This is not true actually. I think I said this upthread and it’s incorrect. I learned recently while editing CDPs in Virginia that it has:
- Independent cities (
admin_level=6) - Cities/towns within counties (
admin_level=8)
Here’s an example of a town contained within a county:
By our logic, to be consistent, we should probably tag the Virginia ICs at admin_level=8 and simply have them not contained within any county. Then a query of all admin_level=8 would return all the incorporated cities and town in Virginia, regardless of their IC status.