Direction 17: Large Historic District Lots

Direction to Land Surveyors No. 17 (January 26, 2022)

The Surveyor General, in cooperation with the Province of BC, has completed a review of a number of large District Lots across British Columbia, in support of its role to maintain and enhance the province’s survey structure. The purpose of this Direction is to provide clarity to land surveyors on how to label these District Lots on survey posts and plans. In addition, it provides insight into how the Surveyor General will issue parcel designations for Land Act surveys within these District Lots.

Many of these parcels were originally surveyed for railway companies, for the purposes of defining areas within which the company could harvest timber for the construction of railway ties. They have varying histories; some were never granted, whereas others were granted in their entirety, and then the railway companies sold off portions and eventually returned the remainders to the province. Most were specifically referenced in the 1920 “Railway Subsidy Lands Repurchase Titles Act”, indicating that all the unalienated portions of these large District Lots are Crown owned and are to be administered under the Land Act going forward.

The usual practice ever since, although it was not always consistently applied, was for the Surveyor General to “ignore” the original District Lot when issuing a new Land Act parcel designation within it, and instead issue a new District Lot designation as though the lands were Unsurveyed Crown Land (UCL).

After completing a review of these large parcels, the conclusion is that we will continue to treat the unalienated portions of most of the large District Lots as UCL.

The table below breaks down how future surveys within the various district lots identified will be designated.

• For those that give direction to “Treat as UCL”:
  • District Lot numbers will be assigned by the Surveyor General for new parcel designations;
  • SRW plans passing through the lands are to treat the underlying lands as UCL (but with labels in the scenery noting the existence of the large DL);
  • The large DL should not be noted on survey monuments or ancillary evidence.
• For those that give direction to “Issue Block”:
  • Block designations will be assigned by the Surveyor General for new parcel designations within the DL;
  • SRW plans passing through the lands are to treat the underlying lands as part of the DL;

The large DL should be noted on survey monuments and ancillary evidence.

Table 1.

In addition to the work completed with the Province to determine the appropriate treatment of these large parcels for new surveys, the representation in ParcelMap BC of these large parcels has been re-evaluated. Those District Lots that are to be treated as UCL will no longer be part of the “Active Fabric” within PMBC.  They will, however, continue to be visible and searchable through the ParcelMap BC Search Service on the “Crown Features” layer.

Please remember that prior to undertaking any survey of Crown land pursuant to the Land Title Act or the Land Act, other than a statutory right of way, an application must be made to the Surveyor General for survey instructions and, in the case of surveys under the Land Act, for a unique parcel designation.

Dave Swaile, BCLS, CLS

Senior Deputy Surveyor General