We made a survey of an existing boundary on some property that was more than 10 acres in size. After the survey was complete and monumented a map of the survey was recorded.
The client just called and told me that the city is asking for a "certified plot plan" to show the site and setback dimensions for a new house they are planning. This annoys me to no end. Does the city expect our client will violate their miniscule setback requirements on a 10 acre parcel?
Couldn't the city send one of their hourly employees to look at this huge flat and vacant parcel and make a determination that a 30' x 40' house would fit there?
The client managed to have their septic system approved, and that shows the house they are planning. So I will be using that as a templete to make their completely unnecessary "plot plan" at no charge to the client because it just annoys me so much that the totally incompetent city employees cannot make a decision without somebody else to take resposibility.
Does the city expect our client will violate their miniscule setback requirements on a 10 acre parcel?
Well, I guess it's not outside the realm of possibility. Just because they have 10 acres doesn't mean they won't try to stick it 2 feet from a line.
I think the more absurd thing is that they think the surveyor has any control over where the owner or contractor places the building.
Be sure and use language on the plot plan that absolves you of any responsibility for the final build location.
I think the most absurd thing is that you are doing this for free. You are providing a service to your client. A service that the client needs. You have no control over why they need it. It's not your fault, no more than somebody catching a disease is the doctor's fault. You should be getting paid for the service you provide. I sure would.
A lot of what I do here in NJ is residential construction. There is not a town in NJ that I have worked in that does not require a plot plan for new construction, complete with drainage design. If a septic system is involved, test pits or soil borings have to be witnessed by the county department of health and the system designed by a PE and submitted to the health department for review and approval. After everything is built, a final as-built plan has to be submitted to the local zoning authorities for approval before a CO can be issued.
Every step of the process requires application fees and escrow fees for approval, regardless of the size of the lot.
regardless of the size of the lot.
You want to put a 40' wide house on a 50' lot with 5' setback from the line and minimum 15' from another house (I have seen this)? Ok, plot plan makes sense. Show me you thought this out.
But, yes, a person can put a house over the line with 10 acres, but a drawing won't fix the problem.
AND...hand sketching it on the survey would work in quite a lot of jurisdictions. It just needs to be to scale.
resolves you of any responsibility
Did you mean "...revolves you..."
***absolves?
When it matters, I recommend setting marks for the excavator, setting marks in the excavation for a footing , and setting marks on the footing for a foundation. A final record of the foundation may be necessary if required.
I don't think it matters in this case. I've argued before and persuaded the town officials to think of how totally unnecessary this is to be required for all situations. The boundary was marked. I don't think there is anything left do do except maybe teach the city how to use a ruler.
You are putting the cart before the horse when it comes to setting "marks". The local zoning officials do not just come up with these requirements and the only thing that they are educated in is what the zoning and construction ordinances say.
New Jersey-ites-ians-whatever the term do not need to worry about me ever purchasing land in New Jersey.
I hear you, I have a home and property in the town that I grew up in and have owned it for almost 34 years. It's an investment property and my tenants pay the taxes, give me profit money and I'm happy with that as I have relocated out of NJ to PA and my drive to the office is only about five minutes different.
I had to look up putting the horse before the cart, and I assume it means doing things wrong or in the wrong order However, that is not the case. People come to you as a professional for opinions and advice. So. I have had cases where making sure setback allowances are met when I forsee there may be trouble.
I also think that having room enough to meet the requirements 10 times over does not require precision. You can have rules and excercise judgement as well. That's how we differ from button pushers, pencil pushers and paper shufflers. Each case requires a separate analysis. There is no one size fits all solution.
That may be the reason there are waivers to the rules. As long as nobody is harmed. That is the point.
As a professional, I don't have a cook book for how I think. I did use a lot of euphemisms though.
Surveyors greatly underappreciate how map illiterate others are, particularly with the concept of map scale. My gripe with Planning is their inability to recognize the need for a two tiered approval process; one for sophisticated developers, and one for the average Joe. Upward mobility in the USA is greatly hampered by myopic rules intended to punish the big bad developers but with little thought of their harm to up and coming business owners. Humans are clever, so it'll always be a game of cat and mouse with any set of rules, but something needs to be done to allow a person to build their small business without tens of thousands of dollars spent just to find out if they can apply for a conditional permit.
