The Role of County Surveyors in Approving Plats Under Statute 505
Minnesota Statute 505 defines how plats are to be created by professional surveyors. In typical legal fashion, its language is somewhat impenetrable. This article will break MN §505.021 (Plat Contents; Survey; County Surveyor Approval) down in briefer, more easily understood terms for the benefit of the general public.
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Subdivision 1: Plat Format – Describes materials a plat will be made of, as well as its dimensions, border line widths, and how it will be numbered if it includes multiple pages. Official plats and copies will be labeled accordingly.
Subdivision 2: Plat Name; Legal Description; Dedication Statement – Describes where and how a plat name will appear. Requires a plat to contain complete and accurate descriptions of each tract of land being platted, as well as dedication statement.
Subdivision 3: Ownership Interest; Acknowledgement – Requires names and signatures of the following to appear on a plat (when applicable): fee owners, contract for deed vendees, and mortgage holders of record. Requires inclusion of certain details pertaining to signors, such as marital statuses of individual owners that appear on a plat.
Subdivision 4: Boundary; Lots; Blocks; Outlots – Specifies that plat boundaries will be designated on a plat in accordance with the underlying legal description and survey. All lots in each block will be numbered consecutively; all blocks will be numbered in the same fashion; all lots will be labeled “OUTLOT” and lettered consecutively.
Subdivision 5: Mathematical Data; Dimensions; Labels; Symbols – Specifies that a plat will show all survey, mathematical information and other data required to locate and retrace all boundary lines and monuments. Essentially, this subdivision requires a plat to contain all the information that would be required to faithfully replicate its map portion.
Subdivision 6: Public Ways – Specifies that any public ways contained by a plat must be depicted therein, along with any mathematical data requisite to locate their positions and weights. Locations of public ways adjacent to the boundary will be depicted as dash lines. Names and widths of known adjacent public ways will be included.
Subdivision 7: Easements – Specifies that all easements dedicated to a plat will be depicted alongside their purpose and identification. Sufficient mathematical data to locate easement boundaries will also be included. Easements are limited to drainage, public ways and utility. Temporary easements will not be shown.
Subdivision 8: Water Boundaries – Specifies that any water boundaries abutting or lying within plat boundaries must be shown and identified. Distances between survey line and water boundary will be shown at all angle points, lot and boundary lines; plat monuments must be set at any location where survey line intersects with a plat boundary line, etc. All water elevations must be included.
Subdivision 9: Certifications – States that a plat must contain a certification by the land surveyor who created it (or supervised its creation), as well as whichever surveyor prepared (or supervised the preparation of) a plat. The certification will state the following:
Plat is a correct representation of the boundary survey.
All mathematical data and labels are correctly designated.
All monuments depicted have been (or will be) correctly set within one year as indicated on plat.
All water boundaries, wet lands and public ways are shown and labeled.
Subdivision 9 also requires the surveyor’s certification to be properly acknowledged by the surveyor on the plat before a notarial officer, and specifies how that bureaucratic requirement will be satisfied.
Subdivision 10: Survey – States that the certifying land surveyor must survey (or directly supervise) the land depicted on a plat. Also determines correct placement of monuments.
Subdivision 11: Survey – States that all plats prepared for recording in accordance with MN §505.021 are subject to approval by the county surveyor in accordance with 389.09, subdivision 1, and/or as authorized by their respective county board of commissioners.
Do you need plat surveying in Minnesota, North Dakota or South Dakota? Make sure your plat conforms to the full letter of the law. Contact Compass Consultants today for the peace of mind that can only come from expert plat surveying.
