California Surveyors Forums

I was wondering what the forum's consensus was on PLSA 8727.

8727. Exemption – surveys made exclusively for geological or landscaping purposes.
Surveys made exclusively for geological purposes by a person authorized to practice
geology under Chapter 12.5 (commencing with Section 7800) or exclusively for landscaping
purposes performed by a person authorized to practice landscape architecture pursuant to
Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 5615), that do not involve the determination of any
property line do not constitute surveying within the meaning of this chapter. (Bolding mine)

The exemption is clear that a map without boundary information, which is made by a landscape architect for landscaping purposes is OK. The grey areas I am curious about are:
1) Can they sell said map to another landscape architect?
2) Can they sell said map to an architect?
3) Can they sell said map to a planner, realtor or other non technical profession?

Mikey Mueller, PLS 9076
Sonoma County

A licensed Landscape Architect can produce whatever maps they want, according to the PLS Act (not sure what their specific acts state), as long as their work (as documented on the map) "...do not involve the determination of any property line..."

Do people think Landscape Architects haven't been making design plans all these years?

Landscape Architect: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/face ... awCode=BPC

Exemptions: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/face ... awCode=BPC

Contact the Landscape Architects Technical Advisory Committee (under the Architects Board): https://www.latc.ca.gov/ if you want more information.

As for mappers/mapping, I believe that land surveyors are in the vast minority providing maps. Frankly, considered as whole, land surveyors are not particularly good at mapping when compared to (or the technology associated with) the GIS mapping, UAS mapping, LiDAR mapping, traditional aerial imagery, BIM, ESRI software - each mastered by unlicensed technicians, contractors, architects, engineers, GISPs, contract Indian nationals, etc. These better mappers charge a fraction of the cost of a land surveyor and are more likely to be more similar in mannerisms, social mores, and the expected inhibitions to that of the general population.

Boundary establishment is likely to be the last professional bastion for the land surveyor. Segments of the land surveying community works hard to skirt or shirk their boundary mapping responsibilities.

Additionally, I recently had ChatGPT write a legal description. Strikingly, the model was better than some of the work I review.

The remaining question is simply, what are you/we going to do about it? Nothing, says the smart money.

DWoolley

In the linked video there are couple of quarryman (not of the John, Paul and George sort) measuring stockpiles for quantities with an Apple Vision Pro. If you listen carefully, it sounds as though this is a regular exercise using their phones. Ah, can they do that? Yes, they just did.

I do not have a Facebook account and I was allowed to view the video.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/757779299631853

The future is now.

DWoolley