California Surveyors Forums

I am seeking information about whether other CA counties are being affected by their Recorder pulling on line recorded maps off the internet based on the Recorder’s interpretation of CA Government code section 6254.21 & 6254.24. That is an issue our local land surveyors are dealing with. We have found many counties that are offering recorded maps for free on line, but our County Recorder is saying that this is a violation of the code cited. Any information will be helpful – our next Board of Supervisors meeting is tomorrow 2-8-11 to discuss this matter. I would also like to know which of our counties are providing recorded maps online and whether these are free or for a fee? Thanks, Dawn Caston, Caston Land Surveying

Geomatics web site has the recorded maps online for a fee. 15 cents a page for corner records and county tie sheets, 2.5 dollars per sheet for a RS, Tract Map, Parcel Map, Official Maps.

County of Los Angeles has recorded maps, corner records, tie sheets on line for FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Just download them and away you go.

To the best of my knowledge the recorder does not have this information on line in either county.

San Bernardino has a fee for PDF maps ($1.25 per sheet - I think)
Riverside County allows a download onto a portable hard drive for free (150 GB or more)

San Diego offers maps online for a fee ($4.00 per page for maps).


6254.21 refers to not being allowed to publish or display of home addresses and telephone numbers of various public officials. How does this apply to maps? I have not seen addresses or telephone numbers, except in maybe a title block by the map preparer. I would call BS on them tomorrow.

Check out this thread started by Michael Pallamary a few months ago about the Public Records Act.

http://www.californiasurveyors.org/clsa ... ecords+act

San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Kern Counties all provide the record maps on-line for no charge. San Luis Obispo just recently made them available on-line. I do recall there was a discussion about the very issue you bring up before SLO County made them available. Maybe a call to the SLO County Recorder would be helpful.

San Francisco public works provides maps online for free.

IIRC Marin County & San Jose only sell expensive DVD sets.

San Diego County: on-line Assessor maps= $2.00/pg
on-line Survey Records & Maps= $4.00/sht

San Mateo Co. records are on line? Can you post a link?

This is what you want to use for searches in SM Co.

http://gisrcapp.co.sanmateo.ca.us/gisportal/home/

We also maintain paper Assessor Map books, which have notations on them that can give you more information than can be found online.

Wow! Using statutes designed to protect public safety officials from having their home addresses and phone numbers published being used to deny release of PUBLIC DOCUMENTS on line?

I’d be very interested in seeing his written reasoning behind that soaring leap of logic.

Keep us posted.

T. S. Higgins wrote:This is what you want to use for searches in SM Co.

http://gisrcapp.co.sanmateo.ca.us/gisportal/home/

We also maintain paper Assessor Map books, which have notations on them that can give you more information than can be found online.

This web address is not loading.

Looks like all our online Recorder's sites are having issues, just got a call about it. There's a change to the sites coming, so I don't know if that's the issue at the moment.

Edit- So I've figured it out. The best site to use is still the GIS site above. The one I linked to is an internal site that's supposed to have gone live, but is being held back for the time being. Once it's actually available would have been a better time for me to link it, I just was under the impression that they'd rolled it out on Jan. 1st.

The San Mateo Co. GIS only shows you maps that are touching the polygon of a certain APN, as the current GIS is through the Assessor's Office. The assessor's maps only reference subdivision maps. I suggest also retreiving the two excel files from the Department of Public Works site, under Maps and Surveying Resources, for Filed R.O.S. and Corner Records. From those excel files you can get the APN for mapping projects to cross reference on the current GIS system for San Mateo County.

I've been told many times (by private surveyors) that these files are a great asset to research what mapping is availalbe. I hope these files continue to be updated, as the developer of the files, is no longer employed at the county.

Soaring leap of logic - I love that expression. Because Clerk Recorders have no oversight, they can do whatever than deem necessary and Nevada County, our Recorder has made our recorded maps a violation of the privacy act because someone could gleen someones "whereabouts". REALLY - It didn't matter what we said about how this was a stretch. Somehow, it's not okay to post the maps for free, but it is okay to charge for them. REALLY!

Ian Wilson wrote:Wow! Using statutes designed to protect public safety officials from having their home addresses and phone numbers published being used to deny release of PUBLIC DOCUMENTS on line?

I’d be very interested in seeing his written reasoning behind that soaring leap of logic.

Keep us posted.

Update: Because the Clerk Recorder does not answer to the BOS, the Board did the only thing they could to get our recorded maps available to us again - they approved the fee that the Recorder wanted. They weren't happy to do it as they, also, did not see the connection between our maps and CA Code. It did not escape notice that it is not okay to post the maps online for free, but it is okay to provide them for a fee. Our Recorder even said he would just feel awful if another Tucson happened here because someone used our maps to find someone. REALLY hard to follow that stretch. He also said that there has been some discussion about closing public access to "lots of other records in CA" among his fellow Recorders. Thanks for getting information back to me about Counties that still provide their maps on line (Not that it helped). Any other info you might provide about this type of thing happening elsewhere or how to counter this current movement to close public recorded information would be appreciated. Dawn Caston, Caston Land Surveying, Nevada County

Caston wrote:I am seeking information about whether other CA counties are being affected by their Recorder pulling on line recorded maps off the internet based on the Recorder’s interpretation of CA Government code section 6254.21 & 6254.24. That is an issue our local land surveyors are dealing with. We have found many counties that are offering recorded maps for free on line, but our County Recorder is saying that this is a violation of the code cited. Any information will be helpful – our next Board of Supervisors meeting is tomorrow 2-8-11 to discuss this matter. I would also like to know which of our counties are providing recorded maps online and whether these are free or for a fee? Thanks, Dawn Caston, Caston Land Surveying

Well, I had the whole thing typed up and lost it upon hitting Submit.

I'll try again later on, but until I get a chance, here's the jist by memory:

Under the code, he is required to withhold any document which contains home addresses of individuals as described under 6254.21 and 6254.24. A home address refers to a situs or mailing address.

He is required, upon request, to review any documents requested within 10 days to see if they are subject to the code restrictions. If they are not, he must provide a copy.

If he has an electronic copy of a public record, he shall provide said copy in any format that he has access to.

According to the Social Security Truncation Program, all documents recorded between 1980 and 2008 must be electronically stored and reviewed for any social security numbers. All documents recorded after Jan. 1st 2009 must be recorded in an electronic format. This electronic format is a "Public Record", and so must be provided upon request unless he reviews the request and denies based upon 6254. He can only deny if the map shows the name and address of an individual who is defined under that section.

Interesting.

I remember researching accessors micorfisch at a friends RE office years ago. You could look up parcels by owners name, address, apn or find it on a accessors map.

Guess you can't do that anymore?