The Township of Benton Tax Parcel Map

Lake County

Lake County tax parcel maps are a visual inventory of real property for assessment purposes. The maps are based on information contained in recorded legal documents. Tax parcel maps are required to support the county’s tax assessment function. The property tax system operates on a tax assessment year basis, so these maps are published annually to correspond to that cycle.

The maps include all changes resulting from legal records submitted to the Recorder of Deeds up to December 31 of the preceding year, as well as any court orders, municipal annexations, and other transactions that affect the maps. In compiling these maps, county staff must reconcile sometimes conflicting information in surveys, plats of subdivision, and other legal documents going back to the early nineteenth century. The accuracy of this information can vary significantly. The final map represents the best judgment of Lake County staff based on the accumulation of evidence in cases where information is incomplete, metes and bounds are unclear, or surveys conflict.

This map depicts a complicated set of ground conditions, including the Lake Michigan shoreline, dredged marina, platted but undeveloped subdivision, and improved road centerlines. A custom editing environment was created to ensure that map content was consistent across the entire map series. Lake County tax parcel maps are then produced using an automated script that allows staff to generate the map with no user input or adjustment needed. More than 2,000 maps are updated annually using this efficient process.

Courtesy of Lake County.

Map Book Page [PDF]