County of Berks digital parcel boundaries were originally created by L. Robert Kimball & Associates, Ebensberg, PA, working under contract to the County of Berks between 1988 and 1992. The parcel boundaries have been continually corrected, updated, and otherwise maintained by the County of Berks. The parcel polygon information is based upon recorded deeds, plans and assessment information, plotted on, and digitized from rectified orthophotographs dated 1988 and 1989.

The parcel base was originally digitized at the scale of 1” = 400’ (1:4800) in rural areas, 1” = 200’ (1:2400) and 1” = 100’ (1:1200) in suburban areas, and 1” = 50’ (1:600) in urban areas (City of Reading). The initial scale was determined by the apparent parcel density at the time of the photography. Subsequent work was sometimes digitized at the original scale, but new work was more likely added using deed and plan bearings and distances, input using coordinate geometry. Please note that if large scale hard copy is produced using data digitized at a much smaller scale, apparent errors are greatly magnified. All coordinates are derived from rectified orthophotographs produced by L. Robert Kimball & Associates, in accordance with national map accuracy standards at the time of creation. Ground control points for the photography were set or recovered using a combination of GPS and traditional surveying methods. The County of Berks parcel base was converted from native ArcInfo coverage data in 2019 to Esri parcel fabric feature class and was reprojected from State Plane Coordinate System PA South NAD 27 (Pennsylvania South FIPS 3702 NAD27 Datum) to State Plane Coordinate System PA South NAD 83 (Pennsylvania South FIPS 3701 NAD83 Datum) at that time.