California Surveyors Forums

I have a client in one county whose neighbor is encroaching onto his property. The neighbor's property is in a different county. A lot line adjustment is needed in order to move the lot line to coincide with lines of occupation.

In my 25 years in this profession, I've never come across this scenario. I have several questions and would appreciate input from members:

1) Are two LLA applications needed - one for each county? I ask partly because it is likely that both county's planning staff would want to review zoning issues.

2) If only one application is needed, which county has "jurisdiction"? The one where the property is decreasing in size or increasing? Or is there another determining factor?

3) Is it possible (within reason) to move the county line to the newly adjusted property line (post LLA)?

4) Assuming the county line does not move, the portion of land that is being added to the other property is in a different county. Is it a separate parcel? It will be assessed separately since it is in a different county. If this process would in fact create a separate parcel, which LLA's are not supposed to do, would that violate the SMA?

I have a feeling this sort of thing is not as uncommon as it seems to me to be.

I welcome your comments.

Mike

1. Yes
2. No, it will most often require 2 separate applications, processed in unison. I suppose there are county's who might cede their jurisdictional authority to another, but I find that very unlikely.
3. I doubt it is reasonable. Could be wrong but if my memory serves me correctly, moving a county line might take state action, possibly legislative.
4. No, the part added from one and taken from another will only move the lot line. Separation of assessments doesn't separate title. There are lots of single parcels which are split by county lines. The owner receives 2 tax bills, one for each county for the land value contained within that county. For instance, it is not uncommon for a single parcel to have 2 separate assessment numbers even if the parcel is completely within a single county. This happens quite often when an assessor's mapping is split into pages and larger parcels are "divided" by the assessor's page numbers. 1 parcel, 2 separate assessments.

Takes a lot of work and coordination with both counties, but it has been done and should not be denied unless there is a conflict with zoning designations.

I had this exact situation several years ago. In my case the county line ran through my client’s house. My project was on the Sonoma/Napa County line. Napa County considers the county line a parcel line. The county line in Sonoma County is a tax code line (keep in mind it’s the same line). Sonoma County was willing to move the parcel line into Napa County and assess the property taxes accordingly. Napa County required a parcel map because moving the line would create a new separate parcel in Napa County. The new parcel would not have met the Napa County zoning requirements for size, so a parcel map wasn’t an option. After 2 years of haggling with both Counties the client gave up and as far as I know the situation still exists.


I would suggest talking to the separate county planning departments and ask if that county considers the county line a parcel line or a jurisdiction line. Depending on the answers you may have a different set of questions. As Steffan noted moving the county line is not a viable option.

I've worked on a couple of these with regards to a City/County boundary line. In both cases, City and County ordinances did not allow the adjusted lot lines to cross jurisdictional boundaries, so an annexation was required. Applicant was required to submit two separate applications to the agencies, but City allowed use of the County's LLA format so only one final LLA document was produced for recordation. City signed for the City lot and County signed for the County lot.

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we have several parcels in one area which lie in two counties due to sectionalized land patents vs the county line is defined by topography, the two assessors offices have an agreed county tax boundary which is different than the county line, for tax purposes and planning land use. County boundaries are defined by state statue and would take an legislative action to change. We work in co-operation with each county planning department in these rare cases.

I appreciate everyone's responses - thank you.