County Surveyor

  1. 1 A surveyor at work on the shoulder of a county road.
  2. 2 Surveying a gravel bar.
  3. 3 A field prior to the construction of a subdivision
  4. 4 A field after the construction of a subdivision

IMPORTANT NOTE:  

​The County Surveyor does not survey private property. You will need to contact a licensed land surveyor for this work. Land surveyors can be found in a number of ways including, but not limited to, the following: 
Note that the County Surveyor is not able to recommend a land surveyor. However, the State of California Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists (the professional licensing board for land surveyors) publishes a consumer guide [1.6 MB] to aid the public in selecting a licensed land surveyor. 


Also, determining the location of property lines is not a do-it-yourself (DIY) project.  There are websites and internet videos that suggest that using a City or County's Geographic Information System (GIS) to obtain coordinates of the property corners depicted on the GIS; and then use a global position satellite (GPS) app on a cell phone to easily locate the property corners.  There are three major issues with doing this:

  1. The property corners shown on the GIS are not tied to the grid that GPS uses. Unless the property corners in the GIS are tied to the GPS grid (which they are not), one will be attempting to locate a random point and not the property corner. 
  2. In addition, the property corners shown on the GIS do not consider deed calls as and other evidence that must be evaluated by a licensed land surveyor when performing a boundary survey. 
  3. The positional accuracy of a cell phone GPS (as well as other consumer grade handheld GPS receivers) is around 5 to 10 meters which is not sufficient for locating property corners.  In contrast, the accuracy of professional-grade GPS used by licensed land surveyors is sub-centimeter.​​
A person not educated in surgery would never think of performing surgery themselves. Just like surgery, surveying must be left to the professionals.​​


Responsibilities:

The County Surveyor reviews subdivision maps, records of survey maps, corner records, and lot line adjustments, as well as:

  • Maintains the County Surveyor’s Map Index of filed maps and unrecorded surveys
  • Maintains the Surveyor’s Library (unrecorded surveys)
  • Reviews, files, and maintains Corner Records
  • Administers the Monument Preservation Fund (County Code Section 3101-1 et seq.)
  • Facilitates Boundary Corrections (County Code Section 325.5-3)
  • Fields general questions regarding property boundaries.

Under the County Surveyor’s direction, field crews within the Survey Section also provide field surveying for:

  • County roads
  • County airports
  • County parks, trails, beaches, and community forest
  • County drainage systems and facilities
  • County owned property and facilities
  • County leased property and facilities
  • Monument preservation

The County Surveyor prepares the associated mapping, boundary surveys, and survey document preparation for projects related to the above facilities.

Helpful links and reference materials:

Looking for Deeds and Maps?

The official repository for filed and recorded maps, deeds, and other documents is the County Recorder's Office. For official or certified copies of these documents please contact the Humboldt County Recorder at 825 5th Street, 5th floor, Eureka, CA 95501 or call (707)445-7593 or visit the County Recorder's Office Search / Self-Service webpage.

Year-End Filing / Recording of Subdivision Maps:

The following are submittal deadlines in order to facilitate the filing / recording of Subdivision Maps before the end of the calendar year. All maps shall be signed by all owners, trustees / beneficiaries (if any) and the County Tax Collector. All clearances must obtained, Public Works billing reconciled, and County Surveyor map check requirements completed by the dates below:

  • Parcel Maps (Minor Subdivision) with no Board of Supervisors action required: December 15th.
  • Parcel Maps (Minor Subdivision) that require Board of Supervisors action due to Vacation / Abandonment or other circumstances: November 15th.
  • Final Maps / Tract Maps (Major Subdivision): November 15th.

Fee Schedule:

The County Fee Schedule is adopted annually by the Board of Supervisors and can be found here. Fees related to the County Surveyor's Office have been compiled from the County Fee Schedule into the following list:

2025 Fee Schedule (Effective 02/17/2025)

Make checks payable to County of Humboldt, unless noted otherwise.

Item

Fee

Checking of Parcel Maps and Final Maps

Actual cost with an initial deposit of $1,800 + $120 per lot/parcel + Index Fee

Checking of Record of Surveys

Actual cost with an initial deposit of $600 + Index Fee

Checking of Certification of CorrectionsActual cost with an initial deposit of $300 + Index Fee
Checking of Corner Records

$16 each

Application for Boundary Correction

Actual cost with an initial deposit of $300

Index Fee

$13 first page + $3 each additional page

County Recorder Fees for Record of Survey Map filing (including map copy fees)$95 first page; $8 each additional page. (Make checks payable to Humboldt County Recorder.)


Broken Links

Many of the links on this webpage are to external websites. Please report broken links on this webpage to countysurveyor@co.humboldt.ca.us. Thank you for helping to keep this page up to date and accurate.