The Challenge: Surveying Moving Targets

A large consulting engineering firm, representing a large national land development client, needed ALTA surveys for portions of the Glenview, Fort Sheridan and Great Lakes naval bases.

The surveys, comprising more than 600 acres, were part of the client’s 2,400-unit, multistate residential redevelopment project. The majority of the property was fully developed and improved with housing units built in the 1960’s and aging, sidewalks, roadways and utilities and had never been subdivided into individual land parcels. Furthermore, legal descriptions existed for each entire naval base, but none existed for the sections of each that were to be redeveloped.

During the negotiation process, land boundaries determining the limits of demolition and reconstruction continuously moved. Residential areas and roadways needed to be included, while landfill areas, open lands, mildly contaminated areas, and historical sites were continually added and removed from the project, depending on negotiations, creating an always-changing “moving target.”

The Solution: Experience, Dedication and Commitment

Compass dedicated its top talent to this project, including a professional surveyor with 35 years’ experience, a senior survey crew with more than 15 years’ experience and well-versed in (RTK) GPS and robotic technology, and a senior CAD technician well-versed in AutoCAD and with 20 years’ experience. This team was committed to meeting the project’s initial deadline of eight weeks. Negotiations started after the first draft of the surveys was released, and land boundaries immediately began moving. A school site was included; a water tower site was excluded; a historical site was included then excluded – twice. Open space parcels and landfill parcels changed shape several times before being excluded.

Each time a change occurred to the property, the overall survey was revised, new legal descriptions were prepared, and land acreage was calculated and sent across the country daily. That fast and accurate response could only be accomplished by an experienced and skilled team dedicated to the project – The Compass Survey team.

Return to List