April 2006

49^TH IPLSA ANNUAL CONFERENCE:

Hats off to the Heart of Illinois Chapter for another great conference!  There were 1,080 attendees.                  

NEW FEMA FLOOD CERTIFICATE: ACCESS TO CERTIFICATE HERE

The Elevation Certificate is an important administrative tool of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).  It is to be used to provide elevation information necessary to ensure compliance with community floodplain management ordinances, to determine the proper insurance premium rate, and to support a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) or Letter of Map Revision based on fill (LOMR-F).

The following changes from the prior version are as follows:

• Latitude and Longitude are no longer optional, but now mandatory. Even though the new form has somehow lost the request for source, anyone who completes this form should document the source of the latitude and longitude provided.
• The form now mandates a minimum of two photos as attachments. This should be addressed in the contract as to whether the surveyor is to provide the photos or if the requester will do so.
• Square footage is now separated out between enclosure/crawl space and garage.
• Vent information is also separated for these two areas.
• The building diagrams are drawn similarly to past versions, but are now labeled to more clearly identify the line on the form where each measurement is to be reported.
• The new form has also been slightly reorganized, and additions made to the instructions.   

See new form on our home page.

PROPOSED TOPO STANDARDS UP FOR REVIEW:

The IDFPR Land Surveying Licensing Board has released a draft of the proposed Topographic Survey Standards.  On approval the standards will be placed in the Administrative Rules of the Illinois Professional Land Surveyors Act and will be the minimum standards for Topographic Surveys.  Members are encouraged to review the standards. Comments should be sent to the IPLSA Office.  We will send them on to IDFPR.  The proposed Topo Standards are available for review from our home page.

IDFPR ANNOUNCES THE NUMBER OF PLSS AND SITS CURRENTLY LICENSED:

As of March 1, 2006 there are 1,347 people holding an active license as a Professional Land Surveyor with IDFPR and 317 people holding an active Surveyor-in-Training with IDFPR.  Of the 1,347 licensed PLSs, 1,055 have an Illinois address and of the 317 licensed SITs, 297 have an Illinois address.

PRESIDENT-ELECT JIMMY ROSE ANNOUNCES PLANNING AND GOALS FOR IPLSA:

Taking up from where 2005 President-elect Lee Koehler left off, 2006 President-elect Jimmy Rose has announced the following as goals for IPLSA:

·         Continue to stress membership in both IPLSA and NSPS

·         Review the proposed rules for minimum standards of practice for topographic surveys

·         Review the proposed rules for legal descriptions when the IDFPR Land Surveyors Licensing Board releases a draft

·         Reduce the statute of limitations from 10 years to 6 years

·         Prepare IPLSA on-line continuing education opportunities

·         Continue to offer the NSPS Certified Survey Technician (CST) Program

·         Establish a meeting to discuss a five-year action plan for IPLSA’s continued growth and direction

·         Continue to support the IPLSF Foundation

·         Establish a plan for the eventual retirement of the IPLSA Executive Director

NEW SURVEYING COURSE OFFERED AT SIUE (EDWARDSVILLE):

DEPARTMENT OF CONSTRUCTION  -  NEW COURSE OFFERING FOR FALL 2006

Introduction to USPLSS and Legal Aspects of Land Surveying

Course Objective: This course will give the student a complete understanding of the United States Public Land Survey System and the history leading up to the government surveys of Illinois.  The course will provide the student with a broad knowledge of surveying definitions, rules of evidence and procedures of surveying.  Finally, the course will explore the local, state, and federal laws and administrative rules that direct the legal application of surveying.

Overview: The understanding of the United States Public Land Survey System (USPLSS) is fundamental to all land surveying and will be discussed in detail.  This course will introduce the student to United States Public Land Survey System, land surveying definitions, evidence and procedures of boundary surveying, rules of evidence to include classification of evidence, burden of proof, presumptions, and weight of classes of evidence, unwritten rights in land, such as riparian rights and adverse possession and their relationship to land surveying, 2005 Illinois Compiled Statutes, 2005 Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/ACSM Land Title Surveys, and the rights, duties, and liability of a professional land surveyor.

Meets Wednesdays 4:30pm – 7:20pm, Engineering Building Room 1008, August 23 – December 13, 2006

Instruction, James P. Peterson II, P.E., P.L.S.

For course information, contact Dianne Kay Slattery, P.E. Chair, Department of Construction

(618) 650-2088 dkay@siue.edu

For admissions information, contact SIUE Admissions Office

admissions@siue.edu  (618) 560-3705 or visit http://www.siue.edu/apply/

SENATE BILL-2574 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS BILL DEFEATED:

SB-2574 was introduced during the 2005 session of the Illinois General Assembly.  The bill did not move in 2005 but on January 19, 2006 an amendment was offered and the bill started moving.  SB-2574 was sent to the Senate Licensed Activities Committee, which met on Thursday, February 16^th, which was the opening day of the conference.  The proposed amendment included the definition of Landscape Architects and included the following language: “These services include, but are not limited to: Preparation, review and analysis of land use master plans, subdivision plans and preliminary plats” and “ Determining the location and sighting of landscape improvements”.  IPLSA met with the Executive Directors and Lobbyists of the other Design Professions and lobbied the members of the Senate Licensed Activities Committees to defeat the amendment and to totally kill the bill.  We are working with the other Design Professionals and the Landscape Architects to be sure that we have input on any future attempts to define the services of Landscape Architects.

2007 IPLSA ANNUAL CONFERENCE:

The 2007 IPLSA Annual Conference will be held in conjunction with the ACSM/NSPS Spring 2007 Conference and Technology Exhibition in St. Louis.  (See SAVE-THE-DATE article in this newsletter)

PUBLICATION OF STATE PLANE COORDINATES IN FEET BY NGS AVAILABLE:

Recently, David Doyle convinced the management of NGS to approve a new policy concerning the publication of State Plane Coordinates in feet on both the conventional NGS data sheet, and the Online Positioning User Service Workshop (OPUS) extended output. As soon as software changes are made, NGS will begin providing feet in addition to meters for the 18 states that have NAD 83 legislation, which specifically defines the conversation to either U.S. Survey Feet or International Feet. These states are Arizona (I), Connecticut (US), Delaware (US), Florida (US), Georgia (US), Illinois (US), Indiana (US), Louisiana (US), Mississippi (US), Montana (I), New Hampshire (US), New York (US), North Dakota (I), Pennsylvania (US), Rhode Island (US), South Dakota (US), Virginia (US), Washington (US) and Wisconsin (US).

IPLSA PAC:

A huge thanks to Tom Berns and Jim Dietz for their help in selling raffle tickets during the annual banquet.  With their help more money was raised than ever before.  THANK YOU TOM AND JIM!