California Surveyors Forums

As I know I sound like a broken record here and consistent with my thesis about "measurement is dead," in order for the profession to survive, we need to move in a different direction, one that is not so dependent on the competitive world of measurement. A recent published decision case came out on one of my cases wherein I testified as the land use expert, explaining and debating as to the various elements that constitute blight and real property law. In my opinion, land surveyors should migrate to the land use arena; planners are not licensed. If not us, who?

The case is also important as it speaks to my favorite topic - public records. In this case, we are looking at upward of $2M in legal fees and it is a prime example of government abuse and lack of respect for PRA law. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from this case.

Technically, it is also interesting in that I was able to apply GIS in a straight forward setting when I evaluated the various blighting conditions such as crime, structural deficiencies, etc. This is another area we, as surveyors should be more involved in. If we are going to survive, we need to adapt. There are a lot of great opportunities out there for all of us and they can be very exciting. We just need to expand our horizons!