Parcel Maps in Moraga, CA

Moraga sits on an instructive pair of geologic units: Moraga Formation volcanics over Orinda Formation sediments, a combination that has produced well-known landslide activity on developed slopes around town. That history shapes how the Town of Moraga reviews any Subdivision Map Act application. A tentative parcel map to split a lot on sloping ground should anticipate geotechnical review as a condition of processing, and wet-winter slope movement is a live design consideration, not a footnote. We structure our work accordingly — feasibility first, confirming zoning minimum lot sizes and access standards and checking the parcel against slope and hazard mapping, before tentative map dollars are spent.

The opportunity is real, though. Moraga's 1960s and 70s ranch-style subdivisions left many generous lots, and the semi-rural edges hold larger acreage where a parcel map creating up to four lots, or a two-lot split, can pencil. On the edges we pay particular attention to open-space boundaries: several neighborhoods back onto protected land, and the line between private lot and open space must be located precisely before anyone plans a new building site against it. Lot line adjustments are the other steady need here — on slopes that creep, fences and retaining walls migrate off the record line over decades, and an LLA lets neighboring owners reset the legal boundary to match reality without a full subdivision. Approved maps and LLA documents record with the Contra Costa County Recorder after review by the County Surveyor, and where we disturb or reset original monuments we comply with B&P Code §8771. SB 9 lot splits get an honest screening from us as well; the hazard-zone exclusions in the statute matter in Moraga more than in most towns.

Our Trimble terrestrial laser scanner lets us capture the boundary evidence and the required topographic base in a single mobilization — one visit that yields the record boundary, site contours, and a survey-grade point cloud the geotechnical engineer can interrogate for slope geometry, which shortens the review cycle measurably. See our combined boundary and topographic surveys for how we scope that package.