Scope a Bellevue development survey against the applicable city requirements and the design team’s actual work. “Survey the parcel” can miss the street information, utility connections or adjoining grades needed to move the project forward.
Draw the limits before requesting the price
Where Bellevue’s boundary and topographic survey requirements apply, coverage includes the full pavement section of adjacent streets for 100 feet in each direction and critical areas within and 25 feet beyond the parcel. Its land-use survey standards specify NAD83 (2011), North Zone, and NAVD 1988, ties to at least two city control monuments, and a survey less than five years old at permit submittal.
Confirm applicability with the project’s reviewing team. Then have the civil engineer mark any additional limits needed for drainage, access or utility design. A minimum submittal extent is not necessarily the end of the design problem.
For example, if the proposed storm connection sits beyond the mapped area, a survey that stops at the parcel line will not give the engineer the complete connection information. Resolve that limit while the crew’s assignment is being defined.
Separate the work that different people must supply
| Information needed | Question to settle before fieldwork |
|---|---|
| Boundary and easements | Which title documents and recorded exhibits are available, and does the scope include resolving the boundary? |
| Grades and connections | Which street, drainage and utility features must the civil engineer use? |
| Critical areas | Which specialist must identify or flag the feature before the surveyor can map it? |
| Buried utilities | Which information comes from records, locating or exposure, and who arranges that work? |
| Design files | What CAD, surface, coordinate and elevation information will the receiving team need? |
These are scope questions, not interchangeable survey products. Mapping a specialist’s flagged feature does not replace that specialist’s assessment. Showing a utility from a record does not make it a field-verified location.
Name the deliverable tied to the next milestone
A land-use application, civil design package and construction layout request need different outputs. Identify the next one, who will use it and when. If an existing survey is available, ask the surveyor to assess its coverage and current conditions before assuming it can be reused unchanged.
Send the applicable checklist, a marked limits exhibit, available records and the designer’s file requirements together. That gives the surveyor a concrete assignment and makes competing proposals easier to compare.
Our Learning Center guide to starting survey and engineering together explains how to coordinate this handoff before either discipline has advanced on incomplete information.
