PLSS Point Data Standard for Minnesota
This standard is currently under Public Review and has not yet been adopted by the Minnesota Geospatial Advisory Council.
The Public Land Survey System (PLSS) established corners which form the framework for many geospatial datasets. In Minnesota, counties are responsible for maintaining the PLSS. Minnesota Statute 381.12 provides the requirements for PLSS corner certification. There is no statute which governs standards for coordinate determination and maintenance of the related geospatial data.
The purpose of this standard is to provide a single, commonly accepted set of attribute specifications (field name, type, length, and order) for transferring and aggregating PLSS point data in Minnesota. It does not attempt to define internal data capture or storage specifications for data producers.
The points and associated data contained within this standard are to be a summarization of the corner certificate on
file for the associated PLSS point. They are not to be considered authoritative data for the location of the PLSS point.
The monument in the ground and associated corner certificates are the authoritative data for the PLSS corner.
Standard and Supporting Materials
- Proposed standard
- Proposed schema spreadsheet
- Proposed domains (within the centralized domains spreadsheet for all standards)
Questions? Contact gisinfo.mngeo@state.mn.us
Public Review
This draft standard completed a 90-day public review period on February 27, 2026.
The Standards Committee will review all comments and provide responses which will be published here. The responses may include changes to the draft standard. If changes are minimal, the committee may request approval of the standard by the GAC. If changes are more significant, the committee may choose to conduct another public review period. The Standards Committee will respond to all comments after the public review period is over. All comments
and responses will be published here for viewing.
Return to the Geospatial Standards webpage