DOT Exemption from subdivision regs

Now now... Why should we exempt you?

I think you should monument all points. Supply all metadata. And send the bill to the state.

Har har har

Now, get out of here!

(With a grin)

Nate

@nate-the-surveyor

Just doin' my job, man. Be careful or I won't send any smoked salmon ever again!

I guess I'm a little overdue though

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Not to be a Negative Nellie, but why should ANY surveying be exempted from the norm??ÿ What is so restrictive about the norm that certain survey functions should be excluded??ÿ Just asking.?ÿ Don't have a dog in the fight.

Montana- MCA 2019 76-3-209?ÿ

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@holy-cow

I didn’t see it exempting from survey requirements- just subdivision regulations- I know- most survey requirements are based on the subdivision regs- but you can keep components of the survey requirements without all the other review criteria and fee BS. 

@itsme_rankin

Thanks, Rankin

All public agencies and districts in the the WA-ID cities and counties I work in are exempt from the subdivision process.?ÿ It's very common.

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@richard-germiller

You might want to pm @linebender- he could provide info on the status in Iowa- I believe they survey every parcel acquired, but Iƒ??m not sure of the subdivision regs involved there. There needs to be a balance between requiring enough survey, documentation, and monument perpetuation, without the local bureaucracy getting involved, especially if they are just trying to use it as a revenue source...

When there are no monuments set on the ground, it is a paper survey.

Without pictures, it never happened.

How are you going to explain that to taxpayers?

I was only asked to research the possibility that there may already be such state statutes, and thought some members of this board would be able to offer some guidance since we were constrained on time.

Nobody here @ AKDOT&PF is trying to circumvent surveying standards and procedures. Currently even with a subdivision plat being recorded, a deed is also recorded and, in some cases, monuments set.

I believe in our area state agencies are exempt from fees, but the actual regulations serve a purpose, such as notice of planning, filing for the record, and not interfering with already accepted planning. New highway construction is even including stormwater detention facilities and wetlands mitigation.

In my opinion DOTs and DEP/NCRs do too much already without proper oversight.

Paul in PA

Why would the DOT need an exemption? Are they going into the Land Development business or is this for borrow pits, retention ponds, additional R/W etc? ?????ÿ

I can see why they want you to get examples from western states:

There are counties and at least one entire state that require any sale of land in an Ag zone to be not less than 160 Acres or come under subdivision regulations. And of course you can't do a subdivision in an Ag zone unless you first get it re-zoned, sooooooooo, then you get lots of exemptions, for example, cemeteries, mortgage deeds, family exemptions, railroads, utilities and DOT.

Here is one example from Wyoming.

This doesn't mean you can sidestep setting corners or filing proper deeds, it means you can sale a parcel smaller than the minimum, you don't need to construct paved roads utilities, sidewalks for a family cemetery, mortage deed, family sale, ectƒ??ƒ??..

The DOT, railroad, utility can buy a strip of land or a few acres for a substation and so on.

18-5-303. Exemptions from provisions.

(a) Unless the method of sale or other disposition is adopted for the purpose of evading the provisions of this article, this article shall not apply to the following subdivisions of land however, the following subdivisions are subject to requirements which may be adopted by the board of county commissioners regarding documentation of the proper use and implementation of the following exemptions:

(i) A division of land made outside of platted subdivisions for the purpose of a single gift or sale to a member of the landowner's immediate family, subject to the following requirements:

(A) A member of the immediate family is limited to any person who is a natural or adopted child, stepchild, spouse, sibling, grandchild, grandparent or parent of the landowner;

(B) The purpose of the division is to provide for the housing, business or agricultural needs of the grantee;

(C) The land shall have been titled in the name of the grantor for a period of not less than five (5) years prior to the division and parcels created under this paragraph shall be titled in the name of the immediate family member for whom the division is made for a period of not less than one (1) year unless such parcels are subject to involuntary transfer including, but not limited to, foreclosure, death, judicial sale, condemnation or bankruptcy;

(D) No parcel smaller than five (5) acres created under this paragraph shall be further divided unless the owner obtains a subdivision permit pursuant to W.S. 18-5-304;

(E) Where the landowner is a corporation and eighty percent (80%) of the shares are held by individuals related by blood or marriage, the sale or gift may be made subject to the provisions of this section to an immediate family member of any shareholder who has owned at least five percent (5%) of the outstanding shares for at least five (5) years continuously before the date of the sale or gift.

