Monument Preservation in Sausalito, CA

Sausalito's own subdivision ordinance shows how deliberately these monuments were set. SMC Title 9 defines a monument as new galvanized iron pipe not less than two inches in diameter and 24 inches long, or a reinforced concrete post, each carrying a copper plate or disk securely attached by a copper dowel or nail marking the exact point and stamped with the registered license number of the engineer or surveyor. Street monuments are set so their tops are at least seven and one-half inches below finished pavement grade, enclosed in cast iron receptacles with covers set flush and supported independently of the monument, and all monuments and their locations are inspected and approved by the City Engineer. Where no monument is set at a lot corner, angle point, or curve point, a redwood hub is driven flush with the ground and the exact corner marked by a nonferrous metal tack.

All of that is destroyed easily. Section 8771 of the Business and Professions Code requires that monuments controlling property lines be located and referenced before construction disturbs them, and that a Corner Record or Record of Survey be filed. In Sausalito the hazards are paving and slurry work on Bridgeway and the hillside streets, reconstruction of public stairways and retaining walls, utility trenching in narrow rights-of-way, and driveway and encroachment work. Because so many boundaries here are retraced from a handful of surviving points, losing one degrades a whole neighborhood's boundary evidence, not just one corner.

We locate the monuments in the work area, tie them to durable references outside the limits of disturbance, file the pre-construction Corner Record with the Marin County Surveyor, and return afterward to reset and file. Where the corridor is complex, we scan it before demolition so surrounding evidence survives as measured geometry. See Sausalito parcel maps and monument preservation and section 8771.