Subdivision Plans
Subdivision is the process of creating new parcels of land or changing the boundaries of existing parcels. Common examples include separating an existing yard site from an agricultural quarter section, moving a property line between two parcels to allow room for a new shop, and splitting an oversized lot in an acreage subdivision into two lots. All subdivisions require a plan of subdivision prepared by an Alberta Land Surveyor, but in some cases the plan can be a descriptive plan.
The subdivision process starts with consulting with the municipality’s subdivision authority and then formally applying for their approval for the subdivision. Often a tentative plan showing the proposed subdivision is required. The subdivision authority then circulates the proposed subdivision to various departments for comments, after which they either refuse the subdivision or approve it with conditions. Once all the conditions have been met, including preparation of a plan of subdivision by an Alberta Land Surveyor, the subdivision authority will issue an endorsement letter for the subdivision. During this period, the landowners will need to sign consent documents and often other documents such as land transfers, easements, and rights-of-way. Once this documentation has been assembled, the surveyor registers the subdivision plan at Land Titles.
There are many differences in the subdivision process between municipalities. Fees and applications forms vary. Some municipalities require a tentative plan to be prepared by an Alberta Land Surveyor, while others accept a neat hand-drawn sketch from the landowner or prepare the tentative plan themselves. Increasingly, many municipalities are requiring that tentative plans show existing buildings and their distances to new and existing property lines. In this case, we always recommend having the tentative plan prepared by an Alberta Land Surveyor, as no one else is qualified to accurately measure building-to-property line distances.
While there is variation in the subdivision approval conditions, there are some common themes. You may be required to give up land for road widenings, environmental reserves, or other municipal purposes. You may have to pay significant amounts of money to the municipality in the form of offsite levies for future infrastructure construction or in lieu of reserve land. You will need to provide driveways for all the parcels involved and bring them up to current standards. If you have a septic system, it will need to be inspected and brought up to code. On rural properties this often involves moving septic discharges (‘pump-outs’) to be 90 metres from all property lines or replacing them with septic fields or holding tanks. Where there are existing buildings on a new lot, the subdivision authority may require an Alberta Land Surveyor’s Real Property Report (RPR) and use it to check whether the buildings comply with municipal bylaws and have permits in place.
At Highland Surveys, we have experience with the subdivision process in most municipalities in north-central Alberta. If you already have your subdivision approval, we are happy to prepare your final plan of subdivision and assist with other survey-related conditions in your approval. However, if you have not yet applied for subdivision, you may wish to have us prepare your tentative plan and handle your subdivision application as well. If there are important things like buildings affected by your subdivision, we can survey them at the start of your project, design new property lines that work for you and meet bylaws, and advise on whether you will need to change your septic system.