Florida Platting Questions

I don't know about Florida requirements, but I think it would be prudent to at least stamp a "WC" on the monument....

WC or W.C., I prefer WC   

The monument should be stamped with it, and it should be identified on the plat. However, I've not seen a requirement that forces the surveyor to do it. I'm getting jaded by "requirements", this would push my tolerance. I always stamp them and record them, but I draw a line at requiring it be done and especially stamping witness.  

@notsomuch 

I found:

5J-17.052 Standards of Practice – Boundary Survey Requirements.

7. When conditions require setting a monument on an offset, whenever possible, the location should be selected so the
monument lies on a boundary line.
(c) All monuments, found or placed, must be described on the survey map. The corner descriptions shall state the size, material,
and cap identification of the monument as well as whether the monument was found or set. Offset monuments shall be noted as such
on the survey map along with the offset distance to the true corner. Building corners are acceptable as monuments so long as use of
the building corners as monumentation is clearly noted on the map.

I didn't find any requirement for stamping "witness" on the cap. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. In the interest of the property owner, I think "witness" should be stamped on the cap.

Concerning

Posted by: @field-dog

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2. Is it a requirement to monument the intersection point of a plat boundary and a 1/4-1/4 section line? I did another plat check yesterday and both intersection points were monumented. One of the points was actually a 1/4-1/4 corner.

I found:

The 2026 Florida Statutes
Chapter 177
LAND BOUNDARIES

177.091 Plats made for recording.—Every plat of a subdivision offered for recording shall conform to the following:

(14) All section lines and quarter section lines occurring within the subdivision shall be indicated by lines drawn upon the map or plat, with appropriate words and figures.

There is no mention of setting monuments at intersection points. Please correct me if I'm wrong. The statute refers to quarter section lines. I'm referring to 1/4-1/4 section lines. I asked Google "Public Land Survey System, can a quarter-quarter section line also be a quarter section line?" The answer was:

No, a quarter-quarter section line cannot also be a quarter section line, because they divide a section at two completely different hierarchical levels.

Quarter Section Line: This line splits a full 640-acre section into four large 160-acre squares (northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast quarters).

Quarter-Quarter Section Line: This line splits a quarter section even further into smaller 40-acre squares (often called forty-acre tracts).

Why They Cannot Be the Same Line

Different Scales: A quarter section line runs halfway across a one-mile section (passing through the center point of the section). A quarter-quarter section line only runs halfway across a quarter section (covering a quarter of that distance).

I'm trying to visualize going to the board and complaining about a surveyor not stamping witness on a monument. 

"You didn't signal 100' before turning"

A witness corner is only valid for direction of a line.  It may be used in conjunction with other monuments to determine the true location of the "missing" corner.

I probably made a mistake about 25-30 years ago by setting two witness corners at a distance of only one foot from the true subdivision corner.  The true corner fell at the approximate center of a tree of perhaps 8 inches diameter.  The bars were thus about 8 inches from the bark.  I bet the bars are being imbedded into the tree trunk already.

I want to draw a distinction here between what a surveyor does and what a surveyor says. State Boards, through the authority conferred by the state legislature, have the power to regulate what a surveyor does. However, a boundary survey (excluding a subdivision plat) is a graphical representation of a surveyor’s professional opinion regarding property boundaries—it is what they say.

While recording laws may dictate the size, margins, medium, or recording fee, regulating the specific content a surveyor chooses to express would violate the constitutional right to free speech. That principle applies to State Boards as well.

A State Board can recommend including a north arrow on a drawing, but it cannot command a surveyor to do so.

Posted by: @holy-cow

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A witness corner is only valid for direction of a line.

How can 1 corner determine the direction of a line?

Posted by: @holy-cow

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It may be used in conjunction with other monuments to determine the true location of the "missing" corner.

I like "true location" better. An example I always refer to is a case where the "missing" corner, as you describe it, fell in a concrete light pole. A surveyor had set 2 concrete monuments with large brass discs stamped "witness" at distances of 5', one each along the intersecting property lines.

The primary utility of a witness bar correctly set along a boundary is to allow visual or instrumental verification of where the boundary runs to/from another property corner.  Building setbacks can be determined and fences be constructed.

You're in a PLSS state, use the manual to guide you to determine how to stamp monuments. Even a WC that isn't along a sectional line probably defines property in the sectional system by tying to the PLSS. So just stamp them with those examples from the manual here are couple:

Normally we will add the PLS# and a dimension to the corner but the dimension isn't required. But you shouldn't stamp witness, I don't know where you'd even get lower case letters. 

As far as question #2, that would be so over the top, I can't imagine anyone crafting a requirement like it. Don't give them ideas. 

I never liked the term 'witness corner'. Something like 'line marker' would be better. Until 1940, surveyors in my area still marked 'witness trees' to preserve corner locations. These witness trees were not online. I did this myself in a few locations. A cotton spindle was placed in the side of a tree at its base, and its distance and bearing from the corner were calculated and noted on the plat. I found this to be useful where the corner was inaccessible or was in danger of being disturbed.

In the PLSS Witness Corners are online corners, depending on the type of corner they witness they may be an angle in the Section line or the record distance will be extended to the corner passing over the WC. Offline trees marking a corner are called bearing trees. Normally they are accessories and don't mark a vacant monument. In later surveys the BLM will call offline monuments Reference Monuments. Often those will be set for corners falling in pavement with some type of iron set in the pavement. Whatever they are called, I don't see a reason to put into codes or laws the nomenclature of stamping. Backing off on all that stuff is a much better use of regulators time. 

@holy-cow it probably looks like this one now.