Certified Plot Plan Prior to the issuance of a building permit many communities require that a Certified Plot Plan be prepared and endorsed by a Professional Land Surveyor. Preparation of the plan requires the Surveyor to establish the property boundaries and locate the structures on the property. Generally, the plan is prepared to show the approving authority that the structure will meet the setbacks required by the communityâÂÂs zoning regulations. Property Line Staking Often property owners have only a general idea of where their property begins and ends. A property line staking involves setting survey monuments at lot corners and additional markers at set intervals along the property lines. Upon completion it is possible to stand on the lot and visibly see the exact location of property lines. Construction Layout and Verification As a project progresses from plans to construction it is often advisable or required to have the exact location and elevation of a structure staked on the lot. This prevents costly errors and helps ensure the structure is placed as required by the permit. In some communities clients are required to have the Surveyor certify the location of the completed structure prior to the project being considered complete.

If anyone is still interested in this issue from an old thread, I recently purchased some property and had to parse the survey description and I thought it was interesting. Here is the first sentance (specific references deleted for privacy): "Beginning at a found 3/4" iron rod in concrete 0.1' below grade located at the northwest corner of the herein described parcel and the southwest corner of (name of neighbors) as described in deed book xxx page yy, said iron rod being located on the easterly assumed road bounds of (multiple names of the road), said iron rod being also located S 20°-59'-01"W as referenced to New York State Grid North by 1983 Datum by GPS Observations a distance of 250.34 feet along said road bounds from a found capped iron rod located at the northwest corner of (name of neighbors again) and the southwest corner of (other neighbors names) as described in deed book zzz at page xx and shown on (name of county map) and running;" Then appears the distance and direction to the next survey point. Then there a sequence of similar descriptions , ending with "... to the point of beginning." Very legalese description, but you see that it depends on finding a specific iron rod, the location of which is referred to another iron rod. It also assumes that the referred deed books still exist (some court records have been lost in fires). When I noticed that the Zillow app on my iPhone shows what I guess are plat lines, I tried to locate some of the corners using that data. I could not find all of them, and some I found were off by up to 50 feet. I know that consumer-grade GPS coordinates could be off by that amount, but maybe the plat maps are also off.

Like Holly, I began with our county GIS maps and aerial photographs, Google Earth, and imported them into Illustrator to give the county proposed placement of the house, driveway access, distances to property lines and resources (we're on a forestry deferral), and for my own landscaping design and barn/corral fence placement. (Ask me how fun this all is on a heavily forested property – thank goodness for Google Earth's historical views) However, Illustrator is professional design software with a very steep learning curve unless you are already experienced using it (I've used it for over 25 years in my design/illustration business). It is also expensive, so you probably wouldn't want to buy it just for this single purpose. You might do better using Photoshop, which is a bit more intuitive, although the drawing tools and layers have their own difficulties. The GIS maps included measurements for property lines and topographical markings (we're on a hillside, and this allowed me to show that our driveway met county restrictions). I also used their on-line measuring tools to give distances to property lines, since physically measuring would have meant rappelling into the ravine that marks one property edge. As is typical in my life, I presented the building department with a thorough, accurate rendering of our four acres with existing structures, driveway and road access, septic system, well, power lines, etc., etc., and they laughed and said they normally received chicken scratch drawings with no pretense of scale.

What I have to say applies to the US. I think all states now regulate the practice of boundary surveying. And minimum standards usually require that monuments set to show property corners be of permanent material. Wood stakes would not suffice. Often wood stakes are used as a guide to where there is a permanent marker, sometimes below the ground surface. Sadly, there are surveyors that produce a fraudulent survey. It's very easy and fast to set stakes at locations that are believable to land owners. The surveyor's failure to do the necessary work to find the true boundary lines often goes unquestioned for years. If the only corner markers were wood, there will be nothing left to prove the surveyor acted improperly. Anybody who has just paid for a survey would do well to look for a webpage for a state board for engineers and surveyors. Look for the regulations for the survey minimum standards.