The Division of Right of Way is primarily responsible for all real property (Right of Way), Office of Land Surveys (Engineering and Survey) and the Office of Data Management for the Caltrans Bay Area District 04.
Organization:
Right of Way:
Responsibilities includes appraisal and acquisition of property required for transportation purposes, relocation of affected occupants and businesses, management of acquired properties, clearance of improvements prior to construction and disposition of personal and real property no longer required by the District.
Acquisition, Project Management, Relocation Services is responsible for:
Project acquisitions.
Hardship and protection acquisitions.
Railroad liaison and acquisitions.
Legal Division liaison and inverse actions.
Relocation Assistance Program.
Right of Way Management Information Systems - ROWMIS
Appraisals, Estimation, Property Management & Excess Land Sales
The State of California, Department of Transportation (Caltrans) owns property in the 9 Bay Area Counties * and many of these properties are available for rent. The majority of our rentable property consists of single family homes and apartments in the Hayward/Castro Valley area of Alameda County and we often have vacancies available. However, we are purchasing a number of additional properties in the City of San Rafael (Marin County) which will soon be available for rent. Look for these listings in the near future.
Occasionally we have vacant, agricultural/grazing land for lease. We also have business and/or commercial rentals available , but this is rare. All of our vacancies are posted on our web-site but hard copies of our lists are also available by contacting our offices in Oakland.
Caltrans has owned much of our property for many years, usually in anticipation of building a facility (freeway/highway) in the area at some future date. Sometimes these properties are surplus to our needs and will eventually be sold. However, the majority are being held for our future projects.
Renting from Caltrans is like renting from any other landlord. We charge fair market rent for our properties and you must qualify financially in order to be considered as a tenant .
California State Headquarters for Right of Way Property Management is located in Sacramento.
* 9 Bay Area Counties:
Alameda, Contra Costa, Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Napa .
Office of Land Surveys:
Responsibilities include preparation of maps and descriptions required for acquisition and disposal of real property, land-net perpetuation documents and the Computer Aided Design (CAD) program. Surveys responsibilities include all field survey work required for design, right of way and construction purposes and establishment of the California Coordinate System along transportation corridors.
Right of Way Engineering
District 04 Right of Way Engineering is a professional team of Land Surveyors and support staff committed to providing quality products that are useful to the customers.
This commitment includes a continuous improvement program to meet our delivery obligations.
Right of Way Engineering performs the following tasks:
Establishes the Department’s Right of Way from public records, title reports, and Caltrans records.
Reestablishes the Department’s existing Right of Way on new datums.
Prepares appraisal maps.
Prepares deeds.
Prepares condemnation maps and resolutions of necessity.
Prepares Right of Way record maps.
Prepares final Record of Survey/Monumentation maps.
Provides supports for right of way staking.
Prepares excess lands documents.
Prepares exhibits for legal purposes.
Prepares products for permit compliance obligations.
Advises other functional units on issues related to the Department’s Right of Way.
Local Project Oversight
Oversee, and ensure that, Surveys and R/W Engineering products prepared by private consultants for Special Funded Projects comply with Caltrans standards, practices and procedures and are acceptable for archiving in our Records Section.
Process, circulate and prepare maps and documents for the relinquishment of collateral facilities no longer required for operating Right of Way.
Surveys and New Technologies
Surveying is basic to all civil engineering works. It is the single engineering function that links all the elements of a project: from conception, land acquisition, design and construction to final Monumentation and mapping. The function of the Office of Field Surveys Services is to provide professional & technical Surveying expertise, new engineering technology assistance, and related services to our clients in support of their efforts to improve, maintain, and operate California's transportation systems
LiDAR Survey facilitates the acquisition of data of thousand points over the Earth's surface within a fraction of a second accurately. LiDAR is one of the most important breakthrough in Optical Remote Sensing technologies. LiDAR means Light Detection And Ranging. LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) is the Remote Sensing technology that can find the range and other information about a particular distant object by the means of measuring the properties of scattered lights.
Office of Data Management:
coordinates GIS and record maps
Right of Way GIS and Records
Important links to get Records and Maps!
The R/W Records is one of the most valuable resources available to users of Caltrans' surveying and mapping products. Documents available in the Records Section (Room 1303) can be invaluable aids to the delivery of District 4 projects. Many of these documents will be available in digital format via the Caltrans website in the future, a limited set is now on Maps on Demand .
R/W Record, Appraisal, and Monumentation maps are available for download via the Department's: Survey Field Notes can be requested from the Surveys Processing Branch.
Assistance with R/W Records research or printed copies of R/W maps, R/W acquisition, disposal documents (deeds) and State Highway Photography can be requested from the Records Desk.