Cell Tower & Telecom Site Surveys
Lease area surveys, access easements, and utility easements — the three documents every tower site needs before a ground lease can be signed. Alliance Land Surveyors delivers sealed exhibits and legal descriptions ready to attach to your lease agreement. Based in San Antonio, available to travel for site work statewide.
Get Your Tower Site Quote
Include site address or coordinates and scope needed.
What Is a Cell Tower Site Survey?
A cell tower site survey defines, in legally recordable terms, exactly what the carrier or tower company is leasing and how they will reach it. Unlike a standard boundary survey of a whole property, a tower site survey carves out a small leased parcel from inside a much larger parent tract — and then documents the corridors that connect that parcel to the outside world.
That means three distinct legal areas on one drawing: the lease area(the compound itself), the access easement(the drive or road from the public right-of-way to the compound gate), and the utility easement(the corridor carrying power and fiber to the equipment). Each one needs its own sealed metes and bounds description, because each one is a separate legal right being granted by the landowner.
Getting these descriptions right matters more than most survey work. They attach directly to the ground lease and the recorded memorandum of lease. An error in the access easement description can leave a carrier with a tower they cannot legally drive to — and that problem surfaces years later, usually during a site acquisition or a lease buyout, when it is expensive to fix.
A tower site survey from Alliance includes:
Lease area boundary — the leased compound staked and mapped with bearings, distances, and area, tied to the parent tract boundary.
Access easement — the ingress/egress corridor from the public right-of-way to the compound, with centerline or sidelines described and width noted.
Utility easement — the power and fiber corridor mapped and described, including any separate routing from the access drive.
Metes and bounds descriptions — sealed legal descriptions for all three areas, formatted to attach to the ground lease, easement agreement, or memorandum of lease.
Parent tract context — the landowner's overall boundary, recording references, and adjoining ownership shown for reference.
Existing conditions — improvements, visible utilities, fence lines, and physical access conditions within and around the lease area.
CAD and sealed PDF — deliverables in AutoCAD DWG and sealed PDF so your site development team and attorneys can both work from the same survey.
Lease Area, Access Easement & Utility Easement
Every tower ground lease depends on three surveyed areas. Alliance delivers all three on one coordinated survey with matching control, so the descriptions close against each other and against the parent tract.
Lease Area
The compound footprint carved out of the parent tract — typically a 50x50, 75x75, or 100x100 parcel. Mapped with bearings, distances, and calculated area, with a sealed metes and bounds description for the ground lease.
Access Easement
The ingress and egress corridor from the public right-of-way to the compound gate. Described by centerline or sidelines with stated width, following the actual usable route across the landowner's property.
Utility Easement
The corridor carrying electrical service and fiber to the equipment shelter. Often routed separately from the access drive, requiring its own survey and legal description for the utility easement agreement.
All three descriptions are sealed by a Registered Professional Land Surveyor and formatted to attach directly to your ground lease, easement agreement, or memorandum of lease for recording.
Other Surveys Tower Sites Need
Depending on where you are in the site development cycle, a tower project may need additional survey work beyond the lease exhibits. Alliance handles the full scope.
ALTA/NSPS Survey
Required when the site involves title insurance, a lease buyout, a portfolio acquisition, or institutional financing. Includes title commitment review and Schedule B-II easement plotting.
Parent Tract Boundary
Establishes the landowner's full boundary so the lease area and easements can be accurately tied to it. Often needed when the parent tract has never been surveyed or has an old metes and bounds deed.
Topographic Survey
Elevation contours and existing features across the compound and access route, used by your civil engineer to design the pad, foundation, drainage, and access road grading.
Construction Staking
Compound corners, tower foundation center and anchor points, equipment pads, fence line, and access road centerline staked for the construction crew per the approved site drawings.
As-Built Survey
Post-construction documentation of the tower center, compound, equipment, fencing, and access road as actually built — for closeout, compliance records, and future collocation planning.
Site Coordinates & Elevations
Surveyed horizontal coordinates and ground elevation at the tower center, referenced to the datum your regulatory filings require. Provided as a sealed certification when your submittal calls for one.
Based in San Antonio — We Travel for Tower Work
Alliance Land Surveyors is headquartered in San Antonio at 18410 U.S. Hwy 281 N, and the San Antonio metro plus the eight surrounding counties is our home territory. But tower portfolios do not respect metro boundaries — a single build program can scatter sites across half the state, sometimes hours from the nearest population center.