(ii) A division which may be created by any court of this state pursuant to the law of eminent domain, by operation of law or by order of any court in this state;

(iii) A division which is created by a lien, mortgage, deed of trust or any other security instrument, easements and rights-of-way;

(iv) Lands located within incorporated cities or towns;

(v) A division which is created by the sale or other disposition of land to the state of Wyoming or any political subdivision thereof;

(vi) A division which affects railroad rights-of-way;

(vii) A division which is a sale or other disposition of land for agricultural purposes or affects the alignment of property lines for agricultural purposes;

(viii) A division which is created by boundary line adjustments where the parcel subject of the sale or other disposition is adjacent to and merged with other land owned by the grantee;

(ix) A division which creates cemetery lots;

(x) A division which is created by the acquisition of an interest in land in the name of the husband and wife or other persons in joint tenancy or as tenants in common, and the interest shall be deemed for purposes of this subsection as only one (1) interest;

(xi) A division of land creating a parcel five (5) acres or less for the purpose of establishing unmanned communication facilities, compressor stations, metering stations, fiber optic booster stations or similar unmanned facilities;

(xii) A division which creates a cluster development pursuant to and in accordance with article 4 of this chapter;

(xiii) The sale or disposition of separate parcels of land that were separate when lawfully created or conveyed and which have not been combined by a recorded instrument of conveyance signed by all of the owners.

(b) Except as provided in W.S. 18-5-316, this article shall not apply to the sale or other disposition of land where the parcels involved are thirty-five (35) acres or larger, subject to the requirement that ingress and egress and utility easements shall be provided to each parcel by binding and recordable easements of not less than forty (40) feet in width to a public road unless specifically waived by the grantee or transferee in a binding and recordable document

5.?ÿ Governmental agencies shall not be required to survey a remaining parcel when land is divided for right-of-way purposes and shall not be required to contact the auditor for approval of parcel designations shown on an acquisition plat.

@flga

Good question.?ÿ A typical scenario we see often is a city or district that wants to create a parcel of land for a new water tank or borrow pit or something along those lines.?ÿ I've never actually heard of a DOT using this exemption but I could envision a scenario.?ÿ Of course under any of those scenarios we still need to conduct a survey and prepare the proper deeds.?ÿ The part we don't have to deal with is the actual subdivision process and that saves a ton of time and $.?ÿ?ÿ

Also, keep in mind that it does not exempt them from the zoning rules, just the actual subdivision process.

@itsme_rankin

For the most part DOT is already exempt from subdivision regulations, except for the surveying and monumenting parts. They also have much longer than everyone else to record the plats. 

In Alaska the state is in the subdivision business, sometimes in what counts as urban areas in Alaska. I haven't read the proposed legislation, but it sounds like the state doesn't want to follow the rules and vision for development that the locals have come up with. 

DOT being exempted just passes the cost on to land owners who can't use a DOT plat with calculated positions to determine where their boundaries are after DOT takes part of their property by eminent domain (or threat of eminent domain). 

I guess if DOT doesn't monument their ROWs anymore we won't have to argue about whether the monuments or the theoretical width holds anymore.

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The California State Agencies I have worked for have always considered themselves exempt from the Subdivision Map Act.?ÿ I don't know of any section explicitly saying this, I just thought it was typical State exempting ourselves from our laws 😉

@aliquot

Typically the DOT reasoning is that we don't survey private property lines, only the R/W lines with approximate ties to the "land-net."