Conditional Dissolve

[DrewBeck]

I have never used Python, nor do I know anything about programming but I think it is necessary to accomplish this task.  I have a feature class of parcels, which have attributes of area and elevation among other things.  I want to dissolve adjacent parcels which either have the same elevation or a lower elevation, up to a maximum dissolved parcel size of 250-acres. I am using ArcGIS 9.2 and have access to most all extensions if that matters.  Anybody have suggestions?

[ChrisSnyder]

You could do this with a select by location in a loop and a search cursor (to keep tabs on your elevation and area values). I have some scripts that do a similar thing.

Some issue that will come up:
1. What parcel should you start the process with. Depending on the start point, you can potentially have different outcomes.
2. As other parcels are "globbed" on to the selection, do you want a "chaining effect" and if so, how many parcels "long" would the chain be allowed to have.