Committee backs bill updating North Dakota state plane coordinate systems to modern reference frame

The House Agriculture Committee voted to give Senate Bill 2,260 a due-pass recommendation after hearing technical testimony that the bill would codify updated state plane coordinate systems aligned with the North American Terrestrial Reference Frame of 2022.

The bill, sponsored in the Senate by state Sen. Randy Burkhart, would add statutory references to new state plane coordinate systems prepared by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) and adopted in draft for use by North Dakota surveying, mapping and engineering professionals.

The bill matters to counties, surveyors and engineering firms because state plane coordinates are the base reference used to map property, infrastructure and natural resources. "The purpose of this bill is to codify state plane coordinate systems corresponding to the new North American terrestrial reference frame of 2022," Burkhart told the committee. Aaron Humbert, a registered land surveyor and legislative committee chair for the North Dakota Society of Professional Land Surveyors (NDSPLS), added technical detail and urged a due-pass recommendation.

Humbert told the committee the proposal keeps the existing legal references tied to older datums (NAD 27 and NAD 83) in code while adding a statewide projection and 16 "low distortion" local projections recommended by stakeholders, including the Department of Transportation, Department of Water Resources and the North Dakota GIS Technical Committee. He said the 16 low-distortion zones were designed to meet the state's statutory survey tolerance and to reduce lineal distortion for engineering surveys. "The goal with these low distortion zones was 50 parts per million, which in terms of that is essentially a half a foot in 2 miles," Humbert said.

Committee members asked about practical effects on landowners and boundary monuments. Humbert emphasized that the bill does not change boundary monuments placed on the ground: "Those positions are the coordinate values per these are subordinate to the actual position on the ground...It doesn't change...where things are at on the ground with regards to land boundaries." Representative Hoverson asked whether the changes would affect industries such as real estate; Humbert responded that the change is largely "housekeeping" and will not require owners to resurvey property.

Mike Crumwoody of NDSPLS introduced Humbert and said the society supports the bill. After questions and a short discussion the committee recorded a unanimous roll call in favor of a due-pass recommendation.

The committee action advances the bill for further House consideration; the proposed code language would give surveyors a current, federally referenced projection framework while keeping older datums in statute to preserve historical datasets and legal references.