Identifying locations by township, state (no county)

[Duke87]

To me at least, putting both a town name and a county name in address seems weird. The ZIP code will pin the location down if you are giving a specific address. Of course if you don't want to be more specific than the town, you can't do that.

The geography nerd in me is smart enough to ask "which one?" when someone says "Washington, New Jersey".

But the obsessive compulsive in me is bothered by this even being an issue. It should not be allowed for multiple municipalities in the same state to have the same name. If there is a duplicate, one of them should have to change.

[vtk]

To me at least, putting both a town name and a county name in address seems weird.

That would indeed be weird.  City/town and state should, with few exceptions, be enough.  In the context of mailing addresses, the ZIP code removes all ambiguity.

My complaint is when people name a township instead of a city/town/village/hamlet/whatever, and the state, as if a township is the same thing as a city or town.  It's not the same thing, and as has been pointed out, there is no requirement or even unofficial attempt to keep township names unique across whole states, at least in the Midwest states I'm familiar with.

If you think of placenames to be something like a hierarchy, counties are direct subordinates to states, while cities and towns can usually be placed as direct subordinates to states, just as states are subordinates to the US.  Townships, however, are direct subordinates to counties.  To specify a place by {township}, {state} is to skip an entire level.  That's just as awkward as "Third Ward, New Jersey" or "Portsmouth, United States" or "Oaxaca, North America".

Regardless of whether the person presenting the information needs or wants it to be unambiguous, the act of treating {township}, {state} as equivalent to {city}, {state} implies the former is just as unambiguous as the latter, and suggests the person believes such.

[NE2]

But the obsessive compulsive in me is bothered by this even being an issue. It should not be allowed for multiple municipalities in the same state to have the same name. If there is a duplicate, one of them should have to change.

The USPS did, as areas were being settled, force a lot of towns to change their names to avoid confusion. But this, of course, did not apply to unincorporated settlements and townships that were not used as post office names.

This is what caused the South to secede: the Feds interfering with the states' rights to name towns. States' rights is absolutely not code for racism. No way.

[Pete from Boston]

Plus there was really no difference in distinctions between counties in NJ, as they all could not make any major changes that would make laws differ in each except for Sunday Blue Laws which Bergen to this day won't allow Sunday shopping.  Other than that the tax rate is the same and other prominent stuff is the same.

Yes, but there are 565 towns in New Jersey, so almost nobody knows where they all are.  The result is that people often state their county–often before or without mentioning the town–because it's a clearer descriptor. 

T16 R13 Wels in northern Maine

Clarification, in the event it's unclear–WELS, not Wels, as in "West of the Easterly Line of the State."

States' rights is absolutely not code for racism. No way.

Much like this is absolutely not an attempt to shit-stir politics into an otherwise friendly thread for... some reason.  No way.

[vdeane]

Clarification, in the event it's unclear–WELS, not Wels, as in "West of the Easterly Line of the State."

Good to know; Jimapco uses all caps for all town names, so there's no way to know just from the atlas if something is supposed to be all caps.

[empirestate]

I was left with the impression a town in NY is similar to a township in Ohio; not incorporated as a city/village would be, but still with defined borders and a basic governmental structure set up to serve a more rural area (in theory.)  Absent laws or pacts to the contrary, a city/village can annex part of a township here, is that the case there?  Basically, in Ohio, a township is the default local government below the county level in the absence of any further organization.

Your impression is pretty much spot-on. However, in NY a village can never annex part of a town, because it's already entirely contained in a town (or multiple towns–I do think there are a very few instances where a town boundary has been adjusted to wholly include a village that would otherwise straddle the town line). Villages can, of course, expand their corporate boundaries within the towns with relatively little difficulty. And there are also a couple of different mechanisms by which a village and town can consolidate (one where the town and village remain separate, yet coterminous entities; another where a single new "town/village" is created, etc.).

Cities have historically annexed parts of towns, which they are not part of, but for about the past 100 years it's been so restricted as to be essentially impossible. (One upside to this is that NY's city and town boundaries are still accurately depicted even on very old maps, whereas city boundaries in much of the country aren't even current on their own GIS viewers!)

[Pete from Boston]

Clarification, in the event it's unclear–WELS, not Wels, as in "West of the Easterly Line of the State."

Good to know; Jimapco uses all caps for all town names, so there's no way to know just from the atlas if something is supposed to be all caps.

