Polk County Survey Crew Chief Josh Herzberg, Lincoln County Surveyor Eli Adam, Clatsop County Surveyor Vance Swenson, and Lane County Deputy County Surveyor Trevor Ross (L-R)
House Bill 3175 passed unanimously out of the Senate Committee on Veterans, Emergency Management, and Federal and World Affairs this week. The bill lifts the statutory 40-year-old cap on the document recording fees that go to county surveyors’ Public Land Corner Preservation Funds, and now moves to the Senate floor for a vote, then to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
Removing the $10 fee cap, which was set in statute in the 1980s, allows boards of county commissioners and county courts to set a document recording fee commensurate to local needs. If passed out of the Senate and signed by the governor, HB 3175 would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
County Public Land Corner Programs are struggling to meet their statutory obligations to maintain public land corners due to the decline of the $10 fee’s value – down 70% since it was set in the 1980s. Modernizing this funding mechanism has been a legislative priority for the Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) and the Oregon Association of County Engineers and Surveyors (OACES) for nearly 20 years, though past attempts to pass legislation have failed.
Oregon county surveyors have been maintaining and perpetuating the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) – critical public infrastructure established by the federal government in 1785 – since statehood. The PLSS consists of controlling property corners located every half mile, forming the foundation for all public and private real property and resource land boundaries in Oregon. Maintaining these corners is an ongoing process requiring physical inspection and establishment or reestablishment of historical corners still set in trees or with rocks. Over time, corners are destroyed and damaged by natural events, development, and careless human activity. When corners are destroyed or improperly placed, every landowner’s property lines become less certain, resulting in costly boundary disputes and litigation, disorderly development, and emergency response challenges.
HB 3175 was introduced by Representative Marsh (D-Ashland) and Representative Gomberg (D-Otis) on behalf of the Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) and the Oregon Association of County Engineers and Surveyors (OACES). OACES members Polk County Survey Crew Chief Josh Herzberg, Lincoln County Surveyor Eli Adam, Clatsop County Surveyor Vance Swenson, Lane County Deputy County Surveyor Trevor Ross, and Wasco County Surveyor Bradley Cross testified in the House and Senate Committees.
Contributed by: by Mallorie Roberts | AOC Legislative Affairs Director