And, let’s not forget the office grunt, who is researching deeds and plat maps and records of survey and field notes! Man, I can feel old paper cuts beginning to revive at the memories!
“Does this look like a six or an eight to you?”
~VOW
Try doing a windshield survey on the Blue Ridge in North Carolina. Is this a road? No, I don’t mean is this an official road. I mean is this an actual road or just a wide spot between trees? Is that an actual residence? How the hell did they get a trailer up THERE? Do we still call it a residence if there’s a tree growing through it? Is a grow house classified as a home occupation? Did this family* intentionally *pave their driveway with spent shotgun shells, or did it just work out that way?
Some slight exageration.
We’ll see if this works. You see that loop of streets at the north end of Redwood Drive? It’s not there. It never was. It shows on maps as far back as 25 years ago. Near as I can figure, some developer plotted out the streets and paid the fees, and then he ran out of money. Last summer, there was an auction to try to unload the land, but nobody cared.
I live nearby, and once or twice a year some stranger asks to find Hickory Drive. They are political canvassers and poor saps hoping to sell Kirby sweepers. It’s part of our local entertainment.
ETA: It didn’t work. Maybe I’ll find the way later. Sorry.
In my town there were several errors on google maps originally. They had a street going through a block where it was blocked by a property (and from the looks of the house built square in the middle of where it would have gone, I doubt it ever went through), another place where an intersection was blocked that did used to go through and a park that was shown as two blocks long, when it is actually only a half block long (and has been for at least the last 43 years since I used to live around the corner from it. I wrote to MapQuest and it has all been corrected. The only complaint I now have is that the street names, while technically correct, are not what the streets are called. The town finally relented and has posted both the name and what it is called.
The mystery streets and streets to nowhere on Google Maps and many GPS testify to the source of the information in that area.
Many GIS databases were created from information purchased from County Assessor Offices. The maps showing tax parcels in these Assessor Offices were compiled a zillion years ago from recorded maps in that County. Recorded maps consist of Map Books (Plat Maps), Parcel Maps, and Records of Survey. The plat maps go by the common name “subdivision maps.” AskNott has the right idea: there have been many instances where a developer hired a surveyor and/or engineer and a hunk of land was turned into a subdivision on paper. The surveyor went out to the land, recovered monuments, set new monuments, and then the map was drawn up. Once the subdivision is accepted by the County, those lines exist forever more.
In a subdivision, there are streets created and typically dedicated to public use. Now, if somebody else comes along and buys up the entire block of lots, the new owner may decide to take the street, as well, and build his house wherever he pleases–as long as the County is happy with his intentions and he gets the proper permits. But that street still exists under his house. It’s called “vacated.”
In later years if another developer comes along and wants to do something completely different with the hunk of land in an undeveloped subdivision, he can have different lots created, and different streets. As long as the County requirements are met, he can have his own subdivision map drawn up, and his surveyor can go out there and recover monuments and set new ones according to the new subdivision.
The new map (if it is accepted by the County) OVERLAYS the old one.
And the office grunts wail and scream, and beat their heads against the desks, and get copies of both sets of maps, and scour field notes and receive many more paper cuts on their fingers.
~VOW
A place high on a desert plain?