John E. Kratz, PLS was sworn in as Fremont County Surveyor on January 22, 2019. John has been a licensed Professional Land Surveyor in Colorado since 1983 and in Utah since 2008. Having worked and raised children in the Littleton area, John and his wife now live in Cañon City; John running his Land Surveying business, while his spouse works in Cañon City schools. They both are enjoying participation in local volunteerism, including Chamber of Commerce and FEDC events.
The County Surveyor’s primary function is the review and indexing of Land Survey Plats. State law requires the County Surveyor to create and maintain a plat records file and indexing system for all survey plats. In Fremont County the plat record file and index are found in the County Clerk and Recorder’s office.
The County Surveyor represents the county in all boundary disputes originating in the Public Land Survey System (PLSS). When authorized by the Board of County Commissioners, the County Surveyor conducts surveys of county property including rights-of-way and may also provide professional land surveying services to other County departments. The County Surveyor can also establish disputed boundaries when applied for or at the appointment by the courts.
Another function of the County Surveyor is to protect, maintain, and perpetuate land survey monuments. Every Land Surveyor working in Fremont County is required by law to locate, restore, rehabilitate, perpetuate and document monuments that are part of the PLSS, whenever that monument is used as control in a survey. Without this cooperation by the private Land Surveying community, monuments are lost, weakening the entire system of boundaries, public and private.
Notice: Any person who knowingly removes, alters or defaces any public land survey monument or land survey corner which controls the location of the boundaries of a tract or parcel of land, even if said person has title to the land on which the monument is located, commits a class 2 misdemeanor unless, prior to such removal, said person has caused a Colorado professional land surveyor to establish at least two witness corners or reference marks for each such monument removed, and has filed or caused to be filed a monument record pursuant to article 53 of title 38, C.R.S. (18-4-508, C.R.S.)
Do I Need a Survey?
While a survey is usually not required when you are buying or selling land or a home, there are instances where it is vital to get one:
- I am not sure where the property corners are. Only a Professional Land Surveyor is qualified to set or find property corners (not Realtors or your neighbor)
- I do not know my acreage. Your County Assessor’s value for your acreage is based on public data but is not guaranteed. A Land Survey Plat will always contain the correct acreage of your property.
- There might be encroachments. Does the neighbor’s house or barn appear to be on or very close to your property? Is there a fenceline that doesn’t seem to follow the property lines? Does it look like someone is driving across your property? In this instance, an Improvement Survey Plat will show the extent and nature of any encroachments.
- I want to divide my land. Any subdivision process begins with a survey of the entire parcel to be subdivided.
Warning: An Improvement Location Certificate (ILC) is NOT a Land Survey. An ILC is usually done by surveyors to provide assurance to mortgage lenders and/or title companies that improvements (houses, garages, barns etc.) do not encroach onto neighboring properties. They are never used to establish property corners or determine boundary lines.