[jacobm]

Update from Bruce Joffe (Jan 27)
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Dear Colleagues,

As you know, the CA Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists issued a cease-and-desist order to MySitePlan.com, plus a $1,000 fine. MSP is suing the Board to rescind the order and recognize its right to create site plans from publicly available GIS data.

Today, the Court sided with the Board’s request to dismiss the case.

MSP’s lawyers will appeal. They believe they will ultimately prevail because the Board’s over-reach (all site plans need to be drawn by a licensed surveyor, regardless of purpose or authoritativeness) violates the First Amendment.

You can download the latest Court filings from DropBox at:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iorcuhi2zlm676g/AABG5CQr3Nhl5Juh1lIgiKKoa?dl=0

We will be writing an Amicus Brief to support their appeal, and I’ll be asking you to review it and sign it. Hopefully, your professional organizations and colleagues will want to sign it also.

Doggedly,

Bruce

[jacobm]

Update from Bruce Joffe (Jan 11)
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Dear Colleagues,

The lawyers for MySitePlan (IJ.org) filed a request for temporary injunction of the CA Registration Board’s cease-and-desist order. The judge decided in favor of the Board. The attorneys will appeal. This is not the final decision on the issue (were MySitePlan’s actions the practice of survey?) but many of the same arguments were raised, and they did not persuade the judge.

We can help the appeal by signing on to an Amicus Curiae brief that explains some of the technical aspects and distinctions of surveying and GIS, including:

1 – What is GIS mapping? How does it differ from survey mapping?
2 – What is the value of geospatial information? How is GIS-based information useful to the public?
3 – What is at stake if current Board position is upheld?
4 – Explaining the ambiguities in the CA state law

I will draft an Amicus brief, and I welcome help from a few interested people. Please let me know if you want to volunteer some time and effort.

FYI, attached is my analysis of the arguments and counter-arguments, after reading the initial Motion (by IJ.org) to remove the Board’s cease-and-desist order, and the Board’s Opposition Brief response. Disclaimer: It is not complete, and I am not a lawyer.

I have uploaded all court documents to Dropbox. You are welcome to see them and download.
Please send me any analysis or opinions (or questions) you have about this case after reading.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iorcuhi2zlm676g/AABG5CQr3Nhl5Juh1lIgiKKoa?dl=0

One important issue is the vagueness of the words “establish”, “reestablish”, “locate”, “relocate”, “retrace”, as their technical definitions pertain to defining the practice of survey. The Miriam-Webster definition is in fact so broad that it could be interpreted to pertain to any lines drawn on a map. Will the Licensed Surveyors who are reading this please send me your understanding of the technical meaning of these words? If possible, please include a source, but if no source, just affirm that “in your professional judgment” this is what the words mean. Thank you.

The Board’s actions are in response to a complaint filed March 3, 2021 by Bryan Mundia, a licensed surveyor working for D.Woolley & Associates. Apparently, he does not recognize a distinction between a preliminary site plan sketch (drawing) which is allowed by most CA building departments, and a construction document site plan that specifically depicts the measured distances between authoritative property line locations and buildings or other fixed works. The Board, likewise, does not make the distinction and classifies all site plans that depict distances between buildings, fixed works and property lines as survey products, whether or not they are stamped or marked with a disclaimer such as, “this is not a survey product.”

Richard Moore, Executive Officer of the California Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists,stated, “The critical distinction between drafting, which does not require a license, and land surveying, which does, is that land surveying deals with the relative positions of fixed works (such as buildings or fences) or natural objects (topographic features, contours, elevations, etc.) in relationship to property lines. Land surveyors are rendering a professional opinion as to the spatial relationship between fixed works or natural objects and the property line.” (EFC 13-1, pp.15 L5)

In the Board’s opinion, this includes any site plan, not just those intended to guide actual construction, which should be differentiated from preliminary planning purposes. (EC-13 p.28 L6)

Subsequently, the Board filed similar Orders of Abatement to cease-and-desist against several other companies doing similar site plan drawings, including:

GVS Drafting & Design (10-28-21)
GetASitePlan (12-28-21)
USA Site Plans (12-28-21)
24HPlans (12-28-21)

If all site plans were to be considered survey products, then surveyors would have to supervise all kinds of documents that they do not generally engage with, including:

Demolition Permits
Conditional Use Permits
Sign Permits
Tree Removal Permits
Landscaping Plans

Doggedly,
Bruce

[jacobm]

Bruce – thank you for your fantastic synopsis.

Joseph – I appreciate your work on the Servers list!! Have referenced it many times. And thank you for your valuable input here on this case.

Let’s keep the conversation going!

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