N.M. Admin. Code § 12.8.2.7

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 23, December 10, 2024

Section 12.8.2.7 - DEFINITIONS

A.Professional competency and performance: A surveyor shall provide competent representation to the client, their employer and the public interest. Competent surveying practice requires the knowledge, skill, thoroughness, and preparation reasonably necessary for the engagement including the assessment of which his/her skills, knowledge and experience befits the needs of the client and to advise or otherwise direct or decline the work based on that assessment of their personal and professional competency.

B.Types of Surveying:

(1)Boundary surveying is the determination, description, portraying, measuring or monumentation of the boundaries of a tract of land and reflecting the relationship of the boundaries of the surveyed property (i.e. contiguity, gaps, or overlaps) with its adjoiners, where ascertainable from record documents or from field evidence gathered during the process of conducting the survey of the property being surveyed. If the surveyed property is composed of multiple parcels, the extent of any gaps or overlaps between those parcels shall be identified.

(2)Improvement location reporting is the preparation of a report which complies with all of the requirements and limitations of an improvement location report as set forth in 12.8.2.10 NMAC, and which is issued to a title, abstract or escrow company or a lending institution for their exclusive use in determining such things as insurability or value of a tract of land.

(3)Topographic surveying is the measurement and portrayal of the configuration of the ground or the location and description of objects thereon. It can include the plotting and description of property boundary monuments and property lines on a topographic map. Unless a boundary survey is being conducted simultaneously, only existing monuments found at the time of the survey are shown, and no boundary monuments are set; and the following words are prominently shown on the topographic map: THIS IS NOT A BOUNDARY SURVEY OR A RIGHT-OF-WAY SURVEY. APPARENT PROPERTY CORNERS, RIGHT-OF-WAY LINES, OR PROPERTY LINES AS SHOWN ARE DERIVED FROM RECORD SURVEY PLATS, RIGHT-OF-WAY MAPS, OR DEEDS REFERENCED HEREON AND ARE NOT GUARANTEED OR TO BE RELIED ON FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PROPERTY LINES.

(4)Easement surveying is the description, portrayal, or monumentation of easement(s) only.

(5)Right-of-way surveying is boundary surveying of existing right-of-way lines, which may include the boundary survey of adjoining property lines, for locating existing or proposed right-of-way.

(6)Condominium surveying- when performing or preparing a survey that falls under the Condominium Act (Article 7B), the survey requirements (Article 47-7B-9 or subsequent amendments) of said act shall be the standards to which the survey shall be held.

(7)Preparation of legal descriptions- the preparation of legal descriptions is a form of surveying and, other than the citing of a lot or parcel for reference or identification purposes of a duly recorded plat, must be performed by a licensed professional surveyor.

(8)An ALTA/NSPS survey is a boundary survey. Therefore, a plat of survey must be recorded. The filed survey can be a separate plat and need not include all the detail of the ALTA/NSPS survey but only the improvements affecting the boundary are required to be shown (See Subsection J of 12.8.2.9 NMAC).

(9)Control surveying is the establishment of horizontal or vertical controls which will be the basis for future phases of a project including, but not limited to: extraction of geospatial data, engineering design projects, construction staking, surveys to layout horizontal and vertical alignments, topographic surveys using field methods, collection of topographic and planimetric data using photogrammetric methods and construction surveys of engineering or architectural public works projects.

(10)Unclassified surveying is surveying not defined above.

C."Dimensions means" the direction, expressed either as a bearing or an azimuth, and the length of a survey line.

D."Easement means" a right that the public, a person or an entity holds in the land of another.

E."Monument means" an object intended to mark a property boundary or a point of reference.

F."Surveyor means" a professional surveyor licensed under the Engineering and Surveying Practice Act.

G."Tract or lot means" a parcel of land in separate ownership, where a unique parcel identification number(s) has been or will be assigned by the county in which the tract or lot is situated. It can also be a leasehold set off for separate ownership or a leasehold for other uses.

H."Supplemental surveying work means" surveying work performed in order to densify, augment and enhance previously performed surveying work or site information but excludes the surveying of real property for the establishment of land boundaries, rights of way, easements and the dependent or independent surveys or resurveys of the public land system.

I."GPS" is global positioning system, a.k.a. GNSS.

J."Classes of surveys":

(1)"Urban means" a survey within or adjoining a municipality or a survey, regardless of location, of land zoned for or intended for use for multifamily, commercial or industrial purposes.

(2)"Suburban means" a survey, which is not an urban survey, of land zoned for or intended for use for residential purposes.

(3)"Rural means" a survey, which is neither an urban nor suburban survey.

K."Positional error means" the error inherent in setting or measuring from a monument and is added to the error expressed as a ratio for a closed traverse.

L. "Positional accuracy" is an assessment of the closeness of the location of spatial objects in relation to their true positions geospatially.

M. "GNSS" is global navigational satellite system, a.k.a. GPS or global positioning by satellites.

N."Geospatial" is the relative position of features on, above, or below the earth's surface defined by a localized or globalized system.

O."OPUS" is the online positioning user service as provided by the national geodetic survey, national oceanic atmospheric administration, United States (U.S.) government.

P."Digital geospatial data" is data in addition to, or as an alternative to, written or drawn media containing geospatially referenced electronic or computerized data, including land information systems (LIS) and geographic information systems (GIS). It includes data such as produced by optical and digital photographic comparison, scanners, lidar or radar, laser, infrared or ultrasonic measuring and UAV/UAS/airborne sensors

Q."Basis of Bearing" is the basis of bearings or azimuth used in the survey and required to be depicted for boundary surveys, easement surveys, right-of-way surveys, ALTA/NSPS surveys and control surveys and shall be shown and based upon:

(a) New Mexico (NM) state plane grid coordinates with specifics to horizontal datum, zone, and convergence angle if pertinent;

(b) a specific line between two points either found or re-established set points as shown on an existing filed plat or included as part of a deed description;

(c) measured and published geodetic control values based upon an online position user service (OPUS) solution or geodetic control stations;

(d) a longitudinal line is acceptable using GPS or GNSS observations or other means for determining the longitude of a basis of bearings as long as the longitudinal value is published on the survey with the method used in determining the longitude;

(e) "GPS North" or similar notations without explanation as described above is unacceptable; and the use of "assumed bearings" is prohibited.

A basis of bearings for legal descriptions and unclassified surveys is required only if the performing surveyor determines it is necessary for others to retrace the survey.

N.M. Admin. Code § 12.8.2.7

12.8.2.7 NMAC - Rp, 12.8.2.7 NMAC, 5/01/2007, Amended by New Mexico Register, Volume XXVII, Issue 13, July 15, 2016, eff. 7/24/2016, Amended by New Mexico Register, Volume XXXIII, Issue 04, February 22, 2022, eff. 3/12/2022