Land Surveying in Lithia Springs, GA

Surveying Land in Lithia Springs, Douglas County

Lithia Springs lies in the northeastern corner of Douglas County and has no city government. The Census Bureau carries it as a census designated place rather than an incorporated city, so the county runs the area. That matters on the first day of a survey, because the office that approves a plat is decided by whether the land sits inside a municipality or outside one.

Deeds and plats for Douglas County are filed with the Clerk of Superior Court on the fourth floor of the courthouse at 8700 Hospital Drive in Douglasville, roughly seven miles southwest of Lithia Springs by way of Interstate 20. Assessment records are kept elsewhere. The Douglas County Appraisal Department works from the annex at 6200 Fairburn Road and publishes parcel data on qPublic, where an owner can pull their own record by address, owner name, parcel number or legal description.

Approval is where Lithia Springs gets complicated. Land inside the census designated place is unincorporated, so a division is submitted to the Douglas County Planning and Zoning Department at 4655 Timber Ridge Drive for its stamp before the clerk will record anything. Article 5 of the county Unified Development Code treats a lot line rearrangement, a lot combination or a two lot split as exempt from full final plat review, but the plat still has to be prepared, stamped and signed by a land surveyor or engineer, it still needs the department's stamp, and neither lot from a two lot split may be divided again for 24 months. Move a short distance south or east and the ground is inside the City of Douglasville, where the final subdivision plat is approved by the mayor and city council, and that approval is what authorizes recordation.

The Cobb County line forms the northern and eastern edge of the community, with Austell and Mableton immediately across it, and the ZIP code covering Lithia Springs does not respect that line. Of the 24.7 square miles of land in ZIP 30122, 24.6 are in Douglas County and the remainder is in Cobb. A Lithia Springs mailing address is not by itself proof of the recording county.

Sweetwater Creek runs through the eastern side of the community on its way to the Chattahoochee, and the USGS watershed boundary dataset carries the drainage here as Lower Sweetwater Creek. Douglas County places all unincorporated land inside the O-EO Watershed Protection Overlay District, then draws a Sweetwater Creek watershed protection area on the official zoning map. Article 9 of the code turns that into field work: perennial streams and other state waters get a 50 foot natural vegetative buffer, clearing, grading and construction have to stay at least 50 feet back from the stream bank, and the buffer, undisturbed area or setback must be noted on the plat and in the deed. On a creekside tract the stream has to be located before anyone knows where the buildable area is.

Sweetwater Creek State Park occupies the southern edge of the community, off Mount Vernon Road in the 30122 ZIP, and the rugged hills and rock outcrops the park is known for do not stop at its boundary. Steep side slopes and the drainage that comes with them are ordinary on lots nearby, which is why a topographic survey usually comes before a grading plan here.

Because a Lithia Springs address can sit on either side of the Douglas and Cobb line, and because unincorporated ground and City of Douglasville ground answer to different reviewers, the first thing we settle on a job here is which county indexes the deed and which office signs the plat. Send the parcel number or the street address with what the survey is for. Every plat carries the seal of William "Bart" Sims, the licensed Georgia land surveyor, and the office is at 549 West Ave in Cedartown.