Municipal exclaves

[TheStranger]

Here's something that fascinated me today while looking at a map of Pittsburgh:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Pittsburgh,+PA&hl=en&ll=40.475289,-79.94545&spn=0.099633,0.152092&sll=40.471633,-79.871292&sspn=0.099638,0.152092&hnear=Pittsburgh,+Allegheny,+Pennsylvania&t=m&z=13

The UPMC St. Margaret hospital along Freeport Road on the north shore is within city limits...but except by boat, there is no way one can go there from any other part of Pittsburgh without entering another jurisdiction.

Any other examples of this?  I can think of one notable California instance: San Ysidro, part of the city of San Diego since the 1960s despite the fact there is no way to travel there from the rest of San Diego (except through San Diego Bay) without first going through multiple suburbs not part of that city.

[corco]

Here's some Buckeye, Arizona magic
http://goo.gl/maps/lMweq

[TheStranger]

Here's some Buckeye, Arizona magic
http://goo.gl/maps/lMweq

Wikipedia's map of the city conveys how scattershot it all is on a larger scale:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maricopa_County_Incorporated_and_Planning_areas_Buckeye_highlighted.svg

[DTComposer]

Santa Barbara did this when they annexed the airport. The strip isn't shown on this map, but it goes south into the ocean from downtown, turns west, then turns north.

http://goo.gl/maps/DR7ft

[deathtopumpkins]

Boston comes pretty close with the neighborhoods of Allston and Brighton (which were formerly the town of Brighton). They're entirely separated from the rest of Boston by the town of Brookline, except for a small strip of land running from the south edge of Comm Ave to the bank of the Charles.

[1995hoo]

I'm going to interpret "municipal" loosely to include counties, not just cities or towns.

Fairfax County, Virginia, has an exclave within the City of Fairfax; the courthouse, county jail, and a few other government facilities are located there. Fairfax City is itself an enclave totally surrounded by Fairfax County. Google doesn't show the borders, but the area in question is the darker grey area surrounded by Main Street, Chain Bridge Road, and Judicial Drive (note that the lighter grey areas along Main Street are not part of the exclave): http://goo.gl/maps/Hu6z0

Also there's the famous Baarle-Hertog, Belgium, which consists of a bunch of exclaves that are mostly surrounded by the Netherlands and disconnected from Belgium proper, but to make it more complicated, the Netherlands then has its own exclaves within the Belgian exclaves. Screwy stuff! http://goo.gl/maps/QfBKE –Wikipedia's description might be more helpful than the map!

[J N Winkler]

New Iberia Parish, Louisiana is in two disjoint parts.  I think there may be one other parish in Louisiana which is also in multiple disjoint pieces.

In Kansas municipalities are not allowed to form exclaves.  In the case of Wichita this has resulted in some neighborhoods which are disjoint from the rest of the city on superficial inspection, but are connected to the rest of the city by rights-of-way which are within the city limits while the abutting properties are not.  In one case the corridor of linkage simplifies to a single point--the intersection of Maize Road and 37th Street North.

[cpzilliacus]

Not sure that it qualifies as an exclave, but on the "Virginia" side of the Potomac River across the Arlington Memorial Bridge is Columbia Island.  Even though it is on the "other" side of the river, it is part of the District of Columbia, not Virginia (the actual border between D.C. and Virginia runs in the Boundary Channel, to the west of Columbia Island.

To add to the fun, the island is entirely owned by the National Park Service, which does not usually post signs when leaving or entering a state, and many people incorrectly assume that the island is part of Virginia.

Well upstream, in  the nontidal part of the Potomac above the Great Falls, is privately-owned Selden Island.  Its only road access is via a small bridge from Loudoun County, Virginia, but the island is part of unincorporated Montgomery County, Maryland.

[lamsalfl]

St. Martin Parish is split, not Iberia Parish.

[1995hoo]

Not sure that it qualifies as an exclave, but on the "Virginia" side of the Potomac River across the Arlington Memorial Bridge is Columbia Island.  Even though it is on the "other" side of the river, it is part of the District of Columbia, not Virginia (the actual border between D.C. and Virginia runs in the Boundary Channel, to the west of Columbia Island.

To add to the fun, the island is entirely owned by the National Park Service, which does not usually post signs when leaving or entering a state, and many people incorrectly assume that the island is part of Virginia.

Well upstream, in  the nontidal part of the Potomac above the Great Falls, is privately-owned Selden Island.  Its only road access is via a small bridge from Loudoun County, Virginia, but the island is part of unincorporated Montgomery County, Maryland.

I think Columbia Island probably does not qualify as an exclave because the entire river, up to the high-water mark on the Virginia shore, is within the District of Columbia and in this case that means the boundary is at the high-water mark of Boundary Channel, which separates Columbia Island from Virginia. In other words, you can drive to Columbia Island without leaving the District of Columbia by simply driving over Memorial Bridge (although if you go to the marina, you cannot get back to the main portion of the District by car without entering Virginia because you have to turn right onto the GW Parkway.....but you could get back by foot or bike without entering Virginia, so it's not an exclave).

[Dr Frankenstein]

Buckeye: What the hell?

[cpzilliacus]

I think Columbia Island probably does not qualify as an exclave because the entire river, up to the high-water mark on the Virginia shore, is within the District of Columbia and in this case that means the boundary is at the high-water mark of Boundary Channel, which separates Columbia Island from Virginia. In other words, you can drive to Columbia Island without leaving the District of Columbia by simply driving over Memorial Bridge (although if you go to the marina, you cannot get back to the main portion of the District by car without entering Virginia because you have to turn right onto the GW Parkway.....but you could get back by foot or bike without entering Virginia, so it's not an exclave).

