The Surveying and Mapping Society of Georgia, the Clerks of Court association, the association of county commissioners and maybe others worked hard to revise plat recording laws/rules about 10 years ago to make things more standardized. The biggest change was that Retracement Surveys that don't change property lines or create new parcels are allowed to be recorded without being subjected to review and approval by a county government. I've noticed that a few surveyors still take Retracement plats by the county to have the approval stamp placed. A result of doing that has been, at least in one county, that they think they still have authority over all plats. Sure, the clerks will record them without approval, as they should. When it comes to getting any kind of building permit, etc. they could refuse to issue until forced to. I've had code enforcement try to tell me I couldn't record without their approval and must put some BS notes on the plat before they would. I politely informed them that they had no authority over retracements. After recording I emailed a PDF of the plat with the recording info. Please, if you're getting approvals for Retracement Surveys... STOP. It's undermining a lot of hard work.
Me. "What's the difference?"
T.C. Carroll "It's the difference between right and wrong!"
Similar junk happens in Kentucky.
Several county planning commissions seem to think they are in charge of anything that is a survey. I have several times had to argue with them over both retracement surveys and agricultural divisions of property. Neither of those items are under their authority. They are limited to subdivisions either as defined in state statute or further defined in local ordinance (basic difference being is subdivision three or more tracts (state) or any division (some local planning units)).
There was a Ky Supreme Court case over agricultural divisions- which are specifically exempted from subdivision regulations. Yet we still have county planning commissions trying to force those through their office to 'approve' that they do not require approval from the planning commission.
There are some surveyors out there educating the commissions, but those who just comply because it is easier sure make it more difficult to simply follow the written laws. Once one surveyor starts letting the planning commission force them to bring everything through their office, that bolsters their boldness in ignoring the laws in place.
There are the review processes that are created by the State Survey Society and given to the State Legislature to adopt as the State Minimum Standards for Boundary Surveying.
Then there are the wide variety of other reviews that are not created by the State Survey Society, but, are created by other entities that deem themselves superior to licensed boundary surveyors in order to address matters they believe they are uniquely suited to rule over. These include elected city/county officials and their various appointed bureaucrats. Do not confuse these two very different reviews.
The second form of review is to ensure that the "POWERS THAT BE" can find proof on the plat that THEIR domain is being fully and correctly addressed. This is the planners function, not that of the land surveyor. The surveyor's role is to show how the matter has been addressed by others, planners, engineers, bureaucrats, etc.
The first form of review is to ensure that the document created is not a giant ball of dumpster garbage, slapped together by those at the bottom of the ladder but billed out at professional rates. Examples are numrous. Let's say the survey drawing shows labels for the tract as it is located in Glenwood Subdivision or Section 12 but the description says Thuillez Addition or Section 19. Another case is finding three out of six boundary calls are wrong. That is, wrong because the wording of the call in the description differs from that on the drawing. The line is shown running five degrees to the west of north but the words in the description say that line is running five degrees to the east of north. Once is a typo. Three different times is a lack of knowledge.
The similar issue I deal with every so often, due to high turnover at local planning department, is when they try to require me to rewrite an aliquot or Lot & Block description as a metes & bounds description in an Owner's Certificate on a subdivision plat and require me to label the "Initial Point" (local planner's term for POB). They have a review checklist that tells them to ensure that the dimensions in the description match those on the map and that the "Initial Point" is identified.
Most surveyors have complied, even when they know they shouldn't, for expediency. I'm more stubborn and have been successful in not polluting the title record with an altered description(mostly) successful with not labeling a non-existent POB. There was one time that the dip at the planning department conceded the description part of the argument but wouldn't budge on the "Initial Point" labelling even though there was no initial point. It took less time to create a block in the shape of the State with lines indicating the approximate locations of the meridian and base line. I included that block with a note that "Initial Point lies approximately 365 miles south and 11 miles East of project site."
That appeared to satisfy the planner.