How Do You Find A Surveyor?

I wish I had a dollar for every time I was asked that question here.  Once upon a time, we would reply "Look in the yellow pages" but that response is somewhat dated nowadays.  We could say look online or Google is (which is one of my favorite phases).  Now we refer them to the California Land Surveyors Association website commonly know as CLSA.  You can search by zip code, by area of practice or by name.  The list is comprise of CLSA licensed members in private land surveying business.  The list will also indicate if they participate in the Professional Development Program.  This is currently a voluntary program but may become mandatory sometime in the future.  For us CLSA members that are in the public sector, our names would not be on this list but it is a great way to keep track of the seminars and workshops attended.  That's great that CLSA will keep this on record for us members.  One less thing for me to track!  Like it.

Here is CLSA's website:
http://www.californiasurveyors.org/index.asp

And a preview of the site:

On the right under "Member Login" you can click the Find A Surveyor to start a search. 

Fill out the form (of course)

And there you have it!

We are thankful for CLSA for providing this.

Cadastral Maps and County Grid Numbers

The County Cadastral maps will be on the County Surveyor's Website this month, probably about mid-month if all goes well.  These are digital files that you can open and save for your use.  The information on these maps were last updated about 1986-88.  At that time the County Surveyor's mapping program was discontinued by the County and the maps were left untouched.  So these are the mylar maps that were scanned into TIFF and PDF files.  The maps were on 26" x 36" mylars, made from the historical process of using overlays, Leroy lettering and hand drafted with inking pens such as  Rotring and by Koh-i-Noor. (historical drafting that predated CAD)  They are useful for determining the County Grid Number which is used for geographically indexing maps.  Our Planning and Land Development-Engineering (LDE) uses the County Grid Number in their files also.  So this is useful in doing research.

Here's some general information.

County Cadastral Map

Generally, cadastral maps are use to portray boundaries of tracts and subdivisions of lands within the County of Santa Clara.

A cadastral map is a map showing the boundaries of subdivisions of land.  It is based on bearings, lengths and areas of individual tracts, for purposes of describing and recording ownership.  Some areas on the cadastral map may also show topography, drainage, and other features relating to the value of the land and its uses.  The cadastral map number is the first number used in the series of three numbers for determining the County Grid Number.  For example: County Grid No. 67-37-70 where 67 is the Cadastral Map number.  See below for the rest of the County Grid Number. 

The Cadastral Map layer is comprised of the County Cadastral Maps series that cover the entire County of Santa Clara.  It contains 281 individual maps and numbered from west to east and from north to south.  Cadastral Map No. 1 is in the northwest area of Santa Clara County.

Each cadastral map covers approximately 150,000,000 ft sq..

County Grid Number (XY Grid Index)

Sometimes referred to as the xy grid, grid index, Santa Clara County Grid, County Grid Number.

Santa Clara County Coordinate System is a grid system comprised of x coordinates that run west to east and y coordinates that run south to north numerically. 

Each County Cadastral map has a grid as follows:

6 grids east and west (X-axis) that covers approximately 15,000 feet 

4 grids north and south (Y-axis) that covers approximately 10,000 feet 

They are based on California Coordinate System (CCS) but I'll go into that on another Blog....

Here's a sample of a Cadastral Map No. 67
From the example above, for our office which is located in County Grid No. 67-37-70 means Cadastral map number, 37 is the x-value and 70 is the y-value.

GIS Quick Link - County Surveyor Website

Yeah!

We have added a Quick Link to our website that will take you directly to our County GIS website.


Easy steps to follow:

 1- go to the County Surveyor website


www.sccgov.org/sccsurveyor/

 2- look on the right hand side for Quick Link

 3- double click on the last item " Santa Clara County GIS"

You can navigate around and see the tools and views.

Here's a couple of screen shots to get you interested.

Soon you will see additional layers such as the County Cadastral Maps.  So why is that significant?  Right now, this is how you can determine the County Grid Number for an area.  And with that, you can use it and the Excel spreadsheets (Record Maps and Corner Records) to find maps and Corner Records in your area of interest.

Now for the real good news, we are developing a GIS layer so you can search for record maps and Corner Records.

TTFN - stayed tuned!

Thanks for all you patience.

Please post a comment and let us know how we are doing.

