Parcel Maps in Pinole, CA

Pinole compresses two very different mapping problems into one small city. The old town core near San Pablo Bay traces to the 1800s rancho era, and titles there can descend through rancho-derived descriptions — metes and bounds calling to long-vanished features, superimposed with later plats that do not quite fit them. A lot line adjustment or merger between old-town parcels usually begins as a research project: patent lines, early plats, deeds, and recovered monuments must be reconciled before a defensible new line can be drawn. We do that reconciliation as part of the map, and we perpetuate the monuments we recover under Business & Professions Code §8771 so the next surveyor inherits a better record than we did.

Above the valley, the hillside subdivisions ringing Pinole present the opposite problem: modern lots with clean record geometry but difficult ground. A hillside split lives or dies on slope — driveway grades, pad location, drainage, and generic hillside stability caution all determine whether a second buildable site exists. Under the Subdivision Map Act, we take these through feasibility first: a candid assessment of zoning minimums, access, and terrain before any tentative parcel map is drawn. This is where our Trimble terrestrial laser scanner changes the economics. In a single mobilization we capture the boundary and a survey-grade topographic model of the whole slope — millions of points — so the feasibility answer rests on real contours rather than county GIS, and the civil engineer designs from the same dataset if the split proceeds. Our combined boundary and topographic survey is built for exactly this.

Every Pinole parcel map is examined by the Contra Costa County Surveyor and recorded with the Contra Costa County Recorder in nearby Martinez; we manage plan check, corrections, and recordation. Near the shoreline and Pinole Creek corridor, we also flag mapped liquefaction considerations under the Seismic Hazards Mapping Act where they bear on a proposed division's conditions.