Ring, ring.....a little different.

Been there, done that. Too many rule books (not to mention personalities) out there for my noggin. I usually tell the client that they don't want to pay me to learn how to do my job again. And that they should contact Brand X for the platting process.

Sometimes you have to be a mindreader from the first contact. I've had times where I kept asking enough questions to finally find out why I didn't want to get started on their true, overall project. Sooner or later they think they own you and your information, even if "they" aren't the ones who paid the invoice for your first piece of work.

A couple of years ago we did an ALTA for a future hotel site. The developer hoodwinked the landowner into paying for the ALTA. Bare land with some utilities around the perimeter and access to a street and a highway. Made a lovely plat including contour lines for every one foot of elevation change. Only three lines on the tract plus a couple others in the highway ditch area. Provided the landowner with a PDF.

A couple years later the developer calls. His arketex are attempting to turn our PDF into construction plans. They demand a digital file for the 3-D topo information. Tell them--NO!. They get rather insistent. That does them no good. I finally tell them there is no 3-D digital data, the ALTA was a 2-D drawing with contours drawn between actual locations that matched the elevations listed rather than some computer-generated gobbledygook based on random shots. Their goal was to take an ALTA and turn it into current construction plans without ever setting foot on the property---and they hadn't contributed a penny to the ALTA survey. Those poor people had to send out a surveyor to do it to their specs. I sure hope they also took into account the alterations in some of the utility lines that had occurred within those couple of years.

I'm usually on board with you cow, in this case I'm not bud.

Sometimes you have to be a mindreader from the first contact. "true, that is the task of the one writing the proposal, it can be a challenge at times"

there is no 3-D digital data, the ALTA was a 2-D drawing with contours drawn between actual locations "what does a contour line represent?"

Tommy Young, post: 414288, member: 703 wrote: Surveyor: I don't want to submit a plat to that small town.

Engineer: What are we supposed to do then, hire someone else?

So they will. Don't expect any more calls for new work from that engineer. Or anybody that engineer knows.

[USER=12217]@BK9196[/USER]

Oh, the contour lines were perfect. But, nothing else had an elevation tied to it. They wanted 3-D data on every shot we took. There was none. They didn't do anything a couple of years earlier but pressure the seller to order an ALTA. ALTA's and design data are not one and the same creature unless someone wants to pay extra in my book. Why give away the cream when all they order is the skim milk?

They still haven't turned a spade of dirt. We were first contacted on this something like four years ago. They need today's data to do much of anything, not something from a few years back. Especially where the highway in front was widened and the ditch drastically changed. Not to mention the realignment of some utilities that should have an impact on a couple of key issues.

I know of another case where our work was two years ago, the ground breaking ceremony was held six months ago with a bunch of political fanfare, but those few shovels of dirt are the last work done onsite as of today. Part of the topo is now off by over fifteen feet (they filled the hole where the basement used to be after our work but before the property transfer) and there is new asphalt and an apartment complex occupying the remainder of the block. Plus some significant utility lines were moved as part of the apartment complex work. Relying on our old 2-D ALTA drawing would be incredibly stupid.

Why not take elevations? Unless I'm shooting a structure, I'm always taking elevations. Always on state plane coords as well. I also fly most sites since it only takes 15 minutes.
Digital age. Maybe I'm missing something???

In regard to the OP, would it not be possible to agree to do the plat by sub consulting it to a surveyor who is comfortable doing it.

We hired a fellow last year who was all about expansion; just another guy who is all flash and no substance. He wanted to convert our office to automated systems and advertise like mad to increase the number of projects over a larger area. When I stated that we need at least one person in the office to be familiar with the rules in a particular Town before we work there, he simply stated "Well, I can read those as I need them and if I read them now I will just brain dump them so there is no reason to read them." Mind you, we offer permitting services with Conservation, Health and Planning and keeping track of the various regulations in one Town can prove difficult.
He did set us up with some advertising. He later left for a company that might be a little more progressive on the "I'm just going to survey without knowing the regulations" front. When I took down the advertising, I noticed that he failed to follow the instructions and rather than target the specific Towns where we have adequate levels of expertise, he targeted every town within a large radius.

I have to assume that every surveying regulation has something along the lines of Massachusetts':

(2) Competency.

(a) A Registrant shall practice only in areas of competence for which the Registrant is qualified by education and experience.

Among other things, I take this to mean "study up, buttercup" if you want to practice in a nearby Town.

Life's too short to waste on doing work you really don't want to do.

Mark Mayer, post: 414314, member: 424 wrote: So they will. Don't expect any more calls for new work from that engineer. Or anybody that engineer knows.

The end of the story is they actually convinced him to draw the plat. But you're right, he'll never do another job for them. That's good for me, because we're getting them all.

Tommy Young, post: 414345, member: 703 wrote: The end of the story is they actually convinced him to draw the plat. But you're right, he'll never do another job for them. That's good for me, because we're getting them all.

Glad you can take on more work, we are so slammed we had to turn down a 1200 unit PUD. (ouch$)

Tommy Young, post: 414288, member: 703 wrote: Engineer: I need to order a boundary and topographic survey on two small lots for a commercial building.

Initially I would have told them they would have to submit a resurvey plat to combine the lots before any construction project could be approved.

Steve Gilbert, post: 414362, member: 111 wrote: Initially I would have told them they would have to submit a resurvey plat to combine the lots before any construction project could be approved.

We don't typically do that around here, because the engineer needs to make sure the site will actually work before they want the plat.

Just to illustrate what happens in my neighborhood. There are fourteen (14) municipalities within a ten minute drive of my office. All with their own zoning manual, subdivision code, fee schedule and submittal standards. Imagine this: out of the 14, 12 of them measure building height differently. Many years ago, I chose to limit my exposure to subdivision brain rot by only working land use applications in five of these entities and as I get older even that is too many. Even with these self imposed limitations, I have a pretty sweet life. I imagine those whom I refer work to, appreciate it.

I repeat: Life's too short to waste on doing work you really don't want to do.

Brain rot is a valid term. We waste so many of our little grey cells on the minutiae that is the bread and butter of cubicle critters who can't see daylight within a five minute stroll of their cubicle.

I don't miss the land development business, not one little bit.

I did enjoy land development and still do when I can get it. When it was a regular activity, I had an entire bookcase with copies of all the different subdivision ordinances, standard forms and other necessary data from communities with active subdivision development around Fort Worth and Dallas. Nowadays most of the information is online and/or saved to my hard drive.

This is where you charge appropriately for what you need to do.

Sure you have all the data already. But you don't have a plat. I charge over 2 times as much as a survey would cost for a filed plat. And that price is when I already have the survey.

I charge so much bc A) it's a filed document. B) the beurocratic bull$#/+ and C) I know they will need a revision or two and as long as nothing changes as far as what the plat is doing, I include the minor modifications requested by said beurocrats.

Then everyone's happy. They get their plat and I get a lot of money.