Description of a Circle?

I never have, but your format sounds good to me. Might you monument that easement? If so, would you put some points on the perimeter? even then, you could probaby call from the center point a distance (500') and a direction to each monument.

I probably write the calls to the edge of circle, IE " Thence N 45° W 263.97 feet to a 5/8" X 30" steel rebar set at the the edge of a 50 foot radius circle; Thence continuing N 45° W 50.00 feet to a 5/8" X 30" steel rebar set at the radius point of said 50 foot radius circle, said rebar being the terminus point of this description. I would probably also add a reference from the radius point to another monument as close to a 90° angle to the previous call as was practical. Probably rewrite it several times to get it where I would be comfortable with it, I seldom write such things only once.
jud

Thanks for the reply. The center of this easement is an existing tower and therefore I can't monument the center of the description, but I really don't need to because I'm calling for the center of the tower to be the center of the easement. I thought about monumenting the extents of the circle at each quadrant but the surrounding land is farm land and no monument will last unless I set them 2-3 feet below grade. That ain't gonna happen. The tower structure isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and the easement is dependent upon the tower, so if the tower gets taken down, there's no need for the easement. That's my understanding at least. So I think any surveyor could simply recreate the circle based on the center of the tower which is very easy to ascertain. Also I'm tying the center of easement to several monuments in the section but the tower is controlling so I plan on listing the lat/long in the description as well even though I don't like doing that (nobody ever agrees on that stuff).

Thanks for the advice.

> I'm trying to write a legal description for an easement that is simply a 500' diameter circle. I thought this would be pretty easy but I'm finding myself scratching my head now. I'd really like write this description about a center point which would mean I would only have to describe it from the poc to the center, then simply list the circular arc data (radius, circumference, area). Has anyone ever written a description this way? Thanks.

Sure, it's quite common to describe sanitary control easements around water wells as circles of a specified diameter. For example:

>A DESCRIPTION OF A CIRCULAR-SHAPED PARCEL OF LAND 300 (THREE HUNDRED) FEET IN DIAMETER, SITUATED IN THE MODESTY BLAISE SURVEY NO. 5, ABSTRACT 21, IN VITTI COUNTY, TEXAS, BEING A PART OF THAT CERTAIN 30.00 ACRE TRACT OF LAND CONVEYED BY JACK H. AQUA AND WIFE, RENATA AQUA, TO BONITO CONSOLIDATED INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, BY SPECIAL WARRANTY DEED DATED JUNE 30, 1984 RECORDED IN VOLUME 254 AT PAGE 983 OF THE VITTI COUNTY OFFICIAL PUBLIC RECORDS;

>SAID 300 FOOT DIAMETER PARCEL BEING ALL OF GRANTOR’S LAND WITHIN A DISTANCE OF 150.00 FEET FROM THE CENTER OF A CERTAIN EXISTING WATER WELL CASING PRESENTLY IN PLACE UPON SAID 30.00 ACRE TRACT,

>THE LOCATION OF SAID WELL CASING BEING MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS FROM THE RESULTS OF A SURVEY PERFORMED UPON THE GROUND, COMPLETED JANUARY 19, 2005, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF KENT NEAL MCMILLAN, REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR:

[Then follow with ties connecting the boundary of the parent tract with the center of the circle. For extra credit, give accurate State Plane coordinates of both the center of the circle and the boundary monuments to which the ties recited connect it.]

Assuming it is connecting to some predescribed line, route, or alignment, just describe the intial intersection point as the POB, then write your legal accordingly. If it's just floating in space, how do they get to it?

Even if it is tangent, I'd state that and include a call to the radius point.

Another way is graphically and not metes & bounds. Show everything on your record of survey and your legal would just reference the recorded survey.

Beginning at: xyz monument set at center of a circular tract of land with a radius of 500.00 feet - give references from a parent tract corner to the center of your circle (set a monument there) and give references from the center of the circle to several (4 or more) points on the circle where you have set reference monuments.

That is how I styled a two acre tract cut out of a larger place. The guy was building one of those circular modular homes and it seemed practical at the time.

