Oh Boy, Off To See The Wizard!

I do hope he is behind the curtain.

Am working for a monitoring well company to locate new wells on a new owner, reconstructed pad site. Initial info provided were pdfs of engineering existing and new construction site plans with metes and bounds mostly absent. Thankfully said plans are to SPC North. Plans show 2 vertical benchmarks and three traverse points. The way I read it 2 of the 3 TPs are most likely missing due to new curb construction. Site plan shows no ties to lease lines or property boundaries. The 3 traverse points show SPC N & E coordinates, which I plot in a drawing, then bring in ortho referenced state photos, which are close enough to let me know "I am in Oz".

Go to Landex to search for records and only get one hit for an agreement in pad users Name. I buy and download what I find to be a temporary and permanent access agreement for the reconstruction, There is no reference to any other recorded document, but I at least have the full and correct mall owners name. Search now reveals a lot of hits which I weed down to Mall Deed (2013) and recent Subdivision Plan (2015). Mall deed has metes and bounds per a 1990 as built but no called monuments. Subdivision map shows a good number of lot lines with no B&Ds and a new set of lines with SPC bearings and distances sometimes even feet away from the old. Not a single distance or bearing matches between deed and subdivision. Subdivision map is only the East part of the entire tract. Four pad sites are shown, one for an existing building adjacent to my PQ pad site. I plot both and bring in the downloaded map pdf. Which orients to the SPC system, so matching up and scaling is easy. The Subdivision Plan references a 2000 Bock & Clark ALTA for previous mall owner and 5 PennDOT drawings, 1951, 1953, 1960, 12980 and 1996, but know physical corners. The Subdivision Plan notes the adjacent pad user has an unrecorded lease, thanks a lot. What saves the day on the Plan is deed book and page for an adjacent parcel, 220' from the PQ pad, which I buy and download. I finally have a description with calls to pipes on 3 of 4 corners. I see some light which may be a glimpse of reflected sunlight off the yellow brick road.

I leave this afternoon for a full day on site tomorrow. First will look for 3 pipes, one remaining old traverse point and two benchmarks. Will GPS, locate 6 monitoring wells, building corners, curb and anything else I can find. The site plan I have indicates the North lease line is very close to back of curb on relocated Mall entrance. The site is ready for opening, so who knows what construction people are still around. I do hope I recognize the Wizard when I see him. I expect anything could happen here including free range chickens.

Paul in PA