Altering Legal Description?

[laveyb24]

I am working on a Tract Map within a City jurisdiction.

The City will not accept a dedication of a drainage easement on behalf of the County on the Tract Map and are requiring a separate instrument be recorded with the map. The City wants a separate Legal Description and wants me to leave the area for the Tract Maps book and page number blank to be filled in by the Title Company after the map records.

I am having an issue with this as to me it would be altering my signed document once it has left my control while I remain liable. I have been researching to find status and code I can present to the City to push this issue but have come up short. I am hoping someone can assist and provide some knowledge and experience as it relates.

Thank you in advance.

[Warren Smith]

There is a provision in the Subdivision Map Act (66468.1) which mandates the county recorder to complete cross-referenced concurrently recorded documents. It's a fairly common occurrence for those local agencies which may require such documents. For final maps, SMA section 66435.2 refers to the cross reference on the map to the separately recorded document, and that the county recorder complete this as well.

Section 66435.1 authorizes local agencies to require such concurrently recorded instruments.

I suspect that your liability for an error in this part of the process is pretty nil.

[hellsangle]

Warren,

Thank you for your infinite knowledge and being engaged with this Discussion page!

When Warren chimes in we always learn something.

Thanks again and have a good week.

Respectfully
Crazy Phil - Surveyor to Recorder

[Warren Smith]

Well, thanks Phil!

It appears that the City wants a separate document is because it cannot accept the drainage easement on behalf of the County (Flood Control District?), but it is a condition of approval of the tentative map that it be dedicated (and accepted) prior to [or concurrent with] the final map being filed.

[David Kendall]

Well, thanks Phil!

It appears that the City wants a separate document is because it cannot accept the drainage easement on behalf of the County (Flood Control District?), but it is a condition of approval of the tentative map that it be dedicated (and accepted) prior to [or concurrent with] the final map being filed.

Agreeing with Phil here. Thank you Warren for the information this has confused me lately as well.... We recently had a city require the easements shown on a parcel map granted between the new lots in favor of each other to be created by separate instrument and shown and referenced on the map. This was taking the requirement to the extreme. I cannot see any point to it and the city surveyor didn't care to discuss reasoning on the matter.... Is it just a paper pusher trend? Why don't public agencies strive for efficiency?

When and why did acceptance of easements become a concern? If the easements are conditioned then presumably they serve some public purpose. While I have seen a private landowner grant an easement that the neighbor didn't want in order to fulfill the conditions and I can understand the problem in this case, I don't understand how it is solved by granting the easements by separate instrument. As far as I know there is no formal procedure for acceptance of easements beyond the map statements. We simply grant them and hope for the best. I believe it is typical (but not necessary) for the grantee to execute the recording which is a defacto acceptance but the grantor can also execute the recording should they choose

[Warren Smith]

The acceptance of grants of easements or fee title parcels by a public agency is required under the statutes governing the recording of documents relating to real property. Those which are able to be accepted on a subdivision map are covered in the SMA. Irrevocable offers of dedication can be recorded without an acceptance.

The depiction of access easements to otherwise landlocked parcels is sufficient, but is best accompanied by a note on the map indicating that such easements will be reserved at the time of sale to another party. Reference to a lot or parcel as shown on a filed map includes all such appurtenant easements - and those which burden lots and parcels as shown on said map.

[Steve Martin]

To provide an example for Warren's answer, at the independent public agency that I used to work for, we required easements specifically dedicated to EBMUD. A Public Utility Easement would not suffice. Since the County cannot accept easements on behalf of EBMUD, the acceptance of EBMUD easements shown on Tract maps is by a separately recorded instrument. Rather than leaving a blank space for the recorder to fill in recording information, we had boiler-plate dedication language on the map with a note that acceptance of said easement was by separately recorded instrument.

[mpallamary]

If your work product is altered, you are off the hook:

PLSA: 8761.2. Responsibility for subsequent changes

Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 8761, a registered civil engineer or licensed
land surveyor who signs land surveying maps, plats, reports, descriptions, or other surveying
documents shall not be responsible for damage caused by subsequent changes to or uses of those
maps, plats, reports, descriptions, or other surveying documents, where the subsequent changes
or uses, including changes or uses made by state or local governmental agencies, are not
authorized or approved by the registered civil engineer or licensed land surveyor who originally
signed the maps, plats, reports, descriptions, or other surveying documents, provided that the
engineering or surveying service rendered by the civil engineer or land surveyor who signed the
maps, plats, reports, descriptions, or other surveying documents was not also a proximate cause
of the damage.

[Ian Wilson]

Thanks, Steve! I'm just dealing with exactly that situation on a subdivision map with an easement to your former agency. Fortunately, your former sidekick, now department leader, and I have been in communication.

We'll show the easement on the map but will not put it in the Owner's Certificate.

[Steve Martin]

Hey Ian,

The separately recorded instrument is only the acceptance by the EBMUD Board of Directors of those easements shown as EBMUD Easements offered for dedication on Tract Map XYZ.

Most developers would prefer to dedicate to EBMUD on the map rather than describe and record the easements separately. It keeps all easement associated with a development in one place and avoids complications arising from separate easements recorded before the map, then development and map goes thru a change and easements have to be quit-claimed and re-recorded before lots can be sold.

Without the dedication language on the map including all of the conditions such as you can't build over, or plant trees over, EBMUD easements, there is no dedication.

You had better have the developer coordinate with EBMUD on the map dedication language before installation of pipelines and water meters gets delayed and lots cannot be sold.

[Ian Wilson]

Copy that, Steve. El Senor Mangini is looking at the map. He'd never seen it before. Doh!

[Steve Martin]

Jim will get to the bottom of it.

There is a significant water connection fee to help pay for the infrastructure up to the subdivision and sometimes developers avoid talking to EBMUD to try to avoid paying the fee.

[dedkad]

Separate instruments are the best way to describe certain conditions of an easement that can't be spelled out on the map, such as who is responsible for maintenance. In the City I worked for, practically every map had a concurrently recorded document which was cross-referenced on the face of map. The County Recorder would fill in the blanks in the documents for Map Book/Page and on the map for the Instrument #. Wasn't a problem. Makes research in the future much easier having everything cross-referenced.