City/County boundaries that appear to defy property ownership -
I have identified two places where this occurs and I'm wondering if anybody here can explain how this happens. I'm sure that each place has its own story, but the two examples I have found are the
southern boundary of San Francisco and part of the
northern boundary of Baltimore.
In each of these places, it appears that the political boundary defies not only the street pattern of neighborhoods like Crocker-Amazon (SF) and Woodhome Heights (Baltimore), but in many cases runs right through individual lots and homes. The little bit of research I have done on this topic reveals that in both cases, the political boundary was likely set before the homes and streets were constructed. In the case of SF, is sounds as though the boundary was set in the mid 1800s with development coming along in the 1930s, and in the case of Baltimore the political boundary was set in 1948 with development appearing to be of a post-war pattern.
This raises the question - how could this happen? Were these parcels already subdivided prior to the political boundary being set? And if not, why on earth would a developer subdivide their neighborhoods in this way? And are the individual parcels that fall along these lines legally in two separate counties, or do they pay property taxes to both counties?
This is something that has puzzled me for a few years and, given the topic of this thread, perhaps somebody reading this can provide some insight!