Any person desiring to lay out a townsite, an addition to a townsite, or a subdivision of land shall cause the land to be surveyed and a plat made of the land. The written plat must comply with the following:

Terms Used In North Dakota Code 40-50.1-01

  • following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute means the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Person: means an individual, organization, government, political subdivision, or government agency or instrumentality. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
  • written: include "typewriting" and "typewritten" and "printing" and "printed" except in the case of signatures and when the words are used by way of contrast to typewriting and printing. See North Dakota Code 1-01-37
  • year: means twelve consecutive months. See North Dakota Code 1-01-33

1.    The plat must describe particularly and set forth all the streets, alleys, and public grounds, and all outlots or fractional lots within or adjoining the townsite or jurisdiction, together with the names, widths, courses, boundaries, and extent of all such streets, alleys, and public grounds, and giving the dimensions of all lots, streets, alleys, and public grounds.

2.    All lots and blocks, however designated, must be numbered in progressive numbers and their precise length, width, and area be stated on the map or plat. The streets, alleys, or roads which divide or border the lots must be shown on the map or plat.

3.    The plat must indicate that all outside boundary monuments have been set and indicate those interior monuments that have been set. There must be shown on the plat all survey and mathematical information, including bearings and distances, and data necessary to locate all monuments and to locate and retrace all interior and exterior boundary lines appearing on the plat. All interior lot lines and exterior boundary lines of the plat must be correctly designated on the plat and show bearings on all straight lines, or angles at all angle points, and central angle, radius, and arc length for all curves. All distances must be shown between all monuments as measured to the hundredth of a foot [0.3048 centimeter]. All lot distances must be shown on the plat to the nearest hundredth of a foot [0.3048 centimeter] and all curved lines within the plat must show central angles, radii, and arc distances. A north arrow and the scale of the plat must be shown on the plat. The scale must be of a dimension that the plat may be easily interpreted. If a curved line constitutes the line of more than one lot in any block of a plat, the central angle for that part of each lot on the curved line must be shown.

4.    Ditto marks may not be used on the plat for any purposes.

5.    If a river, stream, creek, or lake constitutes a boundary line within or of the plat, a survey line must be shown with bearings or angles and distances between all angle points and their relation to a waterline, and all distances measured on the survey line between lot lines must be shown, and the survey line shown as a dashed line.

6.    The unadjusted outside boundary survey and the plat survey data must close by latitude and departure with an error that does not exceed one part in ten thousand parts.

7.    All rivers, streams, creeks, lakes, and all public highways, streets, and alleys of record must be correctly located and plainly shown and designated on the plat.

8.    The names and adjacent boundary lines of any adjoining platted lands must be dotted on the plat.

9.    The scale must be shown graphically and the basis of bearings must be shown. The plat must be dated as to the completion of the survey and preparation of the plat.

10.    The purpose of any easement shown on the plat must be clearly stated. Building setbacks may not be shown on the plat.

11.    Any plat which includes lands abutting upon any lake, river, or stream must show a contour line denoting the present shoreline, water elevation, and the date of survey. If any part of a plat lies within the one hundred year floodplain of a lake, river, or stream as designated by the department of water resources or a federal agency, the mean sea level elevation of that one hundred year flood must be denoted on the plat by numerals. Topographic contours at a two-foot [60.96-centimeter] contour interval referenced to mean sea level must be shown for the portion of the plat lying within the floodplain. All elevations must be referenced to a durable benchmark described on the     plat with its location and elevation to the nearest hundredth of a foot [0.3048 centimeter], which must be given in mean sea level datum.