Then  there's the matter of T. Roosevelt Island, a short distance to the north of Columbia Island.

It is crossed by the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge (I-66 and U.S. 50), but there is no access from that bridge to the island.

Like Columbia Island, it is owned by the National Park Service (and part of the District of Columbia).

The only access to the island is by way of a pedestrian bridge from a parking lot located in Virginia on the northbound side of the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

[Anthony_JK]

New Iberia Parish, Louisiana is in two disjoint parts.  I think there may be one other parish in Louisiana which is also in multiple disjoint pieces.

Ahhhh....no such parish exists. The CITY of New Iberia is the parish seat of IBERIA Parish, which is one entity.

St. Martin Parish, OTOH, is broken up into its Upper and Lower partitions.  The latter is unoccupied, and located within the Atchafalaya River Basin.

[J N Winkler]

Sorry, yes--it was St. Martin Parish I was thinking of.  (Should have checked before posting . . .)

[deathtopumpkins]

Also there's the famous Baarle-Hertog, Belgium, which consists of a bunch of exclaves that are mostly surrounded by the Netherlands and disconnected from Belgium proper, but to make it more complicated, the Netherlands then has its own exclaves within the Belgian exclaves. Screwy stuff! http://goo.gl/maps/QfBKE –Wikipedia's description might be more helpful than the map!

Even screwier are the en/exclaves along the Indo-Bangladeshi border: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Bangladesh_enclaves
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Cooch-behar-enclaves-schematisch.png

There's even an Indian enclave within a Bangladeshi enclave within an Indian enclave within Bangladesh. Talk about trippy.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Dahala_Khagrabari.png

[TheStranger]

There's even an Indian enclave within a Bangladeshi enclave within an Indian enclave within Bangladesh. Talk about trippy.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Dahala_Khagrabari.png

And according to Wikipedia...

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

Curiously, the owner of this enclave is a Bangladeshi farmer who lives in the enclave surrounding Dahala Kahagrabari.[1]

So to recap...

a Bangladeshi-owned Indian enclave within a Bangladeshi enclave within an Indian enclave within Bangladesh.

Wow.

[1995hoo]

Wow. I knew from some Indian history courses I took 20 years ago in college that the partition of India and Pakistan was complicated, but I had no idea it was that complex.

[Road Hog]

New Iberia Parish, Louisiana is in two disjoint parts.  I think there may be one other parish in Louisiana which is also in multiple disjoint pieces.

In Kansas municipalities are not allowed to form exclaves.  In the case of Wichita this has resulted in some neighborhoods which are disjoint from the rest of the city on superficial inspection, but are connected to the rest of the city by rights-of-way which are within the city limits while the abutting properties are not.  In one case the corridor of linkage simplifies to a single point--the intersection of Maize Road and 37th Street North.

The same thing happens in Texas. All incorporated areas must be contiguous. It's resulted in some curiosities. For instance, Lake Ray Hubbard, which is about 15 miles east of downtown Dallas, is entirely incorporated by the City of Dallas.

In some places the city limits reach out like tentacles along highway rights-of-way for many miles outside the city center. Sometimes neighboring cities can't agree on where their meeting point should be and end up in court. More often than not it's over traffic ticket jurisdiction and the resultant revenue.

[NE2]

Florida statutes require an annexed area to be "contiguous to the municipality's boundaries at the time the annexation proceeding is begun and reasonably compact": http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2012/171.043
Enclaves of unincorporated land definitely exist. And noncontiguous pieces separated by only a road are also allowed: http://edocs.ci.orlando.fl.us/asv/paperlessagenda.nsf/6acecff5f30ecb0d85256bd0005abae0/3201fe97f475922e852577260053ea16?OpenDocument
(Note the sentence "If annexed, the property will not create an enclave." I don't know if this is required by any law or is just good policy.)

Also see this pathological doozy (verified against multiple sources): http://www.openstreetmap.org/?way=72790507

[CentralCAroadgeek]

Should San Francisco International Airport (SFO) count as one? It's located in unincorporated San Mateo County, but it's owned by the City and County of San Francisco. SFO even follows the City's bans, such as the one on styrofoam products.

[NE2]

Should San Francisco International Airport (SFO) count as one?

No, just as the Los Angeles Aqueduct is not part of LA.

[Takumi]

Virginia Beach and Mecklenburg County both have small sections only accessible through North Carolina.

[kphoger]

Found this little nugget and this one while doing a Google Maps search of Wichita.

[Duke87]

This office building in Greenwich, CT can only be accessed through New York. The CT portion I-684 also counts, I suppose.

Similarly, this area in Stamford, CT can only be reached from the rest of town by driving through New York state or Greenwich. The road leading there through Greenwich (Farms Rd and Taconic Rd north of it) is actually maintained by the City of Stamford.

[vdeane]

Also there's the famous Baarle-Hertog, Belgium, which consists of a bunch of exclaves that are mostly surrounded by the Netherlands and disconnected from Belgium proper, but to make it more complicated, the Netherlands then has its own exclaves within the Belgian exclaves. Screwy stuff! http://goo.gl/maps/QfBKE –Wikipedia's description might be more helpful than the map!

Even screwier are the en/exclaves along the Indo-Bangladeshi border: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Bangladesh_enclaves
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Cooch-behar-enclaves-schematisch.png

There's even an Indian enclave within a Bangladeshi enclave within an Indian enclave within Bangladesh. Talk about trippy.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Dahala_Khagrabari.png

I've read that they were working to get rid of those, and Google doesn't show them.  Does that mean they're gone, or is Google being lazy?