Legal Descriptions

So what is a legal description? According to USLegal it’s “Legal description is the geographical description of a real estate property for the purpose of identifying the property for legal transactions. A legal description of the property unambiguously identifies the location, boundaries, and any existing easements on the property. A legal description of the real estate is usually provided in a deed, mortgage, or other purchase document. It can also be obtained from a county recorder, tax assessor, or similar official.” Basically it’s the basis for land ownership in the USA so it impacts a lot of things. Especially when they are old and impact items current day.

Really old descriptions can be from the 1800’s. Here is one from 1911.

And a slightly newer one from the 1980’s

So what do these look like? Do you have the original plat that was recorded with the description?

If you do not, OR if you want to see where several of these legal descriptions are in relation to one another we can plot them out for you. Seeing everything together in one map on an aerial is the easiest way to relate to the project.

This is also known as a meets and bounds description from a known point in what is known as “calls”. Several of these “calls” are strung together to describe the boundaries of a piece of land. Some descriptions can be pages long with some complicated angles and curves. Some can be as simple as the NW 1/4 of the NE 1/4 S 1/2 of section 9, Township 6 S Range 2 East.

If you know what all of that means and want a better way to view it or you would like some help making sense of it all, drop us a line we are more than happy to help decipher it all for you. Contact us

We find maps are needed in a lot of different professional areas. In this post we will explore a new area that is quite intriguing to us. Maps in the Legal Industry. Not what you were expecting? Let us dig a little deeper into this topic.

Or primary exposure to maps in the Legal Industry as been in the Real Property section. Things in this area revolve around property ownership. Not only who owns what right now but what does it look like? Who owned what when in the past? When was this road built?

Maps in the Legal Industry

Tracking legal descriptions of land through time is not an easy thing. Here is some more in depth reading if you are interested. Basically it is a definition of what a piece of land looks like and is the basis of land ownership in the US. Pretty much every piece of land out there has one. Sounds simple on the surface but have you ever read one? Not easy to understand.

That’s where the map steps in. Plotting all the individual calls to see the area that it covers. Sometimes this can be a Township/Range/Section or a complicated set of angles and distances with a curve or two thrown in.

These have been the basis of several legal cases we have been an expert witness to. Plotting out who owned what when and gathering all of that info up into one map (Print, Digital or Web) to assist the legal council in arguing their case.

Another example was a land rights case where council needed to know current owners with beach front access for many miles. They needed a working map and list to keep track of potential clients.

Lastly there was as road access case where council needed to know in historical documents if a road existed and when it was first noted. Tracking down historical notations and plotting them out to see what happened to this road over time.

All intriguing examples of how maps help illustrate complicated documents in an easy to understand format. From what we have heard some of the major cases we have been called in as an expert we have helped win the case overall.

Trade Area Basics

We had a client project that fit this sample set perfectly. We started from a location list of over 300 stores with the associated number of employees included in the data. Goals were create 10 equal trade areas (and the associated center location for each) based on a set distance & drive time. They also had to include roughly the same number of employees per trade area. Second goal was to show the 10 densest locations based on the number of employees per location.

After running the distance rings, then the drive times like shown in the previous Trade Area Basics articles, we added the extra dimension of number of employees. Finishing with the appropriate trade areas based on location and final numbers.

Second goal was approached a bit differently. Starting with a smaller distance of 5 miles we performed geographic searches trying to find the 10 locations that had the most employees without duplication.

Overall here is what we ended up with.

Great project to show off how to use Trade Areas in a practical way. Answering real world questions with the use of GIS.

Contact us for you next Trade Area map project.

The Trade Area

We take the best of all variables and draw what the typical pattern would be for someone to get to your site. Most importantly including number of other locations someone could go to. Radius and Drive Times do not account for this.

In this example we have added three other locations and their respective trade areas then added the trade area for the new location.

The areas we are showing here are derived from a combination of radius, drive time and physical and mental boundaries along with store locations. Remember no matter what area you come up with there will always be outside factors that will influence your potential trade area.

Much different than either of the previous examples. While all examples have their uses we find trade areas to be the most useful. Of our three examples which do you prefer?

Let’s wrap everything up for you with a real world example.

The Drive Time

Basically this is done by accessing road type and an associated speed for each road segment. The software estimates out the area one could travel at assumed posted speeds. Also the model typically does not include for any time stopped at a stop sign or signalized intersection. Better said, just straight driving time no stopping.

This can also be adjusted for time of day. By default it does not account for any traffic. You can add your selected time of day and directionality to the search to get a rush hour value as well if needed.

While this does a better job showing a trade area that is more probable based on physical boundaries, it missed mental boundaries. Is someone really going to travel 10 min by freeway to get here? Well that depends on what the draw is. That’s where the final leg of our trade area journey comes in.

We will look at the final approach in part 3 of our series, the trade area.

Have Questions? Contact Us.

The Radius

While this is useful in a simple yet standard setup, it could miss very important items like physical and mental boundaries. Kind of like this sample.

While we are showing a 3 Mile radius, we are ignoring in this example that the area show only has population in half of the area due to the mountains on the east. More commonly known as a 180 Degree trade area.  It’s also ignoring mental barriers like people on the other side of I-215 and their unwillingness to travel further south away from their typical traffic pattern.

For better or worse this is typically the starting point for all trade area analysis. We use this approach all the time to illustrate simple distances between targets. We also use it in to build the basics of a trade area you will learn about in Part 3

Overall it’s a good starting point for simple comparisons but it’s lacking. We will look at Part 2 in this example set next, the Drive Time approach.

Have Questions? Like to know more? Contact Us.

This is a great example of an established company who does the same thing every day over a very long time that stops and says what if we could look at things differently. The backstory is the long standing rail operators were starting to retire and new operators were coming on board that didn’t know what to expect on the line every day. To ease in the transition between groups they needed a medium to transition all that legacy data forward.

Maps Everywhere

The best way to to this was to visualize all parts of their world as one big map. Big as in 2′ by 20′. Everything was designed to fit predefined views and needs of the operators. Color coded information led to fast understanding of the area and that led to a quick adoption of the map as a baseline for daily operations.

The feedback we have received on this was great. Operators were using the map to show daily operations on the line quickly and easily, streamlining their work and helping in information sharing.

What did we learn with this new opportunity? That a map is worth more than words can say and valuable to boot. Overall saving time and making sure everyone knew where things were moving from and to for the day.

Have a similar legacy workflow that could use some map help? Drop us a line. We would love to help.