Largest Landowner in the City: Northampton’s Developed and Undeveloped Land

Author

Victoria Georgiou

Published

May 3, 2023

library(tidyverse)
── Attaching core tidyverse packages ──────────────────────── tidyverse 2.0.0 ──
✔ dplyr     1.1.2     ✔ readr     2.1.4
✔ forcats   1.0.0     ✔ stringr   1.5.0
✔ ggplot2   3.4.2     ✔ tibble    3.2.1
✔ lubridate 1.9.2     ✔ tidyr     1.3.0
✔ purrr     1.0.1     
── Conflicts ────────────────────────────────────────── tidyverse_conflicts() ──
✖ dplyr::filter() masks stats::filter()
✖ dplyr::lag()    masks stats::lag()
ℹ Use the conflicted package (<http://conflicted.r-lib.org/>) to force all conflicts to become errors
cache_dir <- tempdir()
cache_dir
[1] "/tmp/Rtmp7TW6HC"
download.file(
  url = "https://www.mass.gov/doc/massgis-parcel-data-download-links-table/download", 
  destfile = towns_file
)
ma_towns %>%
  select(town_name, shapefile_download_url)
# A tibble: 351 × 2
   town_name shapefile_download_url                                             
   <chr>     <chr>                                                              
 1 ABINGTON  http://download.massgis.digital.mass.gov/shapefiles/l3parcels/L3_S…
 2 ACTON     http://download.massgis.digital.mass.gov/shapefiles/l3parcels/L3_S…
 3 ACUSHNET  http://download.massgis.digital.mass.gov/shapefiles/l3parcels/L3_S…
 4 ADAMS     http://download.massgis.digital.mass.gov/shapefiles/l3parcels/L3_S…
 5 AGAWAM    http://download.massgis.digital.mass.gov/shapefiles/l3parcels/L3_S…
 6 ALFORD    http://download.massgis.digital.mass.gov/shapefiles/l3parcels/L3_S…
 7 AMESBURY  http://download.massgis.digital.mass.gov/shapefiles/l3parcels/L3_S…
 8 AMHERST   http://download.massgis.digital.mass.gov/shapefiles/l3parcels/L3_S…
 9 ANDOVER   http://download.massgis.digital.mass.gov/shapefiles/l3parcels/L3_S…
10 AQUINNAH  http://download.massgis.digital.mass.gov/shapefiles/l3parcels/L3_S…
# ℹ 341 more rows
# A tibble: 0 × 10
# ℹ 10 variables: town_name <chr>, town_id <dbl>, shapefile_download_url <chr>,
#   file_gdb_download_url <chr>, assessed_fiscal_year <dbl>, note <chr>,
#   zip_filename <chr>, local_zip_filename <fs::path>, in_cache_dir <lgl>,
#   is_unzipped <lgl>
Updating town cache information...
# A tibble: 1 × 11
  town_name   town_id shapefile_download_url               file_gdb_download_url
  <chr>         <dbl> <chr>                                <chr>                
1 NORTHAMPTON     214 http://download.massgis.digital.mas… http://download.mass…
# ℹ 7 more variables: assessed_fiscal_year <dbl>, note <chr>,
#   zip_filename <chr>, local_zip_filename <fs::path>, in_cache_dir <lgl>,
#   is_unzipped <lgl>, dsn <chr>
Linking to GEOS 3.10.2, GDAL 3.4.1, PROJ 8.2.1; sf_use_s2() is TRUE
noho <- ma_towns %>%
  filter(town_name == "NORTHAMPTON") %>%
  pull(dsn) %>%
  read_town_parcels()
Reading layer `M214TaxPar_CY22_FY23' from data source 
  `/tmp/Rtmp7TW6HC/L3_SHP_M214_Northampton' using driver `ESRI Shapefile'
Simple feature collection with 10692 features and 12 fields
Geometry type: MULTIPOLYGON
Dimension:     XY
Bounding box:  xmin: 97757.07 ymin: 893258.2 xmax: 110641.8 ymax: 903377.7
Projected CRS: NAD83 / Massachusetts Mainland
Reading layer `M214Assess_CY22_FY23' from data source 
  `/tmp/Rtmp7TW6HC/L3_SHP_M214_Northampton' using driver `ESRI Shapefile'
Warning: no simple feature geometries present: returning a data.frame or tbl_df
#Cleaning data for property City of Northampton owns

noho_clean <- noho %>%
  filter(TOTAL_VAL > 0) %>%
  filter(OWNER1 %in% c("CITY OF NORTHAMPTON", "NORTHAMPTON CITY OF"))


rep_str = c("NORTHAMPTON CITY OF"="CITY OF NORTHAMPTON")
noho_clean$OWNER1 <- str_replace_all(noho_clean$OWNER1, rep_str)


noho_clean$STATUS[noho_clean$BLDG_VAL == 0] = "Undeveloped"
noho_clean$STATUS[noho_clean$BLDG_VAL != 0] = "Developed"

noho_clean <- mutate(noho_clean, ADDRESS = paste(ADDR_NUM, FULL_STR))

noho_clean$ADDRESS <- sub(".*?NA", "",noho_clean$ADDRESS)
# Creating map of Developed vs Undeveloped land owned by Northampton

library(leaflet)

pal_land <- colorFactor(palette = "YlOrRd",
                        domain =noho_clean$STATUS) 

noho_development_status <- noho_clean %>%
  mutate(
    popup = paste0(
      ADDRESS, "</br>",
      "Lot size: ", LOT_SIZE, " acres</br>",
      "Assessed value: $", 
      format(round(TOTAL_VAL / 1000), big.mark = ",", scientific = FALSE), "k"
      )
  ) %>%
  leaflet() %>%
  addTiles() %>%
  addPolygons(weight = 1.25,
              popup = ~popup,
              fillColor = ~pal_land(STATUS),
              color = "black",
              stroke = TRUE,
              fillOpacity = 0.6) %>%

addLegend(data = noho_clean, pal = pal_land, values = ~STATUS,
          opacity = 1, title = "Status")

noho_development_status

The city is the largest landowner in Northampton. The interactive map above illustrates all of the land owned by the City of Northampton, distinguishing developed land (yellow) from undeveloped land (red). By clicking on the map, you can identify the address, lot size and assessed value of any of the properties displayed. The map illustrates that the City of Northampton owns more undeveloped land than developed.

Two of the largest developed lots owned by the city of Northampton are located at North Farms Road and Haydenville Road. North Farms is home to Fitzgerald Lake Conversation Area and used for planning and sustainable land use and growth. The parcel on Haydenville Road is a large wooded site that is used by Smith Vocational School. The school uses the site for educational purposes and plans to use the property to extend the school and offer affordable housing in the future.

One of the largest undeveloped lots owned by the city is Saw Mill Hill Conservation Area. Similarly to many other undeveloped parcels, this land remains protected and conserved. Many of these undeveloped plots are in the care of the Director of Planning & Sustainability for the City of Northampton. Northampton appears to prioritize the conservation of their undeveloped land. The city’s Open Space, Recreation & Multi-Use Trail Plan (2018-2025) shares a similar goal, creating a more sustainable future using Northampton’s open space.