Property stakes marked - don't know why

[mollyanna58]

So I got home today and found there were pink neon tapes marking both front corners of my property.  The one stake is buried down about an inch and someone dug around to find it.  The other one is visible in a flower bed.

I don't know why this was done.  I'm not refinancing, so there's no reason for someone to survey the property.  The back corners were not marked.  I live on a county road, and every few years, all the properties will have the front corners marked, when the county plans on repaving or whatever.  But this time, it was only my house. 

This makes me nervous.

[haapai]

If it makes you feel any better, after driving home from my closing, I noticed a series of Miss Dig flags on the lawn between the sidewalk and the driveway.  It made me nervous too. 

I left those little buggers in place all winter and most of the spring.  The sparkler-style stakes were pretty rusty when I finally pulled them up but I never did figure out why they were there.

On the other hand, I wasn't absolutely sure that that sapling had been there during showings either. 

I'm kinda ashamed of this story.  Part of me thinks that I should have been calling city hall and asking about permits and plans possibly pertaining to my property.

[msventoux]

Do you have utility easements on your property?  A couple of years ago my markers were flagged and it was because the utility company had to move some lines a few months later to get ready for a road improvement project the following year.  I left the flagging alone because I figured what it was for, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people ripped them down since there was such a gap from when things were marked to when they actually moved the lines.

Oh, and the road crews have also marked mine before (or maybe it was the utility company again) when they were getting ready to clear the right of ways of grown up bushes and trees.

[mollyanna58]

No easements that I know of; and I think they'd mark the entire line of whatever might be buried, not just the two corners.

[Deleted]

I had a couple spot in my front yard spray painted over the summer. Then we got a letter from National Grid telling us they were going to be digging up the street to replace gas pipes. Turns out Dig Safe did the marking to show water, sewer and gas. They only had to dig up one area though. Did a decent enough job putting it back to rights with grass seed. Got the gas meter replaced too.

[Regis]

As a professional surveyor, I can tell you that we can't really survey just one property.  All properties in an area have to fit together mathematically like pieces in a puzzle.  To figure out where these pieces go, we typically find all evidence of the corners of all properties in the vicinity.  Unless the surveyor finds a gross error in the description of the property, I'd say they're doing a very thorough job.

My second guess would be the proposed reconstruction or rehabilitation of the roadway.  In these cases, however, they're normally just concerned about the actual right-of-way of the roadway so the back corners would not usually be located.

[HoneyBBQ]

Any chance it's sidewalk work or piping/sewer for the city?

[ArchietheDragon]

Oct 8, 2014 20:11:42 GMT -5 mollyanna58 said:

So I got home today and found there were pink neon tapes marking both front corners of my property.  The one stake is buried down about an inch and someone dug around to find it.  The other one is visible in a flower bed.

I don't know why this was done.  I'm not refinancing, so there's no reason for someone to survey the property.  The back corners were not marked.  I live on a county road, and every few years, all the properties will have the front corners marked, when the county plans on repaving or whatever.  But this time, it was only my house. 

This makes me nervous.

You didn't see the plans at town halll?  They are taking your property with eminent domain and making it the town . 

[mollyanna58]

If they pay me what Zillow says it's worth, they can have it. 

[mollyanna58]

If the county or township was going to do something, they would mark the whole street, not just my house.   That's what puzzles me: why just my house? 

[tractor]

Not relevant here, but it's always fun to take a bunch of survey stake and write proposed centerline on them, wrap them with orange ribbon, then make a line across someone's yard. It keeps people on their toes, and can make the neighborhood conversations more entertaining.

[Regis]

Oct 9, 2014 10:44:04 GMT -5 tractor said:

Not relevant here, but it's always fun to take a bunch of survey stake and write proposed centerline on them, wrap them with orange ribbon, then make a line across someone's yard. It keeps people on their toes, and can make the neighborhood conversations more entertaining.

We had a new interstate project we were working on and did something similar.  Before we started the project, we had an informational meeting for all the property owners that might be affected.  Because the roadway was to be above the existing grade, we explained that we may need to survey some properties for borrow sites (areas where dirt would be excavated for use on the project)  One gentleman, who was not in the path of the proposed roadway but "in the vicinity" very heatedly told me that he'd not hesitate to shoot anyone near his property - which was less than half an acre.

One day we saw him headed away from his residence so we painted two big arrows on the roadway in front of his house (with arrows pointed towards his house) and also painted it "Primary Borrow Site".  That afternoon, he called the project manager with the highway department, who then called us.  The project manager asked us to kindly not do that again - but then admitted that he got regular calls from this gentleman and thought our markings were hilarious.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Last year, the cable line broke to the house.  Until they could get someone out here to bury it, we had a cable running through the front yard from the street to the house.  During this time, the power, gas and water utilities all came out here and marked with various fluorescent markers where their lines ran.  It wasn't until we got the third set of fluorescent markings that Comcast came in and buried the line.

Have you called any of your utilities about anything?

[mollyanna58]

Oct 9, 2014 13:25:46 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Last year, the cable line broke to the house.  Until they could get someone out here to bury it, we had a cable running through the front yard from the street to the house.  During this time, the power, gas and water utilities all came out here and marked with various fluorescent markers where their lines ran.  It wasn't until we got the third set of fluorescent markings that Comcast came in and buried the line.

Have you called any of your utilities about anything?

Nope, nothing going on.

[Deleted]

Oct 9, 2014 10:44:04 GMT -5 tractor said:

Not relevant here, but it's always fun to take a bunch of survey stake and write proposed centerline on them, wrap them with orange ribbon, then make a line across someone's yard. It keeps people on their toes, and can make the neighborhood conversations more entertaining.

-rofl-You are wicked and evil and I think I love you.  The next time one of my neighbors goes away for the weekend.......

Some properties in our area were recently annexed by a TIRZ and everybody is pretty much marching around with pitchforks and torches already.  All I have to do is spread the rumor that it's for a project supported by one or another of our gubernatorial candidates and POOF!  We'll get more coverage than Ebola.