ADU Surveys in Albany, CA

Albany's ADU rules are friendlier than the state floor in one way — rear and side setbacks can be as little as 3 feet — but the city pairs that generosity with a hard verification step: newly constructed detached ADUs proposed closer than 4 feet to any property line require a form certification completed by a licensed surveyor before the foundation pour. In other words, if you use the setback flexibility Albany offers, a surveyor has to confirm on the ground that the forms sit where the plans say they do. On Albany's compact lots — most of the city is 40-foot-wide parcels platted in the early 1900s — nearly every backyard ADU takes advantage of those tight setbacks, so the certification requirement is the rule rather than the exception.

That pre-pour certification is only meaningful if the property lines themselves are established, and Albany's fences are no more trustworthy than anywhere else in the inner East Bay: a century of replacement fences drifting off line means the fence you measure from may be a foot into your neighbor's parcel or your own. We establish the boundary from monument evidence and record research, stake the corners, and return at forming to complete the certification — one surveyor, one continuous chain of evidence from design through pour. Albany is otherwise a streamlined jurisdiction (ADUs go straight to building permit without planning approval), but parcels near Cerrito Creek or Codornices Creek can sit in the city's Watercourse Overlay District, where FEMA-driven creek setbacks and design rules apply and early mapping pays for itself.

Deliverables include a site plan base map with verified lines, staked corners, and the completed certification at forming. For projects that also need terrain data — Albany Hill parcels especially — our Albany topographic surveys extend the same visit into contours and drainage.