Sustainable Land Development Today - May 2008 - (Page 41)

New & Improved! grin of the professional who tries to explain it to clients, or more often an effected third party who doesn’t understand why two surveyors’ stakes aren’t in identical positions, or why a new survey stake doesn’t match an old survey stake, or most commonly the individual’s expectations. It is quite possible for two competent surveyors to survey the same identical piece of property, using the same theory, and using identical equipment, and come up with different positions for the corners. In fact, it would be extremely unlikely that they would ever agree exactly. This is true more for large parcels of land than for city lots, but in degree only. This is not to say that the surveyor is incapable of properly surveying any tract of land. It is important, however, to understand that because of a number of factors, two surveys shouldn’t be expected to be precisely the same. For one thing, all surveyors are not alike. It should be understood that just like any other profession, there are good surveyors and bad surveyors, and the full gamut in between. Some use a high standard of care and some work carelessly. Some are experienced and some are less experienced. Some are familiar with the specific area and some are not. In addition, surveying is often judgmental in nature. In most instances, like land development projects, each survey is unique and has its own problems. A survey requires individual judgment to interpret legal descriptions and their intentions, consider evidence of past surveys and monumentation, and translate all that into a modern, reliable survey. Just like one doctor may say “leave it in” and the next may say “take it out,” the surveyor is often faced with paradoxical questions that have no definite answer, but must be dealt with using experience and good judgment to complete a survey. This leads to differing locations for property lines and boundaries. If cadastral (boundary) surveying was more akin to engineering disciplines, the problems would be fewer. Engineers (not to be confused with land surveyors) generally solve the problems by resorting to mathematical analysis. They can go look up a formula to determine the load bearing capacity of a beam, for instance. While the land surveyor must be very adroit m a t h e m a t i c a l l y, most situations do not lend themselves to fixed rules. In almost every boundary problem, the surveyor must usually make a judgment call. The intent of deed descriptions is often a matter of judgment as to the intentions of the grantor and grantee. People other than land surveyors have written many descriptions and surveyors are charged with the responsibility of locating those descriptions on the ground. The people who wrote those descriptions were not concerned with the plight of the land surveyor, and the result is that different interpretations result in differing ground positions. There are volumes of books written for the land surveyor advising him how to exercise judgment in specific instances, but any surveyor who has any amount of experience knows that there are many situations for which no rule has been set down and a judgmental determination must be made. Still the BEST, most COST EFFECTIVE, just BRIGHTER & SEXIER lifetime warranty New! ELIMINATES PRE-TREATMENT DEVICES! (DON’T LET THE BIG BOYS FOOL YOU) ﬁrst row of stormchambertm system inﬂow 50% Recycled Materials info@StormChambers.com www.StormChambers.com/SLD58 877.426.9128 Circle 103 • or www.SLDTonline.com/webcard www.SLDTonline.com 41 http://www.StormChambers.com/SLD58 http://www.StormChambers.com/SLD58 http://www.SLDTonline.com/webcard http://www.SLDTonline.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sustainable Land Development Today - May 2008

Sustainable Land Development Today - May 2008 Contents Our Voice Editorial Board SLDT Resources Addressing a Crisis with Wastewater Recycling Visionary Award Finalists The Jonquil City - How a City Revitalized its Downtown Industry Spotlight: Enviroquip Solar Power System Design and Installation Stormwater: The Return of the Cistern Site Amenity: Fiber Optics Surveying and Mapping Wastewater: Low-Pressure System Special Feature: The Urban Canopy as Infrastructure Industry News Advertiser Index Products/Services Showcase Classifieds The Last Word: Nature Bats Last…

Sustainable Land Development Today - May 2008

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