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Polygon tests, geocoder containment, tax-district tests: three instruments, each deciding civil geography only
What it is: an unincorporated place has no line of its own in law — only the Census Bureau's delineation, the county's tax districts, and the annexation record — so this build tested its contested grounds with three instruments and printed each verdict with its instrument. THE POLYGON TEST (the parcel file against the TIGERweb CDP polygon): Brendon Hills is IN — 230 parcels, Harris Township, inside the polygon, a standing question settled. The apartment null is REAL — zero parcels inside the CDP are classed multi-family rental. THE GEOCODER CONTAINMENT TEST (Part Two): the Beacon hospital row, Healthwin, and St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park all stand on Mishawaka's or the unannexed county's ground, whatever their postal names say. THE TAX-DISTRICT TEST (the parcel file's TAXDIST field): Toscana Park's 49 parcels stand ALL in the Mishawaka–Harris tax district (final plat 3 October 2006); GrandView's ground, the Enclave at Grandview Minor Subdivision, stands in the Mishawaka–Clay district; the annexed doorstep exhibits count out in the same field — Main Street Villas 106 parcels, Douglas Crossing 68 — and its freshest instrument is Grande Vista Estates' Lot B, carrying Mishawaka's Annexation Ordinance #5982 of 3 June 2026.
BRADFORD SHORES IS THE WORKED EXAMPLE: 39 parcels, Clay Township tax district, not annexed, centroid (−86.2187, 41.7500) — just west of the polygon's edge. In the press, in builders' copy and in sworn testimony it is a Granger–Knollwood neighborhood; in the Census geography it is outside the place. The Neighborhoods file prints the conflict whole — the finding AND the usage — because both are the record: the instrument decides the build's geography, and the usage decides nothing, but neither is suppressed. Farmington Hills (48 parcels) stands likewise outside; Farmington Square and Meadows (331) are in; Juday Creek Estates (139) in, Juday Lake Estates (33) out — the pairs print together wherever they arise, so the line's arbitrariness at any given street is visible rather than hidden.
Where it fails: each instrument decides civil geography and nothing else — not postal identity (ZIP 46530 runs into Elkhart County), not use (the memorial park is Granger's burying ground standing in Mishawaka), not history (the polygon is today's delineation). The fragments keep the three questions separate in print, and this entry exists so the separations are on the record as method, not as accidents.
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