We mobilize crews outside the San Antonio area regularly for tower work, and we quote travel transparently as a line item rather than burying it. If you have a site in West Texas, the Panhandle, East Texas, or anywhere along the I-35 and I-10 corridors, tell us where it is and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit and what the mobilization cost looks like.
For multi-site programs, travel economics improve substantially. Grouping sites geographically lets us cover several in one mobilization, which lowers the per-site cost meaningfully compared to one-off dispatches.
Working With Us on Travel Sites
Send the site list up front. If you have a batch of sites, send them all at once with coordinates or addresses. We will group them geographically and quote the program rather than pricing each site as an isolated trip.
Tell us your deadline. Lease execution dates and zoning submittal deadlines drive tower schedules. Give us the date and we will confirm whether we can hit it before you authorize — we would rather decline than miss it.
Flag access issues early. Locked gates, livestock, landowner notification requirements, and rough two-track access all affect scheduling. Anything you know about site access helps us plan the trip accurately.
Ask about portfolio pricing. Multi-site programs get different economics than single sites. Call (210) 369-9509 to discuss a program rather than requesting quotes one site at a time.
How a Tower Site Survey Works
Scope & Deed Research
Send us the site address or coordinates, the proposed lease area dimensions, and any draft lease documents or site sketches you have. We pull the parent tract deed, recorded plat, and any existing easements of record from the county clerk before mobilizing.
Field Survey
Our crew locates the parent tract boundary evidence, ties the proposed compound location, walks and measures the access route from the public right-of-way, and maps the utility corridor. Existing improvements, visible utilities, and physical access conditions are documented.
Drafting & Legal Descriptions
We prepare the survey exhibit showing the lease area, access easement, and utility easement in relation to the parent tract, and write metes and bounds legal descriptions for each. Descriptions are checked for closure and consistency against each other.
RPLS Seal & Delivery
One of our two Registered Professional Land Surveyors reviews and seals the survey and descriptions. You receive a sealed PDF and an AutoCAD DWG — ready for your attorneys to attach to the lease and your site development team to build from.
Tower Site Survey Costs
Tower site pricing depends on scope, parent tract complexity, access easement length, and travel distance. Here is a general framework.
| Scope | Typical Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lease area + access & utility easements | $1,500 – $3,000 | Standard compound, reasonable access length, San Antonio area |
| Add parent tract boundary survey | +$1,000 – $3,000 | Depends on tract size, terrain, and deed complexity |
| Add ALTA/NSPS survey | +$1,500 – $3,500 | Title commitment review and Schedule B-II plotting |
| Add topographic survey | +$800 – $2,500 | Compound and access route mapping for civil design |
| Construction staking | $1,000 – $3,000 | Compound, foundation, fence, access road — per mobilization |
| Multi-site portfolio programs | Program pricing | Geographic grouping lowers per-site cost significantly |
Travel is quoted as a separate line item so you can see exactly what mobilization costs on out-of-area sites. For an accurate quote, call (210) 369-9509 or email orders@alliancelandsurveyors.com with the site location, proposed lease dimensions, and scope needed.
Telecom Clients We Serve
Tower Owners
Lease exhibits for new builds, boundary and ALTA work for portfolio acquisitions, and as-built documentation for existing sites entering a collocation or modification cycle.
Site Acquisition Firms
Fast turnaround on lease area and easement exhibits so your leases can execute on schedule. We work to your deadline and tell you up front if we cannot hit it.
Carriers
Survey support across the site development cycle — from lease exhibits through construction staking and as-built closeout, with consistent control across every phase.
Construction Contractors
Compound, foundation, and access road staking coordinated with your build schedule, plus as-built surveys for project closeout documentation.
Real Estate Attorneys
Sealed metes and bounds descriptions written to attach cleanly to ground leases, easement agreements, and memoranda of lease for county recording.
Landowners
If a carrier or tower company wants to lease part of your property, an independent survey confirms exactly what you are granting — the lease footprint, the access route, and the utility corridor.
Tower Site Survey FAQ
Request Your Tower Site Survey Quote
Whether you need lease exhibits for a single site or a survey program across a multi-site build, Alliance Land Surveyors delivers sealed lease area, access easement, and utility easement documentation your attorneys can attach and your construction team can build from. Based in San Antonio, available to travel.
Get Your Site Quote
Include site location, lease dimensions, and deadline.
Tower Site Surveys — San Antonio Based, Statewide Travel
Lease area, access & utility easements sealed and ready to attach to your lease.
