Land surveying: field survey record.

(1) Existing law, the Professional Land Surveyors' Act and the Professional Engineers Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of professional land surveyors and civil engineers by the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists. Violation of those acts is a crime. Existing law defines the practice of land surveying to include, among other practices, use of the principles of land surveying to determine the position for any monument or reference point which marks a property line, boundary, or corner, or sets, resets, or replaces any monument or reference point. This bill would additionally include in that practice use of those principles to determine the position of an easement. (2) Existing law requires a licensed land surveyor or a licensed civil engineer who makes a field survey in conformity with the practice of land surveying to file with the county surveyor in the county in which the field survey was made a record of the survey relating to land boundaries or property lines, if the field survey discloses specified information. This information includes, among other information, that the points or lines set during the performance of a field survey of any parcel described in any deed or other instrument of title recorded in the county recorder's office are not shown on any subdivision map, official map, or record of survey. Existing law requires a county surveyor to examine and file those records. This bill would additionally require a licensed land surveyor or a licensed civil engineer to file a record of a field survey relating to an easement, or if the points or lines set during the performance of a field survey of any parcel described in any easement are not shown on those maps or records of survey. (3) Because this bill would expand a crime, and would impose a higher standard of service on county surveyors, the bill would create state-mandated local programs. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.