Land Surveyors in Kent, WA

Three Cities in One

Kent divides naturally into West Hill, the Kent Valley and East Hill, and each is a different surveying market. The valley floor in the middle is the old Green River farmland, now packed with warehouses, distribution centers and manufacturing plants. The two hills on either side are residential plateaus, and the northern part of East Hill grew substantially on July 1, 2010, when the Panther Lake annexation added about five square miles and roughly 24,000 residents who had been living under King County rules.

The Green River Levees

The valley is only buildable because of the levees along the Green River. For years, FEMA's flood maps noted that most Green River levee reaches had not been shown to meet federal certification standards for 1-percent-annual-chance protection, with only certain named segments recognised. Levee raising and repair, along with a system-wide improvement framework for the reaches enrolled in the Corps of Engineers' rehabilitation program, has followed. For any parcel behind the levees, its flood-zone designation follows from how the adjacent reach is mapped, and the city keeps elevation certificates on file for many valley properties.

Big Parcels, Old Easements

Warehouse sites in the valley are large and flat, but they sit on a dense layer of recorded rights: rail spur easements, drainage and utility corridors, and access agreements shared among neighbouring buildings. On East Hill and West Hill the concerns are different - older unincorporated plats, steep edges where roads such as James Street climb out of the valley, and infill of deep lots.

What Kent Work Looks Like

The valley is ALTA country: nearly every warehouse sale or refinance requires an ALTA/NSPS survey, and new distribution buildings need construction staking and a final as-built survey. An elevation certificate is common for anything behind the levees. On the hills, a boundary survey and topographic survey start most infill projects, deep Panther Lake lots are divided by short plat, and adjoining owners use a lot line adjustment to rework a shared line. North along the valley is Renton; Seattle lies beyond.

Kent Survey FAQs