Survey Plans - Practical Boundary Surveying - page 240

confusion than having a single bearing on the line. In this case it will be up to
the attorney or person drafting the deed to correctly modify the quadrant of the
bearing.
Where boundaries are along water courses, one or more tie lines should be used
so that a future surveyor will be able to verify the boundary closure. Tie lines have
already been discussed and an example is shown in Fig. 13.3 .
The area of the locus should be shown. Notice in Fig. 16.3 that the lot area
is shown as 5,000 Sq. Ft. . It is customary to show area as plus or minus. This
practice probably started when it was difficult and time consuming to precisely
calculate areas of irregular parcels. Now, computers are routinely able to calcu-
late precise areas. Another possible reason is that errors in surveying may result
in a client either losing or gaining property with potential legal claims against
the surveyor. Property is valued in part by its area. Other things being equal, a
larger parcel is worth more than a smaller one. Monetary damages for a surplus or
deficiency may be calculated by the change in area. By showing area as “more or
less”, it might give the surveyor some wiggle room in a suit. The result might be
to mitigate damages being assessed against the surveyor. That said, there are prob-
ably safer things to bet on.
The plan should be signed and sealed by the licensed surveyor.
16.4.3 Monuments and Control
The plan should show any survey control that was used to establish the boundaries
or used to tie the survey into. This would include monuments, either of record or
not of record, street monuments and, if applicable, ties to the state plane coordi-
nate system and vertical datum used to establish a boundary along a water course
or shoreline. Traverse lines are not usually shown on a survey plan unless they are
required to be shown by a government agency or if the plan is a work plan for use
by another surveyor. For example, in Massachusetts, plans submitted to the Land
Court must show traverse lines colored in red.
The plan should show any survey control that was used to establish the
boundaries or used to tie the survey into. This would include monuments,
either of record or not of record, street monuments and, if applicable, ties
to the state plane coordinate system and vertical datum used to establish a
boundary along a water course or shoreline.
The importance of setting permanent monuments on boundary corners and lines
has already been discussed. Original monuments which were found must be noted.
If an original monument is called-for in the record but is now missing, this should