Senate Bill No. 253
(By Senator Sypolt)
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[Introduced January 18, 2008; referred to the Committee on
Interstate Cooperation.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §30-13A-27 of the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to specifying the United
States survey foot and the associated conversion factor of one
meter equals 39.37/12 feet for the purposes of the West
Virginia Coordinate System of 1983.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §30-13A-27 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 13A. LAND SURVEYORS.
§30-13A-27. West Virginia coordinate systems; definition; plane
coordinates, limitations of use; conversion factor
for meters to feet.
(a) The systems of plane coordinates which have been
established by the National Ocean Survey/National Geodetic Survey
(formerly the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey) or its successors for defining and stating the geographic position or
locations of points on the surface of the earth within
the State of
West Virginia are
hereafter to be known and designated as the West
Virginia Coordinate System of 1927 and the West Virginia Coordinate
System of 1983.
(b) For the purpose of the use of this system the state is
divided into a North Zone and a South Zone.
The area now included in the following counties
shall
constitute is the North Zone: Barbour, Berkeley, Brooke,
Doddridge, Grant, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Jefferson,
Marion, Marshall, Mineral, Monongalia, Morgan, Ohio, Pleasants,
Preston, Ritchie, Taylor, Tucker, Tyler, Wetzel, Wirt and Wood.
The area now included in the following counties
shall
constitute is the South Zone: Boone, Braxton, Cabell, Calhoun,
Clay, Fayette, Gilmer, Greenbrier, Jackson, Kanawha, Lewis,
Lincoln, Logan, McDowell, Mason, Mercer, Mingo, Monroe, Nicholas,
Pendleton, Pocahontas, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Roane, Summers,
Upshur, Wayne, Webster and Wyoming.
(c) As established for use in the North Zone, the West
Virginia Coordinate System of 1927 or the West Virginia Coordinate
System of 1983 shall be named and in any land description in which
it is used it shall be designated the West Virginia Coordinate
System of 1927 North Zone or West Virginia Coordinate System of
1983 North Zone.
As established for use in the South Zone, the West Virginia Coordinate System of 1927 or the West Virginia Coordinate System of
1983 shall be named and in any land description in which it is used
it shall be designated the West Virginia Coordinate System of 1927
South Zone or West Virginia Coordinate System of 1983 South Zone.
(d) The plane coordinate values for a point on the earth's
surface, used to express the geographic position or location of
such the point in the appropriate zone of this system, shall
consist of two distances, expressed in U. S. Survey feet and
decimals of a foot when using the West Virginia Coordinate System
of 1927 and determined in meters and decimals when using the West
Virginia Coordinate System of 1983, but which may be converted to
and expressed in feet and decimals of a foot. One of these
distances, 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
plane rectangular coordinate values for the monumented points of
the North American Horizontal Geodetic Control Network as published
by the National Ocean Survey/National Geodetic Survey (formerly the
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey) or its successors and
whose plane coordinates have been computed on the system defined by
this section. Any such station may be used for establishing a
survey connection to either West Virginia Coordinate System.
(e) For purposes of describing the location of any survey station or land boundary corner in the State of West Virginia, it
shall be considered a complete, legal and satisfactory description
of
such the location to give the position of
said the survey
station or land boundary corner on the system of plane coordinates
defined in this section. Nothing contained in this section
shall
require requires a purchaser or mortgagee of real property to rely
wholly on a land description, any part of which depends exclusively
upon either West Virginia Coordinate System.
(f) When any tract of land to be defined by a single
description extends from one into the other of the coordinate zones
specified in this section, the position of all points on its
boundaries may refer to either of the two zones. The zone which is
being used specifically shall be named in the description.
(g)(1) For purposes of more precisely defining the West
Virginia Coordinate System of 1927, the following definition by the
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (now National Ocean
Survey/National Geodetic Survey) is adopted:
The West Virginia Coordinate System of 1927 North Zone is a
Lambert conformal conic projection of the Clarke Spheriod of 1866,
having standard parallels at north latitudes 39 degrees and 00
minutes and 40 degrees and 15 minutes, along which parallels the
scale shall be exact. The origin of coordinates is at the
intersection of the meridian 79 degrees 30 minutes west of
Greenwich and the parallel 38 degrees 30 minutes north latitude.