It's the wild west up there.  They have their own rules, or no rules.  And yes, all that gibberish nomenclature is rarely explained, with the assumption that you'll figure it out if you really need to know (proof that they're true New Englanders). 

[vdeane]

another where a single new "town/village" is created

Sounds like Green Island, which is both a village and a town, sharing the same government, boundaries, etc.  The town essentially exists on paper for all practical purposes only aside from providing vital statistics, election materials, and fishing/hunting/sportsmen/dog licenses, although the town has a full set of officials, including supervisor/clerk/deputy clerk/tax collector and a town board.

[roadman65]

I just heard and interesting one from a former Groton, CT resident now living with me in Florida.  Groton has two distinct municipalities with that particular name.  The Town of Groton and the City of Groton, both of separate governments.  Both are near each other and often considered the same municipality.

[empirestate]

another where a single new "town/village" is created

Sounds like Green Island, which is both a village and a town, sharing the same government, boundaries, etc.  The town essentially exists on paper for all practical purposes only aside from providing vital statistics, election materials, and fishing/hunting/sportsmen/dog licenses, although the town has a full set of officials, including supervisor/clerk/deputy clerk/tax collector and a town board.

Does it? From your description (and Wikipedia) I'd say it more closely matches the first type:

...one where the town and village remain separate, yet coterminous entities...

EDIT: By contrast, East Rochester is a single municipality, the hybrid "town/village". That's because there was never a separate Town of East Rochester; the village shared territory between Pittsford and Perinton towns. When East Rochester wanted to secede from them, since villages don't exist outside of towns, the new municipality was created that is both a town and a village in one government.

[vdeane]

another where a single new "town/village" is created

Sounds like Green Island, which is both a village and a town, sharing the same government, boundaries, etc.  The town essentially exists on paper for all practical purposes only aside from providing vital statistics, election materials, and fishing/hunting/sportsmen/dog licenses, although the town has a full set of officials, including supervisor/clerk/deputy clerk/tax collector and a town board.

Does it? From your description (and Wikipedia) I'd say it more closely matches the first type:

I have no clue what purpose the Town of Green Island serves; seems like all they do is collect taxes, make themselves look important by having government officials, and act as the village's secretary.  At NYSDOT we prefer to pretend it doesn't exist; our inventory treats Green Island like any other village and has no entry for the town.  On the other hand, our inventory also treats the inner/outer tax districts used by Oneida, Rome, and Saratoga Springs as two separate entities.

...one where the town and village remain separate, yet coterminous entities...

EDIT: By contrast, East Rochester is a single municipality, the hybrid "town/village". That's because there was never a separate Town of East Rochester; the village shared territory between Pittsford and Perinton towns. When East Rochester wanted to secede from them, since villages don't exist outside of towns, the new municipality was created that is both a town and a village in one government.

Such a thing exists?  Why not just become a city in that case?

[NE2]

Ohio is fucking weird.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loveland,_Ohio

Loveland has withdrawn from Symmes, Miami, and Hamilton Townships to form a coextensive set of paper townships each named Loveland Township.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_township

A municipality that spans multiple counties, such as Loveland, may withdraw from each of its townships. However, no township may span county lines; therefore, multiple paper townships must be erected in order for the municipality to completely withdraw. When the municipality annexes additional land, township boundaries must be explicitly adjusted to reflect the change.

[Duke87]

I just heard and interesting one from a former Groton, CT resident now living with me in Florida.  Groton has two distinct municipalities with that particular name.  The Town of Groton and the City of Groton, both of separate governments.  Both are near each other and often considered the same municipality.

Not quite. The City of Groton is contained within the Town of Groton.

Connecticut, at least, is fairly straightforward overall: there is no county government, the state is instead divided directly into 169 towns. Every place in the state lies within exactly one of these towns, no more, no less. So you can say what town in CT you're from and there is no ambiguity (no names are repeated). Connecticut then also has cities and boroughs, which are incorporated within towns but have limited powers.

Best way to think of the government structure in CT is that towns are equivalent to counties (since CT doesn't actually have counties). Cities and boroughs can incorporate within towns in CT much the same way they can incorporate within counties in other states. But there are only 9 boroughs and only 20 cities, leaving the vast majority of the state "unincorporated" with no level of government below the (county-equivalent) town.

