ALTA/NSPS Surveys in Petaluma, CA

Petaluma trades a wide range of commercial property, and each type brings its own title problems. The flex, industrial, and food-production buildings along the river and the Highway 101 corridor sit on parcels crossed by drainage, levee, and utility easements, and their loading and yard areas frequently spill across lines that were drawn before the improvements existed. Downtown, the historic townsite grid puts buildings hard against alleys and against each other, so encroachments of walls, eaves, awnings, stairs, and cellar vaults are ordinary rather than exceptional. Outside the urban growth boundary, ranch and agricultural parcels carry metes-and-bounds descriptions, shared road and water easements, and in many cases Williamson Act contracts that a buyer needs mapped, not summarized. The SMART rail corridor runs through the city as well, and rail rights of way and their adjoining easements have to be resolved against the parcel rather than assumed.

Our ALTA work starts in the record: the title commitment, every exception document, the Sonoma County Clerk-Recorder's deeds and maps, and filed Records of Survey held by the Sonoma County Surveyor. Then the field. We scan the site with a Trimble terrestrial laser scanner tied to a GNSS and total-station control network, which is how we get building footprints, measured improvements, parking counts, visible utility evidence, and encroachment geometry at survey grade in one visit. Table A item 3 flood-zone designation matters on a lot of Petaluma parcels; item 11 utilities and item 13 adjoining owners come up on nearly all of them. We tell you before fieldwork which options genuinely add value on your parcel and which will just add cost.

Deliverables are a signed and sealed ALTA/NSPS survey meeting the current standards, a layered DWG for your engineer or architect, and the point cloud when the buyer intends to redevelop. For background on the process, see our complete guide to ALTA surveys.