I've been elected to an unpaid position, justice of the peace in Castleton, Vermont. One of our duties is to hear appeals of property valuation for real estate tax purposes. At our meeting last night, we were shown a copy of part of a survey. The property was roughly rectangular, had 4 sides, each labeled with a direction like N79å¡ 04'W. The side near the street and the side furthest from the steet were labeled with one distance. The sides that were approximately perpendicular to the street were labeled with two distances, one distance was apparently the width of the street (on a slight diagonal, 50.07') and a second distance which is apparently the depth of the property.
The homeowner's issue was being accessed for a full 2 acres, while the portion of the lot excluding the road right of way is about 1.7 acre. My multiplication shows the area of the lot, including the road, is indeed close to 2 acres.
My question is about the notation in the middle of the lot:
LOT 4
2.00 AC
The listers and other members of the board of civil authority are telling me "AC" stands for "as calculated" or "area calculated". I don't believe this; I think it is like any other area of science or engineering, where an number without a unit is an error, and thus any surveyor who doesn't want to look like an idiot will always label the area with the the unit of measure, so "AC" must stand for acre.
Acres
AC=acres.
Asphalt Concrete
Seriously though -Yes it is short for Acres. No doubt.
Kind of silly to abbreviate a 5 letter word, but people do it every day.
Sounds to me like you may have been looking at a tax assessment map, not a survey.
The Surveyor is saying the Lot is 2 acres also SQ FT = Square Feet
In Texas most of the Surveyors will label the adjoining lots as Called X.XXX Acre, since they didnt survey that tract but the deed is calling it to be XXX acres.
I thought the abbreviation for Acres was Ac.
AC would imply two words, hence the capital letter A and capital C.
My 2 cents.
JA, PLS SoCal
I thought the abbreviation for Acres was Ac.
AC would imply two words, hence the capital letter A and capital C.
Since "LOT" was also in call caps, my guess is somebody's caps lock key was on when they prepared the plat. All caps is standard practice with some companies I have been around.
Kudos to you for seeking competent advise rather than just pushing on. Please feel free to visit us any time.
Kudos to you for seeking competent advise rather than just pushing on. Please feel free to visit us any time.
imaudigger, post: 337750, member: 7286 wrote: Asphalt Concrete
Seriously though -Yes it is short for Acres. No doubt.Kind of silly to abbreviate a 5 letter word, but people do it every day.
Sounds to me like you may have been looking at a tax assessment map, not a survey.
Actually, I looked at both. The tax map showed an un-dimension road, dimensions from the survey that match the part of the parcel with no road, no directions for boundary lines, and the following area label:
2.0 AS
I was told "AS" means as surveyed. This makes perfect sense; the lot lines in the tax map are manipulated to eliminate overlaps and gaps, and some kind of estimate is used for properties where no survey is on file. So the area is taken from the survey, if there is one, even if it contradicts the lot lines that are shown.
ashton, post: 337778, member: 422 wrote: Actually, I looked at both. The tax map showed an un-dimension road, dimensions from the survey that match the part of the parcel with no road, no directions for boundary lines, and the following area label:
2.0 AS
I was told "AS" means as surveyed. This makes perfect sense; the lot lines in the tax map are manipulated to eliminate overlaps and gaps, and some kind of estimate is used for properties where no survey is on file. So the area is taken from the survey, if there is one, even if it contradicts the lot lines that are shown.
"AC" is definitely "Acres" that is a no-brainer (no not everyone should know but all of us have probably seen that hundreds of times. As to "AS" not so obvious. That one should definitely get a legend or explanation somewhere. I guess I could see when a county office like the assessor's office they might differentiate when a survey acreage doesn't match the recorded acreage. (AS could be using the first and last letter from "acres" as well. As to whoever said with both letters capital it should imply a two-word abbreviation, we need to keep in mind that at one time many drafters did the plats using capitals only from the leroy set.
Tom Adams, post: 337784, member: 7285 wrote: ... As to "AS" not so obvious. That one should definitely get a legend or explanation somewhere. I guess I could see when a county office like the assessor's office they might differentiate when a survey acreage doesn't match the recorded acreage....
There are several areas
- The area(s) on the recorded surveyor's plat, which might or might not give areas with and without the road.
- The area that would be estimated by scaling from the tax map, or if using GIS, letting the GIS system use trigonometry to calculate the area inside the lines.
- The area stated in figures on the tax map.
- The area stated on the tax abstract, which is also called a lister card.
Isn't it nice to have lots of choices?
I've never run across the acronym of AC for "As Calculated", "Area Calculated", or "Anything (similarly) Contrived" for that matter. I've worked in most parts of the country at one time or another for time periods of several months to several years, so recognize that there are some regional differences in abbreviations used, yet have never seen AC for anything other than Asphaltic Concrete or Acres.
I don't go along with the logic for a second that just because both letters are capitalized that it must stand for two words. Standard mapping practice for most practitioners in the areas I've worked was to use all capital letters for notes and labels either for their uniform height or because the shape and configuration of some lower case letters can lead to confusion (their reasoning, not necessarily mine). In at least one jurisdiction, all caps were a legal requirement on filed maps.
Lacking a legend that indicates differently, or a demonstrated local or personal drafting standard that AC in this context means something else, IMO it can only be an abbreviation for Acres. But taking the assertion that it might mean "As (or Area) Calculated", what difference does it make to that map? Some unit has to apply to the 2.00 as an area, and the only unit that can reasonably be applied is Acres.
eapls2708, post: 337803, member: 589 wrote: But taking the assertion that it might mean "As (or Area) Calculated", what difference does it make to that map? Some unit has to apply to the 2.00 as an area, and the only unit that can reasonably be applied is Acres.
I agree it makes no difference in deciding the taxpayer's appeal. But the board and the listers would seem more professional if they used the right language. Who knows, if it was appealed further, using the right language might avoid giving a court a reason for thinking the board is clueless.
I sort of remember seeing something similar used by our County Appraiser's mapping department in years past. There would be two or three different acreages listed for one parcel, each followed by something like (S) or (AC). I don't remember exactly. I was told that one was the area calculated per the deed, another was what they got by following fence lines or apparent boundaries on aerial photos and the third might have been based on measurements made on the ground that were based on fences and other possible boundaries. One example would be for a standard quarter section of a perfect 160 acres less anything used for county road right-of-way for a calculated area of something like 156.4 acres. A slightly different number might be found by using a planimeter on an aerial photo and using tree rows and fences to simulate boundaries. The calculation using actual measurements on the ground was pretty well limited to small, city tracts as I recall.
Ashton
I am sitting here looking at the assessors list for the Town of Windsor, VT. On the bottom of each page it has the following information "A=Deed Acres AS=Survey Acres AC=Computed Acres" It seems that most towns I've worked in in Vermont use this same company to compile their assessing records, and they use the same abbreviations.
[sarcasm]Air Conditioner[/sarcasm]
I rarely abbreviate acres 😉
Paul D, post: 337826, member: 323 wrote: Ashton
I am sitting here looking at the assessors list for the Town of Windsor, VT. On the bottom of each page it has the following information "A=Deed Acres AS=Survey Acres AC=Computed Acres" It seems that most towns I've worked in in Vermont use this same company to compile their assessing records, and they use the same abbreviations.
So it seems the listers just presumed a code they were used to on tax maps carried over to surveys.
It means somebody was to lazy to write out the words for the real meaning or at least put in a legend to explain.