Meanwhile, 19 of Connecticut's 20 cities are coterminous with their parent towns, forming consolidated city-towns much the same way you might see consolidated city-counties in other states. Groton is the only city that has not consolidated with its parent town, although there used to be others. For example, the City of Stamford incorporated in 1893 and consolidated with the Town of Stamford in 1949.

[empirestate]

By contrast, East Rochester is a single municipality, the hybrid "town/village". That's because there was never a separate Town of East Rochester; the village shared territory between Pittsford and Perinton towns. When East Rochester wanted to secede from them, since villages don't exist outside of towns, the new municipality was created that is both a town and a village in one government.

Such a thing exists?  Why not just become a city in that case?

Oh yes, and there are several examples. And in fact, each one seems to have come about in a slightly different way:

—The aforementioned East Rochester, a "town/village" created to separate the territory from Pittsford and Perinton, is a single hybrid government with some types of officials typical of both town- and village-style municipalities (e.g., village board and mayor, town justices).

—The also-aforementioned Green Island, which is both a town and a village: two separately-incorporated yet coterminous entities, with separate governments and offices (but one website). The village was created first (out of Colonie town, one would assume) and the town was established later with the same boundaries as the village. This is the only case where it seems that the two entities still exist independently of each other.

—Harrison, which appears to be a single town/village entity operated as a single government with functions parallel to both a town and a village (e.g., the village mayor is the town supervisor, and the town/village board consists of him, plus four town councilmen who are also village trustees). In this case, Harrison was a town first, and incorporated as a coterminous village after unsuccessfully trying to become a city. The city plan was a reaction against the proposal to incorporate the village of Purchase, but I don't know why a town/village was deemed the better option ultimately. (Wikipedia links to a NY Times article that misleadingly uses the term "secede" for the village of Purchase; a village is still located within a town, so Purchase wouldn't have been seceding from Harrison town unless they were proposeing to create their own new town/village.

—Mount Kisco, similar to East Rochester, was a village straddling Bedford and New Castle towns, and was set off from them in 1978. It, too, seems to be a single hybrid municipality, operating primarily as a village (under NYS Village Law, these combined municipalities much select to operate chiefly as either a village or a town). Mount Kisco appears to have special legal exemptions allowing it to maintain separate assessment rolls for both town and village.

—Scarsdale. which likewise started as a town and later incorporated as a coextensive village. The two governments were merged in 1930, but uniquely, Scarsdale is regarded as a "village/town" instead of a "town/village"–although Mount Kisco also seems to refer to itself as a "village/town". And though Scarsdale's motivations were similar to Harrison's, in this instance the village was incorporated to prevent annexation by the city of White Plains, rather than to avoid a separate incorporation within the town.

For more information, go here: http://www.dos.ny.gov/lg/publications/Local_Government_Handbook.pdf. That document may also explain why town/village governments are preferable to cities; my only guess is that it's because cities require charters from the State legislature, whereas town/villages can be created a little more automatically.

[6a]

Ohio is fucking weird.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loveland,_Ohio

Loveland has withdrawn from Symmes, Miami, and Hamilton Townships to form a coextensive set of paper townships each named Loveland Township.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_township

A municipality that spans multiple counties, such as Loveland, may withdraw from each of its townships. However, no township may span county lines; therefore, multiple paper townships must be erected in order for the municipality to completely withdraw. When the municipality annexes additional land, township boundaries must be explicitly adjusted to reflect the change.

That's curious to me, and I'll have to some more reading on the matter. Around Columbus, many of the suburbs utilize the surrounding township's fire department; Grove City/Jackson Twp, Hilliard/Norwich Twp, Gahanna/Mifflin Twp, etc. The residents of those cities are still considered township residents for tax purposes so the appropriate levies can be assessed for service. The part that is most intriguing is the "no township may span county lines" line. That's exactly the case in Dublin/Washington Twp. Since Dublin uses Washington's fire, whenever the city annexes land outside the township's traditional limits, the city basically redraws the township boundaries to conform to its own. This has not only led to a township crossing county boundaries, it's also led to Union County having two Washington Townships!

On the other side of the Ohio strangeness, Columbus uses a paper Montgomery Township for the opposite reason - to take newly annexed residents out of their former township. This makes them liable solely for Columbus taxes (and makes voting for new taxes easier to pass when one doesn't have to vote for a city and a township.)