California Surveyors Forums

In light of many, or maybe most counties, providing copies of recorded maps and documents for free these days, I find it deplorable that we are paying $4.00 per sheet to obtain copies of San Diego County maps and survey records. For paper copies, yes there should be a fee, but it is ridiculous that a 20 sheet ROS costs me $80 to download from a website that has been paid for already.

What are other counties charging for copies of maps?

LA = $0 online
OC = $0 online
Riverside = $0 online
San Bernardino = $0 online
Ventura = $0 online
Santa Barbara = $0 online
Kern = $0 online

San Mateo, San Francisco, and Santa Clara Counties are $0 also.

San Luis Obispo = $0

Marin County CD update for all filed maps from July 2015-December 2015 is $5.75 at the counter. If they mail it, the cost is $9.28. I think you can get all of the maps for about $100, maybe cheaper if you brought in a thumb drive.

The Public Records Act come in to play on cost.

This is one of those situations that should be addressed by the San Diego Chapter of CLSA if not the state.

http://clsaforum.californiasurveyors.or ... hp?id=2575

Steffan posted this case last September. I am hoping that it can be applied towards low cost copies of maps and deeds from county recorders. Maybe one of our attorney buddies can draft a form letter for us to present to the clerks...

If not free, the public should at least be able to electronically download them directly at a considerably reduced cost. Not just surveys, but all scanned public records. Electronic downloads don't involve any expensive human labor. By reduced cost I mean at least 50%-75% off the cost of paper copies. If I wanted paper copies, I'd print them myself. In the case of the survey record system, at least they have the little clarifier window thingy that can be clumsily used to check the content and determine if the record even actually has pertinent information before purchasing it. The grantor/grantee index makes one purchase blind and gamble on whether the record is actually pertinent.

I suggest anyone who has a problem with San Diego's policy to contact the San Diego Chapter of CLSA and to ask them to get involved.

mpallamary wrote:I suggest anyone who has a problem with San Diego's policy to contact the San Diego Chapter of CLSA and to ask them to get involved.

It is a statewide concern for anyone not on the above list of $0 fees. I personally couldn't care less about San Diego county's policy but I am concerned about Humboldt and Trinity and any other office that continues to leverage the electronic copies of public documents for generating income. I certainly am sick of supporting county government for the theory of public benefit and protection then getting a surcharge again everytime I have the audacity to make use of the service and trouble some public official with some actual work. I understand that there are user costs associated with anything but $5 a page for any scanned document is excessive, onerous and clearly intended to generate a profit.

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David Kendall wrote:http://clsaforum.californiasurveyors.or ... hp?id=2575

Steffan posted this case last September. I am hoping that it can be applied towards low cost copies of maps and deeds from county recorders. Maybe one of our attorney buddies can draft a form letter for us to present to the clerks...

I wish we had access to all the deeds, but I think part of the issue with being able to just download deeds online has to do with the protection of public officials. If you could just sit behind your computer at home and search for grant deeds of your local congressman to find out his address and hunt him down, then that's a problem.

dedkad wrote: I wish we had access to all the deeds, but I think part of the issue with being able to just download deeds online has to do with the protection of public officials. If you could just sit behind your computer at home and search for grant deeds of your local congressman to find out his address and hunt him down, then that's a problem.

The documents are already public documents. It's just a question of ease of access at this point. Whether you can access them from a computer or at the courthouse. It is already public information.

pls7809: In your first post above, when you show $0 does that refer to a price per map, per sheet, or does it also mean the listed counties will download ALL of their maps for nothing if you show up with a thumb drive?

Lee

Hi Lee,

I meant for downloading a single sheet from each county's online research portal.

Thanks,
Ryan.

Don't forget that the Central Valley Chapter of CLSA hosts 500,000 map images from surrounding Counties in its Library on the Chapter website.

The CV Chapter website library is pretty incredible. If there's some obscure old BLM instruction you will likely find it on there.

Edward M Reading wrote:

dedkad wrote: I wish we had access to all the deeds, but I think part of the issue with being able to just download deeds online has to do with the protection of public officials. If you could just sit behind your computer at home and search for grant deeds of your local congressman to find out his address and hunt him down, then that's a problem.

The documents are already public documents. It's just a question of ease of access at this point. Whether you can access them from a computer or at the courthouse. It is already public information.

Not all info in the documents are public. When you get documents from the Recorder's office, they will redact certain information like account numbers and SSN's. I thought they were also required to redact personal information of public officials, but I could be wrong.