(225 ILCS 330/5) (from Ch. 111, par. 3255)

(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2030)

Sec. 5. Practice of land surveying defined. Any person who practices in Illinois as a professional land surveyor who renders, offers to render, or holds himself or herself out as able to render, or perform any service, the adequate performance of which involves the special knowledge of the art and application of the principles of the accurate and precise measurement of length, angle, elevation or volume, mathematics, the related physical and applied sciences, and the relevant requirements of applicable boundary law principles and performed with the appropriate standard of care, all of which are acquired by education, training, experience, and examination. Any one or a combination of the following practices constitutes the practice of land surveying:

(a) Establishing or reestablishing, locating, defining, and making or monumenting land boundaries or title or real property lines and the platting of lands and subdivisions;

(b) Determining the area or volume of any portion of the earth's surface, subsurface, or airspace with respect to boundary lines, determining the configuration or contours of any portion of the earth's surface, subsurface, or airspace or the location of fixed objects thereon, except as performed by photogrammetric methods by persons holding certification from the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing or substantially similar certification as approved by the Department, or except when the level of accuracy required is less than the level of accuracy required by the National Society of Professional Surveyors Model Standards and Practice;

(c) Preparing descriptions for the determination of title or real property rights to any portion or volume of the earth's surface, subsurface, or airspace involving the lengths and direction of boundary lines, areas, parts of platted parcels or the contours of the earth's surface, subsurface, or airspace;

(d) Labeling, designating, naming, preparing, or otherwise identifying legal lines or land title lines of the United States Rectangular System or any subdivision thereof on any plat, map, exhibit, photograph, photographic composite, or mosaic or photogrammetric map of any portion of the earth's surface for the purpose of recording and amending the same by the issuance of a certificate of correction in the Office of Recorder in any county;

(e) Any act or combination of acts that would be viewed as offering professional land surveying services including:

(1) setting monuments which have the appearance of or for the express purpose of marking land boundaries, either directly or as an accessory;

(2) providing any sketch, map, plat, report, monument record, or other document which indicates land boundaries and monuments, or accessory monuments thereto, except that if the sketch, map, plat, report, monument record, or other document is a copy of an original prepared by a professional land surveyor, and if proper reference to that fact be made on that document;

(3) performing topographic surveys, with the exception of a licensed professional engineer knowledgeable in topographical surveys who performs a topographical survey specific to his or her design project. A licensed professional engineer may not, however, offer topographic surveying services that are independent of his or her specific design project;

(4) locating, relocating, establishing, reestablishing, retracing, laying out, or staking of the location, alignment, or elevation of any existing or proposed improvements whose location is dependent upon property, easement, and right-of-way boundaries;

(5) providing consultation, investigation, planning, mapping, assembling, and authoritative interpretation of gathered measurements, documents, and evidence in relation to the location of property, easement, and right-of-way boundaries; or

(6) measuring, evaluating, mapping, or reporting the location of existing or proposed buildings, structures, or other improvements or their surrounding topography with respect to current flood insurance rate mapping or federal emergency management agency mapping along with locating of inland wetland boundaries delineated by a qualified specialist in relation to the location of property, easement, and right-of-way boundaries.

(f) Determining the horizontal or vertical position or state plane coordinates for any monument or reference point that marks a title or real property line, boundary, or corner, or to set, reset, or replace any monument or reference point on any title or real property;

(g) Creating, preparing, or modifying electronic or computerized data or maps, including land information systems and geographic information systems, relative to the performance of activities in items (a), (b), (d), (e), (f), and (h) of this Section, except where electronic means or computerized data is otherwise utilized to integrate, display, represent, or assess the created, prepared, or modified data;

(h) Determining or adjusting any control network or any geodetic control network or cadastral data as it pertains to items (a) through (g) of this Section together with the assignment of measured values to any United States Rectangular System corners, title or real property corner monuments or geodetic monuments;

(i) Preparing and attesting to the accuracy of a map or plat showing the land boundaries or lines and marks and monuments of the boundaries or of a map or plat showing the boundaries of surface, subsurface, or air rights;

(j) Executing and issuing certificates, endorsements, reports, or plats that portray the horizontal or vertical relationship between existing physical objects or structures and one or more corners, datums, or boundaries of any portion of the earth's surface, subsurface, or airspace;

(k) Acting in direct supervision and control of land surveying activities or acting as a manager in any place of business that solicits, performs, or practices land surveying;

(l) Boundary analysis and determination of property, easement, or right-of-way lines on any plat submitted for regulatory review by governmental or municipal agencies;

(m) Offering or soliciting to perform any of the services set forth in this Section.

In the performance of any of the foregoing functions, a licensee shall adhere to the standards of professional conduct enumerated in 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1270.57. Nothing contained in this Section imposes upon a person licensed under this Act the responsibility for the performance of any of the foregoing functions unless such person specifically contracts to perform such functions.

(Source: P.A. 100-171, eff. 1-1-18; 101-313, eff. 8-9-19.)