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The Florida Statutes

The 1997 Florida Statutes

Title XII
MUNICIPALITIES
Chapter 177
Land Boundaries

177.151  State plane coordinate.--

(1)  Coordinates may be used to define or designate the position of points on the surface of the earth within the state for land descriptions and subdivision purposes, provided the initial point in the description shall be tied to the nearest government corner or other recorded and well established corner. The plane coordinates of a point on the earth's surface, to be used in expressing the position or location of such point in the appropriate projection and zone system, shall consist of two distances, expressed in feet and decimals of a foot. One distance, to be known as the "x-coordinate," shall give the position in an east and west direction; the other, to be known as the "y-coordinate," shall give the position in a north and south direction. These coordinates shall be made to depend upon and conform to the origins and projections on the Florida Coordinate System and the triangulation and traverse stations of the National Ocean Survey within the state, as those origins and projections have been determined by the said survey. When any tract of land to be defined by a single description extends from one into the other of the above projections or zones, the positions of all points on its boundary may be referred to either of the zones or projections, with the zone and projection being used specifically named in the description.

(2)  The position of points on the Florida Coordinate System shall be as marked on the ground by triangulation or traverse stations established in conformity with standards adopted by the National Ocean Survey for first-order and second-order work, the geodetic positions of which have been rigidly adjusted on the North American Datum of 1983, as readjusted in 1990, and the coordinates of which have been computed on the system herein defined. Any such station may be used for establishing a survey connection with the Florida Coordinate System.

(3)  No coordinates based on the Florida Coordinate System purporting to define the position of a point on a land boundary may be presented to be recorded in any public land records or deed records unless the point is within one-half mile of a triangulation or traverse station established in conformity with the standards described in s. 177.031(19). However, the said one-half mile limitation may be waived when coordinates shown are certified as having been established in accordance with National Ocean Survey requirements and procedures for first-order or second-order work by a surveyor and mapper licensed in the state. This certification of order-of-accuracy must be included in the description of the land involved.

(4)  The use of the term "Florida Coordinate System" on any map, report of survey, or other document shall be limited to coordinates based on the Florida Coordinate System as defined in this chapter.

(5)  Whenever coordinates based on the Florida Coordinate System are used to describe a tract of land which in the same document is also described by reference to any subdivision, line, or corner of the United States Public Land Survey, the description by coordinates shall be construed as supplemental to the basic description of such subdivision, line, or corner contained in the official plats and field notes of record, and, in the event of any conflict, the description by reference to the subdivision, line, or corner of the United States Public Land Survey shall prevail over the description by coordinates.

(6)  Nothing contained in this chapter shall require any purchaser or mortgagee to rely on a description any part of which depends exclusively upon the Florida Coordinate System.

History.--s. 1, ch. 71-339; s. 161, ch. 92-152; s. 106, ch. 94-119.