Gwen

Lower fee for Record of Survey maps

Yes, you read that right.  Starting August 21, 2012, the map check fee for Record of Survey maps has been reduced from $600 to $586 and will become billable.  Billable means that:

"When staff time exceeds the amount paid ($586 fee), the owner/applicant will be required to pay additional fees to cover the cost of staff time to complete the service."

Also, the Surveyor's hourly billable rate for  for FY 2012 was reduced from $164 to $133 per hour.

For the complete list of fees for our department see Board Resolution 2012-371.
For the hearing see Board Of Supervisors Full Agenda date June 19, 2012 (page 153 of 3416)

Hope that is some good news for FY2013.

We look forward to seeing your R/S maps.

Monument Preservation

FYI

For monumentation preservation issues:

(i.e. monuments being paved over or destroyed by municipal project, contractors, etc.)

Contact:

Larry Kereszt

Larry.kereszt@dca.ca.gov

916-263-2240

Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists (BPELSG)

Department of Consumer Affairs

Sacramento, CA

http://www.bpelsg.ca.gov

Benchmarks aka Vertical Control by SCVWD

Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) has done a great job in revamping their website for benchmarks, aka vertical control.  Check it out.  It is really cool.
Good cudo's to our fellow land surveyors at SCVWD !!!

http://arcview.valleywater.org/benchmarks/mobile.html


Gwen

Congratulations to the new licensed land surveyors in California !!!!!

Well I don't know exactly who you all are but I do know that the statistics are out (meaning the pass/fail stat's are out)  You can view these statistics at:

http://www.pels.ca.gov/applicants/ap12stats.shtml

Welcome the 91 people who made it!

It is an accomplishment that marks a significant point in your land surveying (geomatics) career.  And we look forward to those new LS numbers on items submitted to our office.

In Motion (Map Research)

Currently in motion is progress towards getting our map researching online.  Yes, you read that correctly.  We have been working with our ISD (Information Systems Dept.) doing the behind the scenes work to create a geographical searching tool that will be available online.  It's like putting the pieces to a puzzle together to bring it "live" online.  We have the "pieces" and ISD will put the puzzle together.  So far, we see that there will be a time consuming task of data entry for the maps that are indexed on the County Cadastral maps, which pre-dates the current database.  And efforts are being made to move our current database to a more "user-friendly" database that is more widely supported.  So hang in there....we're in motion.

www.sccgov.org/sccsurveyor

Hi everybody,

Well as changes occur, we had an update to our website software and as a result the link above doesn't quite take you to to our County Surveyor website, BUT it is close...    Most likely it will take you to the County of Santa Clara - Development Services Office web page, so go ahead a click on that link.  Then  you will see on the left side of the page the "County Surveyor".  Follow the County Surveyor link and it will bring you back to the Office of the County Surveyor.  Voila, you are now at our website.

If you would like a more direct (quicker way) to find us, use the link below and bookmark us.

http://www.sccgov.org/sites/dso/County%20Surveyor/Pages/Office-of-County-Surveyor.aspx

The link in the title will be fixed, as I'm told, but I don't know when.

Have a lucky day.

Gwen

New Website

Hi All,

It's been awhile since I did a new post.  We have a new website look.  Externally it will look similar but on the inside we changed website program software which should enable us to update and maintain our site much easier.  The link www.sccgov.org/sccsurveyor should still work fine.   We hope to put the Corner Records on our website as soon as the launch is complete.  Next?  Hopefully electronic submission of Corner Records.  Stay tuned.

Gwen

Public Assistance hours (aka "counter hours")

Greetings!

Starting on March 5, 2012 we will have Public Assistance counter hours as follows:

Monday          8 am - 11 am

Tuesday         8 am - 11 am and 1 pm - 4 pm

Wednesday    8 am - 11 am

Thursday        1 pm -  4 pm

Friday             Closed

Appointments are welcomed, please call 408-299-5728 to request an appointment.

We will continue to answer phone calls during regular business hours on regular working days 7:30 am to 4 pm, Monday through Friday.

Free 1 hour parking is still available in the parking lot at southeast corner of Hedding and San Pedro Streets.

This is in an effort to help our small but mighty staff be more efficient in customer service and still be effective in maintaining our County Surveyor functions.

If you have comments or suggestions, please email them to county.surveyor@pln.sccgov.org

Thank you in advance for your patience.

Visit our website at www.sccgov.org/sccsurveyor