We write them ever so often, all city waterwells require a 150' esmt. around them. If the esmt is all in one property I will commence at some point on the track and then describe the radius point as being the well and give it some spc's and radius of the circle. If it crosses property lines I will describe the portion on the esmt on each tract and just treat it like a nontangent curve segment.

A lot of good advice on writing the description already, but I would say that the tower itself makes a pretty good monument as long as it stands.
If monuments along the circle aren't likely to survive, ties to more distant property corners or other monuments might work. And, coords always help. (Lat & Long are usually required for our cell tower locations)

How does this differ from a description of an easement of 2X total width, being X width on either side of the centerline of a pipeline as is presently in place crossing the south half of the south half of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of......??

> How does this differ from a description of an easement of 2X total width, being X width on either side of the centerline of a pipeline as is presently in place crossing the south half of the south half of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of......??

Not sure what you're getting at...

i wrote some descriptions around cul-de-sacs on unplatted property a couple of months back and didn't want to leave it up to a pc/pob, pt, and rp which i conjectured wouldn't last long on the ground, therefore i gave passing calls to monuments set @ 90° to the rp on each side and to a monument set at the intersection of the cul-de-sac r-o-w with the projected centerline, which was a tangent and not a curve, thank goodness.

it just seemed like the thing to do in order for the next surveyor find some footsteps.

Merely identify the center of the easement as being the center of the tower. Identify the tower by name, ownership, whatever. No different than a pipeline or railroad.

Description of a Circle Is Easy?

Description of a circular easement is not.

I would recommend you have a Point Of Commencement from a marked property corner, with a tie course or courses to the center point. Where a tie course crosses the circumference monument it. Your description should read from the P.O.C. to the Circumference Point to the Radius point and back to the Circumference Point, now the P.O.B. of the description; thence around the circumference on a curve to the left or right, your preference, for 360° delta, a radius and an arc length. (No tangent or chord information required.) If the radius point is not occupiable, the circumference should be defined by 3 monuments along arcs of more than 90°, they should be occupiable and intervisible. As an option you could define that as 3 arcs.

A simpler description is only acceptable for a small radius that can be measured with a short tape from a accessable monument.

Paul in PA

Description of a Circle Is Easy?

Paul, you're such a sage. Good advice.

I'd think tops of rods 1 ft down would be reasonably safe from farming operations.

Description of a Circle Is Easy?

> I would recommend you have a Point Of Commencement from a marked property corner, with a tie course or courses to the center point. Where a tie course crosses the circumference monument it. Your description should read from the P.O.C. to the Circumference Point to the Radius point and back to the Circumference Point, now the P.O.B. of the description; thence around the circumference on a curve to the left or right, your preference, for 360° delta, a radius and an arc length. (No tangent or chord information required.) If the radius point is not occupiable, the circumference should be defined by 3 monuments along arcs of more than 90°, they should be occupiable and intervisible. As an option you could define that as 3 arcs.

That's really poor advice. If the intention is to center a circular tract on a well casing or a cell tower, the other monuments supposedly on the perimeter of the circular boundary simply muddy things. The best practice it to describe the center point of the circular parcel in a way that is completely unambiguous and readily locatable by standard surveying methods and to simply assume that any surveyor will be able to measure 150 ft. or 250 ft. from it (or whatever) to locate the parcel. 300 ft. tapes are not some exotic thing.

> Merely identify the center of the easement as being the center of the tower. Identify the tower by name, ownership, whatever. No different than a pipeline or railroad.

I see what you mean, still, I would want to be able to reconstruct the location of the easement in the field by some method if the structure was somehow lost. We have a lot of power line easements that have metes & bounds, but would be nearly impossible to monument.

Kent ?

Measuring 300' is not the problem, swinging a 300' circle is, even without terrain variations and vegetation.

If the radius point is occupiable there is no need for 3 points on the circle. If it is not occupiable 3 points are required to define the circle.

BTW, the topic of this thread is a 500' circle. Next time please read everything twice before commenting. Copying something into a post is not comprehending, it is simply copying.

Paul in PA

In this case, if the tower ceases to exist, so does the easement.