Surveys

Mission & Responsibilities

Our mission is to fulfill the land and construction surveying requirements of the City of Norfolk Public Works and maintain appropriate Public Works land survey records.

The Public Works Division of Surveys is responsible for the surveying duties of City of Norfolk public rights of way and easements, as well as city-owned property. Other duties in the division include approving plats and the printing of drawings for other city agencies.

Copy Prints

The Public Works Surveys Division office houses copies of some maps made of areas within the city. Paper copies of those maps are available for purchase.

Legally recorded deeds and plats are housed in the Norfolk’s Circuit Clerk of Courts office located at 150 Street Paul’s Boulevard. 

The Register of Deeds office has online access to documents.

Many municipal maps can be found on the City’s website Maps/Property Information page.

Benchmarks / Reference Points

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. 

Plats / Surveys

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 processes and records all new subdivision plats within the City of Norfolk. Applications for preliminary and final subdivision plats may be obtained from the Division of Surveys, or printable versions of the applications are available on the Applications tab on the upper left side of this page.

The City Code for subdivisions is found in Chapter 42.5.