This text of Iowa § 354.4 (Divisions requiring a plat of survey or acquisition plat) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.
1.The grantor of land which has been divided using a metes and bounds description
shall have a plat of survey made of the division, except as provided for in subsection 3. The
grantor or the surveyor shall contact the county auditor who, for the purpose of assessment
and taxation, shall review the division to determine whether the survey shall include only the
parcel being conveyed or both the parcel being conveyed and the remaining parcel. The plat
of survey shall be prepared in compliance with chapter 355 and shall be recorded. The plat
shall be clearly marked by the surveyor as a plat of survey and shall include the following
information for each parcel included in the survey:
a.A parcel letter or number designation approved by the auditor.
b.The names of the proprietors.
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1. The grantor of land which has been divided using a metes and bounds description
shall have a plat of survey made of the division, except as provided for in subsection 3. The
grantor or the surveyor shall contact the county auditor who, for the purpose of assessment
and taxation, shall review the division to determine whether the survey shall include only the
parcel being conveyed or both the parcel being conveyed and the remaining parcel. The plat
of survey shall be prepared in compliance with chapter 355 and shall be recorded. The plat
shall be clearly marked by the surveyor as a plat of survey and shall include the following
information for each parcel included in the survey:
a. A parcel letter or number designation approved by the auditor.
b. The names of the proprietors.
c. An accurate description of each parcel.
d. The total acreage of each parcel.
e. The acreage of any portion lying within a public right-of-way.
2. The auditor shall note a permanent real estate index number upon each parcel shown
on a plat of survey according to section 441.29 for real estate tax administration purposes.
Thesurveyorshallnotassignparcellettersorprepareametesandboundsdescriptionforany
parcelshownonaplatofsurveyunlesstheparcelwassurveyedbythesurveyorincompliance
with chapter 355. Parcels within a plat of survey prepared pursuant to this section are subject
to the regulations and ordinances of the governing body.
3. When land or rights in land are divided for right-of-way purposes by an agency of
the government or other persons having the power of eminent domain and the description
of the land or rights acquired is a metes and bounds description then an acquisition plat
shall be made and attached to the description when the acquisition instrument is recorded.
Acquisition plats shall be clearly marked as an acquisition plat and shall conform to the
following:
a. Acquisition plats shall not be required to conform to the provisions of chapter 355.
b. The information shown on the plat shall be developed from instruments of record
together with information developed by field measurements. The unadjusted error of field
measurements shall not be greater than one in five thousand.
c. The plat shall be signed and dated by a surveyor, bear the surveyor’s Iowa license
number and legible seal, and shall show a north arrow and bar scale.
d. Theoriginaldrawingshallremainthepropertyofthesurveyororthesurveyor’sagency
and shall not be less than eight and one-half by eleven inches in size.
e. If the right-of-way on an acquisition plat is a portion of lots within an official plat,
reference shall be made to both the lots and plat name. If the right-of-way acquisition plat is
not within an official plat, reference shall be made to the government lot or quarter-quarter
section and to the section, township, range, and county.
f. The plat shall indicate whether the monuments shown are existing monuments or
monuments to be established. Monuments shall be established as necessary to construct or
maintain the right-of-way project.
g. The acquisition plat shall identify the project for which the right-of-way was acquired
and a parcel designation shall be assigned to each right-of-way parcel.
4. The acreage shown for each parcel included in a plat of survey or acquisition plat
§354.4, PLATTING — DIVISION AND SUBDIVISION OF LAND 4
shall be to the nearest one-hundredth acre. If a parcel described as part of the United States
public land survey system and not entirely within an official plat, lies within more than
one forty-acre aliquot part of a section, the acreage shall be shown only for assessment
and taxation purposes for each portion of the parcel that lies within each forty-acre aliquot
part. The surveyor shall not be required to establish the location of the forty-acre aliquot
line by survey but is required to use reasonable assumptions in determining its approximate
location for assessment and taxation purposes.
5. Governmental agencies shall not be required to survey a remaining parcel when land is
dividedforright-of-waypurposesandshallnotberequiredtocontacttheauditorforapproval
of parcel designations shown on an acquisition plat.