USA Surveying & Engineering, LLC (J. Keith Maxwell, PE, PLS)
We have a network of highly competent land surveyors throughout Missouri to complete ALTA Surveys for your project. Call Keith at 800-798-9540 and let him know which city or county the project is in.
USA Surveying & Engineering, LLC is owned by J. Keith Maxwell. He formed the network of Surveyors in the state and manages this website. Keith holds a Professional Land Surveyors license and Professional Engineers license in the state of Alabama. He has over 30 years experience with all types of commercial land surveying and commercial land development projects. Over the last 28 years he has completed numerous ALTA Surveys. Call 800-798-9540 to speak with Keith about an ALTA Survey in Missouri.
Keith works with a network of licensed Land Surveyor Associates all around the state. We will select the closest one to your location, AND the best for the job. Keith can also guide you to Civil Engineering services if you need them for your project.
Maps & Resources for Missouri
- Missouri Office of Geospatial Information
- Missouri Floodplain Mapping Viewer -and- Survey Reference Points
- FEMA Flood Maps Site
- USGS Quadrangle Maps
- 2021 ALTA Land Survey Standards (PDF format)
- 2021 ALTA Table A only (PDF format)
Guaranteed Results
Our Missouri surveyors take customer satisfaction seriously. We want to know your requirements and goals for the job. Then we’ll work to complete the project to meet your approval. If you have questions about the process or the survey, we have the answers. We’re eager to help you. We will listen to your questions, and then do our best to resolve them when you call us. We will also help to develop the scope of work for what needs to be done on your project and do our best to meet those expectations.
ALTA Land Title Survey
An ALTA Land Title Survey is completed based on the “Minimum Standard Detail Requirements and Accuracy Standards For ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys.” This ALTA survey standards document was developed and is revised on a regular basis by a combination of Title industry (the American Land Title Association) and Surveying industry (the National Society of Professional Surveyors) professionals. The latest version of this document is the 2021 revision.
ALTA Survey Costs
Since ALTA Surveys take more time and effort, these surveys typically cost more than a survey done according to a particular state standard. I should point out that if the state standard is more restrictive on a certain point, then the most restrictive standard rules.
I see ALTA surveys priced from 50% to 250% more than a comparable boundary survey. This depends on the items checked in “Table A – Optional Survey Responsibilities and Specifications.” This table adds additional or specific tasks to the surveyor’s scope of work.
One item that is usually included with most all ALTA survey requests is Item #1, monuments placed. Missouri Surveying standards include this and, in my opinion, all surveys should, but the ALTA survey leaves this optional unless the item is checked on Table A.
In regard to this, one of the things I appreciate is that the client is “supposed to” not only fill out this Table A but also to furnish title documents to the surveyor BEFORE he starts the survey. In practice we rarely get the title documents until we issue the first draft of the survey. At that time the documents are sent to us and we are asked to revise the survey and show them. While this is not the way its planned, at least we have the chance to review the documents before issuing the final version of the survey.
Regions of Missouri
Northern Plains or Dissected Till Plain
The Dissected Till Plains are north of the Missouri River. This area is covered with rich soil that is particularly good for growing corn. This well-watered prairie is criss-crossed by many slow-moving rivers and streams.
The Dissected Till Plains occupy much of Iowa, eastern Nebraska, northwest Missouri, and small parts of northwest Illinois, southern Minnesota, and northeast Kansas. This area was glaciated, uplifted, and subsequently eroded into a flat-to-rolling terrain that slopes gently toward the Missouri and Mississippi River Valleys. Natural vegetation is a mosaic of tallgrass bluestem prairie and oak-hickory forest with oak savannahs characteristic of transition zones. Bottomland hardwoods grow in river valleys.
Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau
The largest land area in Missouri, this area is also known for its large springs, lakes, and clear rivers. The Ozark Plateau is located in the southwestern corner of Missouri, and is great for gardens and strawberries. The St. Francois Mountains are in the southeast. This area is the highest and most rugged section of the state. Taum Sauk Mountain, the highest point in Missouri, is located in the St. Francois Mountains.
Western or Osage Plains
The Osage Plains, covering west-central Missouri, the southeastern third of Kansas, most of central Oklahoma, and extending into north-central Texas, is the southernmost of three tallgrass prairie physiographic areas. It grades into savannah and woodland to the east and south, and into shorter mixed-grass prairie to the west. The Osage Plains consist of three subregions. The Osage Plains proper occupy the northeast segment. Although sharply demarcated from the Ozark uplift, the Plains are nonetheless a transitional area across which the boundary between prairie and woodland has shifted over time. In the central portion of the physiographic area lies the second subregion, the Flint Hills. This large remnant core of native tallgrass prairie is a rocky rolling terrain that stretches from north to south across Kansas and extends into Oklahoma. This vegetatively complex region of intermixed prairie and scrubby cedar-mesquite woodland extends into north-central Texas. As in the rest of the Great Plains, fire, herbivory, topography, and drought maintained prairie and established the location of woodlands.
Coastal Plain or Mississippi Alluvial Plains
This land, once swampy, has been drained to form a rich farmland suitable for growing cotton, soybeans, and rice. The southern portion of Missouri that juts into Arkansas, is called the Boot Heel because of its shape.
The alluvial plain consists of both Pleistocene (Ice Age) and recent deposits of clay, silt, sand, and gravel that were laid down by the Mississippi River as it meandered across this broad floodplain.
Mississippi Alluvial Valley includes the floodplain of the Mississippi River that cuts into the Gulf Coastal Plain, extending north to and including the delta at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and south toward the Gulf of Mexico. The Alluvial Valley includes most of eastern Louisiana, eastern Arkansas, northwest Mississippi, small portions of west Tennessee and Kentucky, the bootheel of Missouri, and the Cache River lowlands of Illinois. Nonforested marsh in southern portions of the floodplain is included in the Coastal Prairie physiographic area. Water shaped this land. The ridges and swales, levees, oxbows, and terraces of the Valley all resulted from meanderings and floods of the Mississippi River. Small changes in elevation determine how wet a site is, the plant community that grows there, and habitat conditions for birds.
Summary
So, if you have a commercial parcel or a large multi-family residential complex, you should consider asking for the ALTA standards to be used.
You should also probably do this if you are considering the purchase or development of a parcel outside your state. Most of the banks will require this if you ask for a loan on this type property, but I recommend this even if the bank doesn’t require it.