This origin is given the coordinates: x = 2,000,000 feet and y = 0 feet.
The West Virginia Coordinate System of 1927 South Zone is a
Lambert conformal conic projection of the Clarke Spheriod of 1866,
having standard parallels at north latitudes 37 degrees 29 minutes
and 38 degrees 53 minutes, along which parallels the scale shall be
exact. The origin of coordinates is at the intersection of the
meridian 81 degrees 00 minutes west of Greenwich and the parallel
37 degrees 00 minutes north latitude. This origin is given the
coordinates: x = 2,000,000 feet and y = 0 feet.
(2) For purposes of more precisely defining the West Virginia
Coordinate System of 1983, the following definition by the National
Ocean Survey/National Geodetic Survey is adopted:
The West Virginia Coordinate System of 1983 North Zone is a
Lambert conformal conic projection of the North American Datum of
1983, having standard parallels at north latitudes 39 degrees and
00 minutes and 40 degrees and 15 minutes, along which parallels the
scale shall be exact. The origin of coordinates is at the
intersection of the meridian 79 degrees 30 minutes west of
Greenwich and the parallel 38 degrees 30 minutes north latitude.
This origin is given the coordinates: x = 600,000 meters and y =
0 meters.
The West Virginia Coordinate System of 1983 South Zone is a
Lambert conformal conic projection of the North American Datum of
1983, having standard parallels at north latitudes 37 degrees 29
minutes and 38 degrees 53 minutes, along which parallels the scale shall be exact. The origin of coordinates is at the intersection
of the meridian 81 degrees 00 minutes west of Greenwich and the
parallel 37 degrees 00 minutes north latitude. This origin is
given the coordinates: x = 600,000 meters and y = 0 meters.
(h) No coordinates based on the West Virginia Coordinate
System, purporting to define the position of a point on a land
boundary,
shall may be presented to be recorded in any public
records or deed records unless
such the point is based on a public
or private monumented horizontal control station established in
conformity with the standards of accuracy and specifications for
first order or better geodetic surveying as prepared and published
by the Federal Geodetic Control Committee
(FGCC) of the United
States Department of Commerce. Standards and specifications of the
FGCC Federal Geodetic Control Committee or its successor in force
on the date of
said the survey
shall apply. The publishing of the
existing control stations, or the acceptance with intent to publish
the newly established control stations, by the National Ocean
Survey/National Geodetic Survey
will constitute is evidence of
adherence to the
FGCC Federal Geodetic Control Committee
specifications. The limitations specified in this section may be
modified by a duly authorized state agency to meet local
conditions.
(i) The use of the term "West Virginia Coordinate System of
1927 North or South Zone" or "West Virginia Coordinate System of
1983 North or South Zone" on any map, report or survey or other document shall be limited to coordinates based on the West Virginia
coordinate system as defined in this section.
(j) A plat and a description of survey must show the basis of
control identified by the following:
(1) The monument name or the point identifier on which the
survey is based;
(2) The order of accuracy of the base monument; and
(3) The coordinate values used to compute the corner
positions.
(k) Nothing in this section
shall prevent prevents the
recordation in any public record of any deed, map, plat, survey,
description or of any other document or writing of whatever nature
which would otherwise constitute a recordable instrument or
document even though the same is not based upon or done in
conformity with the West Virginia Coordinate System established by
this section, nor
shall such does nonconformity with
such the
system invalidate any deed, map, plat, survey, description or other
document which is otherwise proper.
(l) For purpose of this section a foot equals a United States
Survey foot. The associated factor of one meter equals 39.37/12
feet shall be used in any conversion necessitated by changing
values from meters to feet.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to specify the United States
Survey Foot and the associated conversion factor of one meter
equals 39.37/12 feet for the purposes of the West Virginia
Coordinate System of 1983.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the
present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.)