When the Lancaster County Conservancy bought 143 acres to convert to public-use parks, the purchase required a complete retracement survey to ensure the correct property was transferred. Normally, a recent survey could be used as a base, but this property hadn’t been mapped since the 1930s. The long time between surveys meant many original corners were lost and needed to be recovered, and the latest tax maps conflicted with the original survey as well.

RETTEW compiled applicable public records and historical information and began field surveying. We previously surveyed other lands in this area for the former owners, which helped streamline our project approach. Even though much of the property had steep terrain and dense vegetation, and was difficult to access, we recovered most of the missing corners and accurately mapped the entire 143 acres.

The survey included reestablishing original boundaries, calculating areas, and preparing legal descriptions for the property and ten lease parcels. These descriptions were necessary for the purchase and helped in updating the tax maps. Our survey also identified public access points for this site. Ultimately, we delivered accurate mapping required for a successful purchase, ahead of a very stringent deadline.