April 1, 2024
The County Surveyors Offices of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties have announced in a joint statement a new program regarding the required examination of all Records of Survey. Due to staffing shortages, the inability to attract and retain experienced staff, outrageous fees levied for map check services and concomitant processing delays, effective immediately all Records of Survey submitted for map check will be reviewed by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm. A revolutionary new concept that is expected to reduce the amount of time needed to complete a review of a map, eliminate redundancies and provide a quality result desired by local Professional Land Surveyors in this area. And perhaps the most exciting aspect of this new program is that the respective County Surveyors have agreed to waive all map check fees for a limited time. Thats right, today and today only any Record of Survey submitted for review will not require a map check fee. Truly a remarkable cost savings to you and your client ! Of course, the devil is in the details. If the review completed by the AI program finds no errors or omissions on the draft map submitted the examination fee will be waived. If the AI program places any red marks on your map, then the fee will be reduced but not eliminated. The joint statement refers to this new program as the "First and Only Outstanding Land Surveys" or FOOLS act.