Question 1

Carmel does not use street addresses. How do you identify the property?

Accepted Answer

By block and lot, the way the city does. Carmel-by-the-Sea describes parcels by their position on a street rather than by a number, so we work from the APN and the recorded map and label the drawing set the way the city expects to read it. Send us the APN and we can pull the record before anyone drives out.

Question 2

Does a design review submittal need drawings of what is already there?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and that is where a scan earns its keep. Design review looks at how the proposal sits against the existing building, the neighbours and the site, so the existing elevations have to be right. A LiDAR scan gives us real heights, real roof pitches and real setbacks rather than numbers taken off an old survey, which is what tends to cause a redesign after the first hearing.

Question 3

Can you capture the trees along with the building?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Carmel's forest ordinance protects upper-canopy trees, and where they sit relative to the work usually shapes what is buildable. Our scan and drone capture record the trunks and the canopy alongside the structure, so the site documentation shows the trees measured rather than sketched. Where the project needs a certified arborist or a surveyor, we coordinate with them.

Question 4

Our cottage is old and nothing is square. Will the as-built be accurate?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and this is the case the method is built for. Carmel's older cottages have settled, been added to and were rarely square to begin with. The scan records the geometry as it actually is, so a wall that runs out by two inches over its length shows up as two inches out, and we confirm the key dimensions by hand while we are there. Nobody finds the discrepancy during framing.

Question 5

Can you produce a 3D model we can show at review?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We build a model from the point cloud, so the massing, the roof planes and the relationship to neighbouring structures are measured rather than drawn by eye. It reads far better in front of a board than a set of flat elevations, and it is the same model your designer keeps working in.

LiDAR Scanning and As-Builts in Carmel-by-the-Sea

01Carmel does not use street addresses. How do you identify the property?

02Does a design review submittal need drawings of what is already there?

03Can you capture the trees along with the building?

04Our cottage is old and nothing is square. Will the as-built be accurate?

05Can you produce a 3D model we can show at review?