculations on the TYPE field for the Parcels to reduce the size of Parcel Types created.

The Upgrade ArcMap Parcel Fabric GP tool parses through the TYPE field of the parcels to determine what Parcel Types are created.  So if in the ArcMap Fabric you had the type "LotA", "LotB", "LotC", if you did a field calc to change all the "LotB" and "LotC" to "LotA" then ran the Upgrade tool again you will now have all those parcels sent to the one "LotA" parcel type.

Let me know if that makes sense.

Thanks,

Jason Camerano