ALTA/ACSM Land
Title Survey Plat
The “ALTA Survey” is a very valuable document. It is the highest
level of survey usually prepared for commercial or very complex
residential properties. It is the land surveyor’s job to prepare the
ALTA/ACSM Land Title Survey Plat for the owner’s; title company,
attorney, engineer, architect, and/or banker to review. A good
“ALTA” survey will give the owner’s professionals a clear “road map”
to follow as they read through the Title Commitment and pick out all
the encumbrances that are not covered by the title insurance.
Developers/builders use it when planning improvements on a piece of
property. Your surveyor will ask you to check off items in the Table
“A” OPTIONAL SURVEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND SPECIFICATIONS
during the contractual negotiations of the ALTA/ACSM survey. Go to
www.acsm.net/alta99.pdf
to learn more about “ALTA Surveys”.
Improvement
Survey Plat
This survey document will show all surface improvements located on
the property, to include buildings, driveways, fences, etc. in
relationship to the boundary lines. Some municipalities will ask for
a “pinned” Improvement Survey Plat when the owner requests a
building permit for a garage or an addition to the existing dwelling
located on the lot. In this case, the property monuments shall be
described and shown on the survey document as being found or set. Of
course survey price considerations sometimes dictate the amount of
detail shown on this type of survey. Be sure you are clear and
understand the differences when asking a surveyor for an improvement
survey plat. Many “survey” type documents prepared by others will
state; “Not to be relied upon for future improvements”.
Click HERE to learn more about Improvement Location Certificates vs.
Improvement Survey Plats.
Boundary Survey
Plat
A boundary survey is performed to re-establish the boundaries or
limits of a property or easement identified by a deed of record. A
good boundary survey plat will show the relationship between the
“deed lines” to the lines of occupation such as; fence lines,
building lines, wall lines, and/or crop lines. Any encroachments,
overlaps or gaps affecting the subject property should also be shown
on the Boundary Survey Plat document.
The Professional Land Surveyors of Colorado (PLSC) have published
the following pamphlet regarding surveys:
http://www.plsc.net/information/pamphlet.pdf
Topographic
Survey
Commonly referred to as a “topo”, a topographic survey is usually
performed when elevations and the lay of the land are required to be
known for various reasons. Engineers preparing a “drainage” or
“grading study” of the property will require a topographic survey.
Architects will require a topographic survey when preparing a “site
plan” for a proposed building on a lot. When ordering a topographic
survey, be sure and tell the surveyor what you intend to use the map
for, he will make his recommendations accordingly.
Go to
http://erg.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/booklets/topo/topo.html to learn
more about topographic mapping.
Condominium
Map
To understand what a condominium map is, it might help to know the
difference between a “Townhome” and a “Condominium” or commonly
called a “condo”. In general, the main difference between the two is
the fact that the Townhome owner purchases the land as well as the
home sitting on it in a “fee simple” condition, whereas in the case
of a condominium, the owner only owns the “air-space” of the unit,
not the land under it. The condo map, once recorded with the
appropriate county clerk and recorder’s office, creates a unique
legal description of each unit’s air-space. Laws vary from state to
state and if you are converting an apartment building into a Condo,
a real estate attorney can walk you through the various
requirements.
Mining Claim
Retracement
Mineral Surveys or Patented Mining Claims are common in the
mountains of Colorado. Most were originally surveyed in the late
1800’s or early 1900’s. Often times the mining claim is surrounded
by public lands, usually maintained by the U.S. Forest Service. Many
of these properties are located at high elevations in rugged
terrain, often covered in trees. With these surveys, it is important
to find and preserve the original corner monuments. If you are the
owner of one of these properties, you will want to be sure and
preserve the corners/bearing trees and discourage hikers from
disturbing or taking these original “historical” monuments home as
souvenirs. Posting signs near your property corners is a good idea.
Click HERE to learn more about Mining Claim Retracement Surveys.
Legal
Description and Exhibit
When an owner wishes to grant/deed an easement across his property
for a utility, driveway access, etc. to another party, a method of
defining the location of the easement is necessary. It is a good
idea to have a property description and exhibit or illustration
drawn up by a land surveyor in order to clearly see where the
encumbrance is located on the property and to avoid ambiguities in
the future. A wordy legal (or “metes & bounds”) description by
itself may be sufficient for an attorney or land surveyor, but the
illustration or accompanying exhibit gives everyone a “picture” of
the described parcel. The deed document along with the Legal
Description and Exhibit must be filed with the county clerk and
recorder’s office in order to become public record and track with
the chain of title of the property. To learn more about “Metes and
Bounds” property descriptions go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metes_and_bounds
Fence Survey
Plat
Often Home Owners Associations want to know who is responsible for
maintaining the fences around their communities. A Fence Survey Plat
will clearly show which property the fence is located on. Because
old fences most always meander, a good survey showing the fence in
detail will help in the negotiating with your neighbor for fence
replacement and/or maintenance.
Golf
Course Green Contours
Glorso Mapping Services, LLC ()
has had the opportunity to work with numerous Golf Course Architects
over the years. With our GPS, and computer equipment, supplemented
with conventional surveying means, and our wit, we have developed a
dependable system for gathering a three dimensional (3-D) form of
the green surface. Professional caddies and golfers love this
product, as it gives them a document to study the contour of the
green surface prior to reading putts on tournament day. Greens
keepers and Golf Course Superintendants use these documents for
creating a pin placement schedule and preserving the intended design
of the Golf Course Architect. The Golf Course Green Contour map is
supplemented with the
Golf Green
Slope Analysis document for ease in reading the per cent of
gradient across the green surface.
For golf reference go to:
http://www.cityofsutton.org/golfcourse.html
Road Trip
Remembrance Map
If you’re a motorcycle enthusiast and you want to document your road
trip, contact us and we can put together a map with your digital
photos as shown in this example.