Map, plat, and, plan...
I am interested in the meaning of these terms and how they apply to surveying. How they apply to the result and presentation of the opinion or determination of a properly executed survey. Simply, what is it called when the results of a survey are made record?
Where I am most surveys are recorded with the title ??Plan of Land? and I??m uncomfortable using those terms. It doesn??t define the purpose of the record really. I would prefer map. My surveys use the title ??Map of the Survey? because it shows the findings and determinations that are the result of a survey.
The term ??plan? is suitable for construction documents that instruct and illustrate the building of bridges or roads, and, a survey is made to produce the plan. Unless there is a future purpose that needs to be illustrated the term ??plan? does not seem appropriate.
One explanation came to me that a map is drawn at a small scale, and, a plan is drawn at a large scale. This means that a drawing of the county would be a map, and, a drawing of a parcel of land would be a plan. I would not differentiate, and, would say that word choices should be left to the individual. I also do not agree with the small scale versus large scale explanation.
Searching for a definition of the term ??plat? yielded ??to plan out or make a map of???, so it seems the terms are synonymous, and, may be interchangeable. However, if I am not planning to do anything with the land except to show its geographical location, features, and boundaries then I would much prefer to call the results and conclusions a map.
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Historic boundaries and conservation efforts.
"Plan" as in "plan view":?ÿ the view from above, as opposed to a profile or elevation view.?ÿ We don't see the title much in California (or at least my part of it); "survey" (e.g., Record of Survey, topographic survey, boundary survey) or "exhibit" (e.g., boundary exhibit, encroachment exhibit, easement exhibit) are much more common.
All those are engineering and architect words to me.
I produce drawings of boundary surveys.
My title blocks start with:?ÿ "Map of a Survey..."
Licensed Land Surveyor
Finger Lakes Region, Upstate New York
A "plat" is existing conditions.
A "plan" is an engineering drawing, to change, or modify existing conditions, to another existing condition, that is not yet constructed.
A "map" is what you buy at the gas station, so you can go on vacation.
The idea that we are even discussing this, is evidence that we ALL need more vacations!
😉
Coffee?
A "Plat" is whatever you, any local custom, or local ordinances define it as; on the other hand a "Plan" is whatever you, any local custom, or local ordinances define it as; to add even more confusion, a "Map" is whatever you, any local custom, or local ordinances define it as.?ÿ
Easy peasy
Map- What you use to find the site you intend to survey. (road/street map)
Plat- What you produce after your survey.
Plan- What the Architect or Engineer produces to show what they want the site to become.
If the "Plan" is only two-dimensional, it's a "Plane".?ÿ If it's a Plan the eventually gets authorized and and built, it is a combination of a plat and plan, and is called "Plant".?ÿ (I hope that helps)
Ha Ha... "Plan" is future tense, "Plant" is growing and changing stage and receives revisions, and "Plat" is past tense.
The bottom line answer is what Jim Fleming said.?ÿ If it's defined by law or statute, it doesn't really matter what the technical definition is.
As I was reading the OP, I was thinking much the same thing that I saw Nate wrote as I scrolled down.
A plan is a graphic rendition of something to be built, constructed, or physically established.?ÿ Except in those states where a licensed surveyor is authorized to do grading design or gravity flow pipe design, we don't create plans (unless statute, ordinance, or long standing local custom has misappropriated the term to apply to a survey drawing).
Use of the term 'plan' in the context of a drawing depicting the results of a boundary survey, IMO, can and likely has contributed to the misunderstanding of many surveyors and engineers as to what their duty is when surveying an existing boundary.
A plan is used as a guide to make conditions conform to the plan as nearly as possible upon completion of the work.
A survey drawing, and I'll include the terms plat and map here, is the culmination of the opposite process.?ÿ The surveyor goes to the field and determines the existing conditions, including the locations where those conditions show the boundary to have been originally established, and then creates the drawing to reflect those findings.
When someone approaches that job with an engineering mindset, the previous record map or the deed description is improperly used as a plan that controls what the existing conditions are supposed to be, and when they find conditions to vary from the plan, they either call them out of place or completely ignore their existence and proceed to establish anew an already established boundary in a location where it never existed, but in a location that more accurately reflects the "plan" they approached the job with.
Where I began my survey career, you could get county-by-county "Plat Books" that were essentially a bound set of Assessor's Parcel Maps.?ÿ A "plat" was an APM, not a survey drawing.?ÿ As I started working in different regions, and also as often referred to in common survey text books, "plat" almost always means some manner of survey drawing.?ÿ In some locations, I've seen the common use referring only to subdivision maps.?ÿ In most locations, it usually refers to any survey drawing depicting land boundaries.
I tend to think of a map as a drawing that depicts conditions over a large area and being a thing that is useful for land navigation.?ÿ This category, as I think of it, contains drawings from simple road maps to very detailed maps showing a wide variety of existing features and conditions, such as a Quad Map.?ÿ I also use the term when referring to most any type of survey drawing as those are also depictions of existing conditions.
But if statute, local ordinance, or long-used local custom as created by uninformed politicians as guided by narrow minded engineers says that the proper title fro a drawing depicting existing land boundaries is a "Plan of Land", then that's what it is and what it remains until someone with greater sense is able to officially change it.