California Surveyors Forums

Can dedications be made on a Lot Line Adjustment?

We will be combining parts of miscellaneous lots into one lot and would like to dedicate corner cut-offs and street widenings with the same instrument.

Sorta like "Lots 1,2,3,and 4 of Tract XXXXX along with Lots 10 and 12 of Tract YYYYY, EXCEPTING therefrom the following described land:........being hereby dedicated to the City of ZZZZZ."

At first blush, I would say not, Dave.

Lot Line Adjustments can only be reviewed for compliance with zoning and building code and compliance with the general plan and any specific plan. It is designed to adjust existing lines to further the goals of development rather than create new parcels to convey to a jurisdiction.

On the other hand, after the Lot Line Adjustment has been completed, or even as a coincident action, the parcel or corner-cutoff can be dedicated under a separate document.

I’m not aware of any way to use the LLA to dedicate property.

Cheers, Dave!

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Firstly, the city cannot condition approval of the LLA on the owner giving them free land.

Otherwise, they can accept a dedication without any formal application or map. The city council will have to accept the dedication, or perhaps it has already given a manager the power to accept.

I'd grant the pieces first, then do the lot merger so that the resulting meets and bounds description is one piece, without exceptions. Everything can be filed simultaneously though.

I agree with Anthony, first dedicate, then LLA.

I'd adjust, THEN dedicate so that the dedication is of the adjusted parcels and not the PRE-adjusted ones. In my opinion, it would create less confusion.

Its a lot merger, not adjustment.

If it is merger then dedication, the record description would be the merger description. An estate lawyer will then use the incorrect description when he/she transfers the property into a trust because _they_never_ order title reports.

If the merger is done after the dedication, then the record description would be the correct one. Wouldn't that be safer?

No, Anthony, it's a Lot Line Adjustment. Re-read Dave's first post.

"We will be combining parts of miscellaneous lots into one lot ..."

They're not merging lots, they're sticking bits of lots together into one parcel - i.e. - a Lot Line Adjustment.

In order to make sure that someone down the road does not screw up the descriptions, perform the function on the lots and THEN carve out the dedication. That way, the parcels are in their final configuration BEFORE the dedication. The next configuration back behind the dedication shows the adjusted parcels, not a confusing collection of bits.

It's kind of like painting the wall THEN hanging the picture instead of hanging the picture and then painting the wall, leaving a mis-colored old patch behind the picture.

As Frank Durdon used to say, "Why do we do it like this? Because it LOOKS nice! That's why!"


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I agree with Ian -
You should complete the LLA or merger as it may be. I don’t think you should except out any property in the LLA because I think it would create an island and confusion in the future if the Agency does vacate that portion being dedicated.

A dedication can’t be made in the same description as the LLA because the City will need a clean description to attach their Certificate of Acceptance for the road dedication.

Complete your LLA and then dedicate the road.

Thanks for the response, Ian.

I haven't worked in Sac county before, but many parcels to one parcel describes a merger.

Around here, mergers occur so infrequently compared to LLAs that many jurisdictions use the LLA process for mergers. Where a merger process is available, the fee is substantially less and the process was only a few days to complete. Try that with an LLA.

Regarding post/prior: dedications to agencies are basically exempt from the SMA, and don't require anything more than a grant deed and agency acceptance. So why would a new description be recorded? I see borked descriptions in trust transfer deeds all the time.

JoeC - good point about vacations. I hadn't thought of that.

Gotta to agree with Ian; Lot Line Adjustment/Merger first, then the City dedications. Don't try to shortcut the process. Up here in the "State of Jefferson" mergers are done with a LLA. I have done a few of these in Redding in the last 5 years( What can you build on a 25' by 150' lot ???). Doing the dedication after the merger might take a little longer, but down the road some Surveyor following you will speak kindly of you.

Regards,

Read the original post. The situation describes glomming bits of a bunch of lots onto one lot through e Lot Line Adjustment.

Why would a new description be recorded? Because the dedication was not a complete lot.

It's always cleaner to get the lots set BEFORE the next step - granting the dedication. Remember that a dedication is NOT a conveyance of fee. Any reversion of the rights will be a darned sight cleaner when it simply goes back to the property from which it came rather than a missmatched patchwork back to the original lots that haven't existed for many years.

I too agree with Ian.