Surveys Division
John Ward
City Surveyor
City
Hall Building - 810 Union Street - 7th Floor
Norfolk, VA 23510
Phone: (757) 664-4673
Fax: (757) 664-4603
Our
mission is to fulfill the land and construction surveying requirements
of the City of Norfolk and maintain appropriate
records.
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The Division of Surveys is
responsible for all surveying duties of City of
Norfolk public rights-of-way and easements, as well
as property owned by the City of Norfolk. From
the simple act of a homeowner erecting a fence to
the development of a subdivision, land surveying is
required beforehand. Other duties in the division
include
approving plats
and the printing of file drawings for other city
agencies.
Survey
information for the City of
Norfolk
, dating back to the late 1700s, is maintained in
the Surveys Division and the documents are available to the public.
The division makes more than 16,000 contacts,
either in person or by phone, with citizens,
surveyors, engineers, attorneys, paralegals and city
personnel each year.
Around 25,000 prints of survey plats, maps,
real estate plates and other data for those contacts
are produced yearly.
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Public
Records
Benchmarks
Building/Street
Line Location
Encroachment
Permits
Historical
Information
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Addresses
Plats/Surveys
Review
of Plans and Proposals
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Records are scanned, and then referenced into a
computer database for quicker, easier access.
The Division of Surveys produces approximately 25,000
prints annually for a variety of city agencies,
private surveying, engineering and architectural
firms, as well as to members of the general public.
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There are approximately 450
concrete monuments of known elevation, called
benchmarks, throughout the City of Norfolk.
These monuments allow surveyors and engineers to
ascertain the elevation of the land.
This system of benchmarks is essential in the
design of building sites, construction projects and the
determination of finished floor elevations for dwellings
in order to obtain flood insurance.
The elevation of all benchmarks is checked for
accuracy over each five-year period as part of a Federal
Emergency management Agency (FEMA) rate reduction
program. An
interactive map of these monuments is available by
clicking here.
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Information concerning the
location of the public rights-of-way in the City of
Norfolk is available for viewing and printing.
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Encroachment
Permits
Any permanent item that rests on
a public right-of-way, excepting those items that belong
to the City of
Norfolk
, either must be removed by the owner or approved by the
City. Approval
for encroachment into a right-of-way is obtained through
an ordinance passed by City Council.
An application for encroachment may be obtained
from the Division of Surveys, or a printable version of
the application is available by clicking here.
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Many of the records in the files of the
Division of Surveys help to tell the history of the
area. Old
family names of some of Norfolks first residents are
found in the current names of streets and subdivisions.
By viewing maps through different time periods,
one can see the growth of the area from a town to a
borough to a city and see the various annexations that
shaped the City of Norfolk.
A great deal of information, ranging from dates
and names to topography and boundaries, have assisted
people in genealogical research, school history projects
and in writing books.
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Each parcel within the City of
Norfolk
is assigned a number.
This number helps to identify the property
for anything from mail delivery to trash pick-up to
fire and rescue responses.
The Division of Surveys is responsible for
assigning the official street address of each parcel
or building in the City of
Norfolk
and is also the keeper of those records.
Because of the safety aspects, it is very
important to use and display the official house
number issued by the Division of Surveys.
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The Division of Surveys has many
different types of surveying information in its files.
Plats are essentially maps or drawings of a
particular piece of property that usually provide
boundary information on that property.
Physical surveys, available for certain parcels
of land if the property owner provides a copy to the
Division of Surveys, are usually more detailed drawings
of a property that not only provide boundary
information, but also show any structures on the
property and the location of those structures in
relation to the boundary of the property.
Aerial photographs, topographic and planimetric
drawings are available as well.
Most of the files mentioned are available for
printing.
While the employees of the Division
of Surveys perform field work and mapping for the
creation of plats and physical surveys, they can only do
so for property owned by the City of Norfolk.
Citizens wishing to have such services performed are
advised to contact a private surveyor licensed to
practice in the State of Virginia.
The Division of Surveys also
process and record all subdivision plats within the City
of Norfolk. Applications for preliminary and final
subdivision plats may be obtained from the Division of
Surveys, or a printable versions of the applications are
available by clicking here
for the preliminary application and here
for the final application.
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- The Division of Surveys is but one of the offices
involved in the site plan review process.
People seeking building permits for
construction projects submit proposed plans to the
City of Norfolk. Several
offices then examine these plans in an effort to
troubleshoot and prevent problems before they occur.
You can obtain information about building permits and
zoning regulations in the City of Norfolk by clicking here.
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Restoration Manual
