Condo Conversions in Petaluma, CA

A condominium conversion is a subdivision, which means it runs on the Subdivision Map Act rather than on a building permit. Under the Act, a conversion creating five or more condominium units takes a tentative and final subdivision map; smaller projects go the parcel map route, which Petaluma treats as a minor subdivision of four or fewer. Either way the city's tentative map checklist governs what the map has to show, and several of its items are pure survey work: certification of accuracy by a registered civil engineer or licensed surveyor, a Report and Guarantee of Clear Title no more than six months old containing a clear concise metes and bounds description of the property, the approximate width and location of all existing easements, the distance from existing structures to the boundary lines, and the location of existing overhead utility lines and poles as well as underground utilities and drain pipes.

The harder half is the condominium plan, because it describes airspace. Unit boundaries are defined against real surfaces, floors, ceilings, and the interior faces of walls, in a building that was constructed to whatever tolerance its era allowed. Petaluma's conversion candidates are frequently older: downtown mixed-use buildings over ground-floor retail, and 1960s and 1970s apartment blocks on the east side, where slabs are not level and demising walls are not where the original plans put them. Our Trimble terrestrial laser scanner measures the building as built, at millions of points, so unit areas, ceiling heights, and boundary planes come from the structure rather than from a set of drawings nobody has verified. Common area, exclusive-use common area, and utility runs get mapped from the same data.

Deliverables include the condominium plan, tentative and final map exhibits, a boundary survey tied to recovered monuments, and per-unit floor plans and areas, with recording through the Sonoma County Clerk-Recorder in Santa Rosa. See our Petaluma as-built surveys for the building documentation side.