I blogged
previously about a court case involving Orange County in
California about open access to county
GIS data under California’s Public Records Acts (PRA).
After
trying to obtain Orange County’s parcel file at the cost of
reproduction, in 2009 the Sierra Club initiated a lawsuit against Orange
County under the PRA. May 31, 2011 a California appelate court decided in favour of
Orange County which charged $375,000 for their parcel database.
On Monday, July 8, 2013, the California Supreme Court
reversed the previous 4th District Court of Appeal ruling in favor of
Orange County. As a result, GIS data owned by all parts of California
government – is now public record available for the cost of duplication.
Orange County Parcel File is now available for download.
“The G.L.I.S Landbase Information Systems Section is where the County of Orange Landbase is generated and updated. This unit prepares and maintains an information system consisting of a very accurate, parcel-level digital basemap containing over 665,000 parcels.
“The Landbase contains street centerlines, right-of-way lines, and parcel boundaries, linked to text information, such as assessor parcel number. The foundation of this system is the County Control Network consisting of over 2400 control points on an approximate half-mile grid. This strong foundation makes the County Landbase very accurate and allows new map information to be added without losing any accuracy.
The Landbase is available for download in ESRI shape format listed below:”
You can download it here.

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