trying to figure out where the corners would have been set

We are working on a survey for a property that has had five recorded surveys since 1984. Three of the surveys were Lot Boundary Adjustments, the first in 2005. The 84 survey shows two monuments, one just north of the site at the nearest intersection and then another mon 655.43' west of the intersection, and a large fence encroachment on the north and south property lines. The second survey was a retracement of the 84 survey and shows the same two monuments and an adjustment of the south property line due to a court decree, at this point it would have been nice if the boundary of the property was fixed, right or wrong two surveyors had come to the same boundary solution. However, the next survey in 2005 calls out the monument closest to the property as being a 5.21' west of the intersection and then shows another mon to the south which is 4.36' west of the road centerline, this is because the transportation dept had recorded a survey in 1999 which showed the mons as being off of the centerline. This shifted the boundary about 5' east of where the first two surveys had placed it. During the 2005 BLA survey rebar & caps were set at all of the new corner locations and some of the existing and now 5' west of corners are shown on the survey.

The most recent two surveys are where things get even more foggy, or we like to say "clear as mud". They were done by the same company in 2008 and 2009 and are essentially the same survey but are stamped by different surveyors. They took three parcels and reconfigured the lots for a proposed development. The 2008 survey established a new lot configuration with the lots running north and south, and the intent of the 2009 survey was to return the lot configuration to what it was before the 2008 survey (it was a survey to undo a survey). The other interesting thing is that the surveys only show one monument being 5.21' west of the intersection and then don't show the next monument south or west. Instead the survey shows a quarter corner and section corner mons that are over a half mile away and were not recovered but were calculated. The basis of bearing is "NAD83(91) XXXXXX between the monuments at the NE corner and N quarter corner of section XXXXX, city of XXXXX control points XXXX and XXXX, per refs 1, 2 and 3." Another interesting thing about the surveys is that they show about every other corner as being set and the rest as being found.

We did field work on site yesterday and the field crew found all of the corners set by the 2005 survey and none of the corners from the 2008 survey. The corners from the 2005 survey which were new corners from the BLA do not match what was shown on the map, the corners are .5-.7' off of what is shown on the map, but we are hitting the corners on the east line which was not adjusted. So these corners, being original BLA corners have some weight, maybe even more than the numbers that are shown on the map, unless they were meant to be some kind of offset.

My theory is that the 2008 survey found the corners being off from what was shown on the map and found some way to rotate their points to make about every other corner fit (within a few .1's) and then showed the rest as being set, but the rebar & caps were never set at the locations where they are shown on the map. None of the found corners are called out as missing, but based on our measurements this is impossible. This is also why the survey only tied into one monument and has a hokey basis bearing. The 2009 survey was created without any field work. I called the company and talked to the surveyor whose stamp is on the 2009 survey and it sounded like a nightmare project for him. He said that he was trying to make it as painless as possible. My question was one, were the corners set and two, did you use another monument, the one to the south or the one to the west. Lets just say that the conversation did not go very well and I asked him to call me back but I am not expecting to hear anything. So without another monument or at least a set corner I have no way of tying into his survey. He kept telling me that I was asking him to make boundary decisions for me, but my reason for calling was that I could not determine what boundary decision he had made. The 2008 and 2009 survey are deficient in that there is not enough information that it can be retraced. I think that knowing where the corners shown on the survey would have been located on the ground is important before a boundary determination can be made.

what a mess!