If you’re like most people, the last thing you want to think about is land surveying. Believe me, I know it’s not the most glamorous subject. In fact, if your business is land development you’ve got a lot of critical details to worry about and I’m certain surveying isn’t even close to the top of the list.

So you’re probably thinking, he’s right, I don’t need to read this. Wrong!

I’ve written this white paper just for you. I’ve worked with developers for over 14 years and I’ve seen so many examples of developers suffering significant delays and losing big piles of money because something they thought was “automatic”–surveying–is far from it.

I’ve written this paper for you, because I want you to avoid these success killers.

Through the 6 Secrets I reveal in this paper you will discover how to avoid these seemingly small, but often show stopping problems from happening to you. So let’s get right to it…the 6 secrets to working with your surveyor:

1. Involve your Surveyor Early in the Project Design Phase.

2. Let your Surveyor do the Survey Work…and Your Attorney do that Law Thing.

3. Look for a surveyor with a stable business; Be wary of the one-man show.

4. Ask for the qualifications of all employees, not just the surveyor.

5. Find out how the firm responds when there are problems. Is there a written policy?

6. Look for innovative thinking to save you money.

Involve your Surveyor Early in the Project Design Phase.

I see an awful lot of good developers miss this technique. Mostly, I think they do it because it seems perfectly logical to talk with the surveyor when he’s doing the due diligence boundary survey. Then, talk again once the design plans are done and it’s time to do a subdivision plat. That leaves a big gap in the middle.

Why involve your surveyor in design discussions…surveyors don’t design things. You’ve got a good engineer and land planner crafting your development, right? What could go wrong?

A client of ours followed this logical work pattern on a project recently. It was completely understandable, but it lead to disastrous results.

This client had a large property and intended to use part of it for a senior living facility and part for a grocery store anchored strip retail center. This required two different zoning designations. He and his planner devised a line to separate the two uses. They applied for and received the necessary institutional and retail zoning designations.

He decided to develop the retail first. Concurrency rules prevented development of both uses until additional road and utility capacity was added by the municipality.

He brought us in to prepare a subdivision plat for the retail piece. We immediately ran into a brick wall, caused by the line he and his planner set during the rezoning process. The boundary they drew between the institutional and retail areas did not follow the tract lines of the existing subdivision the development would be built on.

This was not a problem during rezoning, but when we proceeded to re-subdivide to create a new “parcel” for the retail site we ran into three problems:

• The boundaries of the retail subdivision plat must run along existing tract lines and could not include “pieces” of tracts, per the local code.
• We could not create a subdivision that included both the institutional and retail pieces, because the combined development could not meet concurrency requirements.
• Changing the dividing line between the two uses could be done, but would mean a trip back before the city commission–a six month (or more) process.

Now, when my client realized he had painted himself into a corner he was not a happy camper. After all, two of the retail out-parcels had lease commitments signed already. He had to deliver!

I spent hours in meetings with my client, his engineer and planner and the city regulators. Unfortunately, the code just didn’t provide any good remedy. After nearly a month of meeting after meeting, we helped craft a compromise solution that would allow the developer to request a seldom used waiver of the subdivision plat requirement.

This solution provided a way forward, but because the city reviewers rarely used this process, it took two months longer than the normal process.

My client lost three months of time and spent thousands of dollars in additional consulting fees. All on a problem that I, his surveyor, could have helped him avoid with a 10 minute conversation as he planned his rezoning application.

If only he’d asked.

Involve your surveyor early in the design process!

Alternatively, if you need an expert in surveying, subdivision platting or project management, please let us know your needs by completing this form.