and you thought this would never happen:
"in order to fix the problem (boundary) - in lieu of conducting an expensive and time-consuming field survey - both counties (Caroline and Essex) must ask their representatives (in the state legislature) to allow them to adjust the boundary using Geographic Information System."
What could possibly go wrong?
Hamilton
My head almost exploded thinking about all that could go wrong.
My head almost exploded thinking about all that could go wrong.
You can put me down as someone who is not surprised.?ÿ
The way I read it is they want to do a GIS assessors plat. There is a lot that could go wrong but as long as all affected parties agree it may clean up a mess instead of making a bigger one.
They are asking for "relief" from state laws that must require a survey to mark county lines. Why do I think some work to do this has been done already in a state as old as Virginia?
And I wonder if all that was long ago figured out and the GIS guys couldn't properly insert it into the computer file because they don't understand how.?ÿ
Just a thought, it's not like I haven't seen the almost exact same issue before, I mean heck we all know GIS is right on...... ??ÿ
Locally we often use a print out of the GIS to apply for rezoning of parcels. Nine times out of ten once the rezoning is approved and shows up on the GIS map, the parcel lines and the zoning lines are not coincident.?ÿ How hard could it be to take the existing parcel definition in the GIS and create the revised zoning lines from the parcel definition??ÿ Must be way more complicated than I can imagine.
Are they sure the lines go through the lots? Or is that a GIS issue?
The planning commission treats the GIS as the gospel.?ÿ Had a case a few years back where my boss had created a subdivision with a couple of commercial tracts at the front with residential in the back.?ÿ The commercial part set vacant for a couple of years until the right customer came along and then we needed to rearrange the lot lines.?ÿ When we submitted the plat we discovered that the zoning lines followed the shape of the line between the residential and commercial sections but was shifted by several feet.?ÿ We were able to prove that the line on the original rezoning matched the subdivision line but they still required us to go through the rezoning process again.?ÿ GIS is always right don't you know.?ÿ
Hey, just make an app to resolve that boundary! more work for us!
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Can't wait to hear about the guy that has to go out and tell a land owner where the county line is while pointing at a screen shot on his tablet.
"Must be way more complicated than I can imagine."
Don't forget these people are government employees, some have to through extensive training on how to operate an adding machine.?ÿ ??ÿ
...otherwise known as the "Surveyors Full Employment Act of 2018"?ÿ?ÿ
Unfortunately this is a continuing trend. It seems the general public is convinced that GIS and phone apps are gospel. "It's gotta be right it's right from the court house!" We can plead our case about the inaccuracies of these products all we want but people just don't listen or understand what we are telling them. With the declining numbers of surveyors and this handy dandy information, why wait weeks or months and pay a surveyor a large amount of money when they can get it "close enough" with GIS and their phone app? I know of two land owners with large wooded tracts that marked the line with their phone app and decided rather than pay for a survey they would consider their location good enough and agree to it.?ÿ?ÿ
We're still doing something wrong, that the public's perception of us remains that of being just an overly expensive simple procedure, or a hindrance to their plans.?ÿ They seem to place little value in it, thinking that our GPS can just point to where their boundaries are.
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