Land Surveying Blog

Before construction begins, good planning starts with accurate information.

A Site Plan Survey provides detailed information about a property so architects, engineers, contractors, and local officials can design and review a proposed project.

A site plan survey may include:
📍 Property boundaries (verify this is included in your scope of work with requesting a site plan survey. Many cities are requiring all site plans also have a true boundary survey as part of the requirement)
🏢 Existing buildings and improvements
🌳 Trees, fences, and other visible features
🛣️ Roads, sidewalks, and access points
⚡ Visible utilities and easements
📏 Topographic information, when required

Site plan surveys are commonly used for:
🏠 New homes
🏢 Commercial buildings
🚗 Parking lots
🏗️ Building additions
🌿 Land development projects

Every successful project begins with reliable survey data. Investing in a professional survey early can help identify potential issues before construction starts, saving time and reducing costly surprises.

Thinking about dividing your property?

A Lot Split Survey is used when a landowner wants to divide one parcel into two or more new parcels.

Your surveyor will:
📐 Measure the existing property
📄 Prepare legal descriptions for the new parcels
🗺️ Create a survey or plat showing the proposed division
🏛️ Help ensure the split complies with local subdivision regulations and zoning requirements (We verify with each county or city municipality prior to bidding a lot split if the division can be done through that city or county’s process)

Lot splits are commonly used for:
🏡 Creating a homesite
🌾 Dividing family farmland
💼 Selling part of a larger property
🏘️ Small residential developments

Because subdivision requirements vary by city and county, it's important to work with both your local planning authority and a Missouri Professional Land Surveyor early in the process.

A Boundary Survey is one of the most common services provided by a Missouri Professional Land Surveyor.

Its purpose is to determine and mark the location of your property's legal boundaries by researching deeds, plats, historical records, and existing survey evidence before performing field measurements.

A boundary survey is commonly needed when you are:
🏡 Buying or selling property
🚧 Building a fence, garage, or addition
🌳 Resolving a property line question
🏗️ Planning improvements near a property line

At the completion of a boundary survey, property corners may be marked or reestablished where appropriate, giving you confidence in the location of your legal boundaries.

Remember—fences, tree lines, and online GIS maps are not reliable indicators of your legal property lines.

Have you ever noticed a piece of rebar, an iron pipe, a pointed stone or a brass cap near a property corner?

Those are often survey monuments—the physical evidence used to mark property corners and other important survey control points.

These monuments:
📌 Help establish property boundaries
📌 Connect today's surveys to historical land records
📌 Provide consistency for future surveys
📌 Help prevent costly boundary disputes

In Missouri, knowingly removing, disturbing, or destroying survey monuments is prohibited except as allowed by law. Damaging a monument can result in criminal penalties and civil liability for the cost of restoring it. (See RSMo § 60.355.)

If you discover a survey monument during excavation or construction, don't remove it. Contact a Missouri Professional Land Surveyor before proceeding.

Have you ever wondered how property lines are determined?

A Professional Land Surveyor doesn't just create property boundaries—they locate and retrace existing property boundaries using legal descriptions, historical records, field evidence, and established surveying principles.

Surveyors help:
🏡 Define property boundaries
🏗️ Support construction projects
🛣️ Establish easements and rights-of-way
🌳 Resolve boundary questions between neighboring properties
📐 Create legal descriptions for land transactions

Create new parcels in accordance with County regulations for land owners

In Missouri, Professional Land Surveyors are licensed by the Missouri Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Professional Land Surveyors, and Professional Landscape Architects and must meet education, experience, and examination requirements before practicing.

Remember: Fences, tree lines, and mowed areas are not always the property line. Only a professional boundary survey can determine where your legal property boundaries are located.