Los Angeles County · Land Surveying
Burbank incorporated in 1911 with five hundred residents on a dentist's former ranchland, then built two industries that named it: Lockheed's aviation empire and the studios that made it the Media Capital of the World. Its parcels carry both stories.
Home lot, fourplex, or industrial parcel — describe the project and we will size the survey to it. Call (213) 787-3342 to talk it through.
Dr. David Burbank's 9,000-acre purchase became a town in 1887 and a city in 1911; Lockheed arrived in 1928 and swelled to nearly a hundred thousand wartime workers; Warner's predecessors broke ground in 1929, Disney moved its campus in 1940, and NBC followed in 1952. The city that resulted mixes studio districts, the airport's industrial ring, dense residential flats, and hillside neighborhoods climbing toward the Verdugos.
Each fabric generates its own docket. The flats produce steady line, setback, and ADU work on compact wartime-and-after lots. The hillsides add terrain to every project. And the commercial and industrial districts — media-adjacent and airport-adjacent alike — transact continuously, bringing ALTA surveys, as-built documentation, and the occasional aviation-era instrument out of deep title.
Residential retracement spans the townsite core, the Lockheed-boom tracts built quickly for war workers, and postwar infill — records of ordinary quality whose field evidence thinned under decades of rebuilding. The boom-era blocks occasionally show their haste in field quirks rather than record defects; retracement sorts them, and restored corners are filed with the county.
Commercial work leans on title: studio-adjacent and airport-district parcels carry easements, dedications, and aviation-era instruments accumulated across a century of industry. ALTA/NSPS surveys plot what is locatable for lenders and buyers; as-built and topographic work supports conversions and hillside projects. The city's pace keeps all of it moving.
Six services carry the city's mix — precision for the flats, terrain for the hills, documentation for the districts:
The projects that bring Burbank owners in usually involve:
Any of these narrow the research and firm the number:
We identify the parcel's era and district, read its record, confirm scope, then measure. The steps are on our how it works page.
Only as well-documented neighbors — campus parcels keep thorough records, which strengthens adjoining research. Your line against a studio retraces like any other. What the districts do generate is transaction work nearby, as media-adjacent property stays in demand.
The maps were recorded properly — wartime speed shows in the field, not the record. Boom-era blocks carry the usual drifted fences and thin evidence, occasionally more pronounced where construction outran care. Retracement resolves it; the tract geometry underneath is sound.
Boundary and terrain in one package: located lines, mapped contours, and existing walls and drainage captured so the designer and the city see the same ground. Hillside review examines grade seriously, and a complete base survey is the difference between one review cycle and three.
An ALTA/NSPS scope: boundary, building and site improvements, parking, access, and every locatable title exception plotted. Multifamily near the districts moves briskly — having the survey underway when escrow opens keeps the schedule honest.
Recorded instruments persist until formally released, so very possibly — and its practical effect depends on where it falls, which is the survey's contribution. We plot the easement against your improvements; your title officer or attorney reads its current legal force. Most prove manageable once mapped.
We serve property throughout Burbank and across Los Angeles County — request a survey quote for any parcel in the area.
A service-area firm handling boundary, topographic, ALTA, and construction survey work across the region.
Survey scope and deliverables depend on title records, site conditions, and what your project requires. Call (213) 787-3342 to discuss the property and the survey you need.
Call Southern California Land Surveyors at (213) 787-3342 with the address and project, and we will scope the survey to your parcel's era and district.