A property surveyor will research the property before the actual land is viewed. A surveyor will research the history of the deed and may include a title search. This title search makes sure there are no discrepancies when it comes to who owns the land. All property surveys begin with research into legal descriptions about the land they'll be surveying and its history. The surveyor will actually go out to the property and sketch out the land, its boundaries, and different elements that make up your property, called fieldwork. After surveying, they will provide a type of map detailing the property's legal boundaries. The survey will also include a written description of the property, the street address, the location of buildings and adjacent properties, and any improvements a homeowner can make to the land. This is important to determine at the begining of your purchase if you plan to renovate or upgrade or add a pool to the home. A property survey also includes things like right-of-ways and easements. These are elements that detail what to do with shared yards or driveways, or if your neighbor has a right of way to the street or alleyway between your homes.
Per Jeff McClung of McClung Surveying, in 2005, the state of Georgia implemented new stream buffer restrictions. Over the past few years, these restrictions have become a major problem for some home buyers and existing homeowners wanting to make improvements to their property. Nowadays, you are 4-5 times more likely to encounter a property with stream buffer restrictions than property being located in a flood zone. It is important to be informed about this issue facing homebuyers today.
The stream buffer laws set by the state started small at 25 feet and have slowly grown to 75 feet from the edge of the bank on each side in most metro Atlanta counties, and it’s becoming more difficult to obtain a variance for new construction within these areas. These buffers are intended to protect the environment against pollution and increased storm water runoff. Stream buffers also known as impervious and riparian buffers, are bands of vegetation bordering a body of water or drainage areas that play a crucial role is promoting public health by protecting water quality. The type of vegetation in the buffer depends upon the climate and buffers the stream from anything that flows into it – polluted water, eroding soil or toxic chemicals. Many fish species need cool water and steam vegetation provides shade to keep streams cool. Leaves falling into the stream provide food for insects that fish eat. Roots help stabilize stream banks also provide shelter for wildlife as they drink from waterways.
McClung Surveying has encountered as many as 30 to 40 properties per month affected by stream buffers. Some properties have had buffer lines running through the house which makes it very difficult to obtain building permits to add many new improvements to the house in those buffer line areas. Only the existing house and improvements would be grandfathered into the stream buffer lines. To give you a example of how big of an issue this is…in the past 10 days, they have worked on three properties, two of which were small half acre lots and on that was 3.8 acres, the total negative loss of value for just those three lots was around 2 million dollars for the owners. Due to these numbers, stream buffers can be a big deal to a purchaser.
Stream buffer requirements may not show up on older surveys. A homebuyer should always get a survey of the property they are purchasing. Premier Homes By Angela, will assist you thorough this process and connect you with surveyor resources.
Source: https://www.mcclungsurveying.com/surveyor_blog
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