Record Mapping and Subdivision Law: Parcel Adjustments and Record-of-Survey Practice
Survey maps
A record of survey documents boundary evidence, discrepancies, and corner re-establishment that cannot be fully resolved by reference to existing maps. It is not a subdivision map, does not create or extinguish parcels, and does not adjudicate boundaries. Corner records or perpetuation documents are filed when a corner is re-established, rehabilitated, or replaced. Filing is triggered by statutory criteria such as finding evidence that conflicts with record, establishing a corner not of record, or discovering lost corners, and it must occur within the statutory window after the survey.
Subdivision maps
Subdivision regulation usually distinguishes a tentative map (planning review) from a parcel map (small divisions, often four or fewer lots) and a final map (larger or specified subdivisions, with monumentation and dedications). Common-interest and condominium conversions have their own procedures. The statutes typically govern design, improvements, dedications, and the certificates and signatures that must appear on the map, and monumentation must be set before or concurrently with recordation per statute.
Lot line adjustments
A lot line adjustment moves a boundary between existing parcels to make them more regular or usable. It cannot create an additional parcel, cannot reduce an existing parcel below the minimum standards of the ordinance without approval, and is often exempt from the full subdivision process while still requiring local approval and recording of the adjusted deed or plat.
Worked example
Owner A and Owner B each hold a 50-foot-wide lot. They want to shift 10 feet of line so A has 60 and B has 40, both still developable under local zoning. That is a lot line adjustment: two parcels in, two parcels out. If they instead want three parcels, a parcel map or similar subdivision approval is required.
Traps
A record of survey does not set boundaries or settle title, though it may be evidence. A lot line adjustment cannot add a parcel. Filing deadlines and certificate requirements are strict statutory conditions.