Boundary Line/Subdivision Guidelines

An important case has just come out of the Washington Court of Appeals dealing with parties who try to subdivide property by utilizing the Boundary Line Adjustment process.

While state law provides background for subdivisions and boundary line adjustments, each individual jurisdiction supervises subdivisions and boundary line adjustments.  Each individual jurisdiction has their own rules in which they interpret and implement State Statutes.

Because the Boundary Line Adjustment process has been used by developers, obtaining guidelines from the Court as to what can and cannot be done is extremely important.  We have just received those guidelines in the case of Chelan County v. Nykreim, 105 Wn. App. 339 (2001).  This case is important for the following of reasons:

Chelan v. Nykreim is important enough that the Washington Association of Realtors, the Building Industry Association of Washington, Washington Land Title Association and the Washington State Farm Bureau, all saw the case as a milestone and filed their own amicus curiae briefs with the Court of Appeals.

Because the rulings by the Court of Appeals are technical, and the numerous organiztions felt these rulings were important, I have attached a complete text of the Chelan opinion.  I encourage you to read it in its entirety.