What is a site plan, and who draws it?
A site plan is a scaled drawing of what will be built on a lot and where: the house, any well, septic tank or drainfield, the distances from lot lines, and the street and finished grades. Who draws it depends on the document. A recorded subdivision plat needs a professional engineer or land surveyor, and engineered construction documents carry the design professional's seal.
Six things a building code site plan puts on paper
Start with the list, because the Uniform Statewide Building Code writes one. When a building official asks for a site plan, Section 109.2 names what the sheet has to carry, and these six items are among them.
- The size and location of all proposed construction, drawn to scale.
- Any associated wells.
- Any septic tanks or drain fields.
- The distances from the lot lines to all proposed construction.
- The established street grades.
- The proposed finished grades.
Underneath the list sits one more condition: the drawing has to follow an accurate boundary line survey. A site plan does not find the lot lines. It starts from lines somebody has already located, and it measures the house, the well and the septic site against them. Those measured distances are what a reviewer compares with any setback that applies to the lot.
When determined necessary by the building official, a site plan shall be submitted with the application for a permit.
13VAC5-63-90, USBC Section 109.2
Read the first five words twice. The statewide code does not demand a site plan with every house; it lets the building official decide when one is necessary. So the office, not the code, decides whether a given house needs one. The drawing is one sheet in a longer sequence, and the whole list of permits you need to build a house in Virginia starts well before the building permit application goes in. In Carroll County that application is a fillable form emailed to the Building Official with the required plan documents, and the office at (276) 730-3016 is the one to ask whether a site plan belongs in the packet.
A building official's call, or a zoning ordinance's rule
Two different authorities can put a site plan on your to-do list, and they are asking for it for different reasons.
The first is the building official, under the building code, checking that the construction fits the lot. The second is a zoning ordinance. Under Va. Code 15.2-2286 A 8 a locality that zones may require a plan of development to be submitted and approved before building permits issue, to assure compliance with that zoning ordinance. Va. Code 15.2-2246 then makes those site plans subject, with the necessary changes, to the subdivision ordinance sections that begin at Va. Code 15.2-2241, and that section requires a subdivision ordinance to provide for the review of plats, site plans and plans of development solely involving parcels of commercial or residential real estate.
Local offices describe their own reviews. Grayson County's Planning and Community Development office reviews subdivisions and site plans against its Zoning Ordinance and Subdivision Ordinance, and the towns of Fries, Independence and Troutdale run their own zoning. Inside the City of Galax the Building Official reviews and approves construction plans and is also the contact for any development, fill or excavation in the floodplain. Whether your own county zones at all is a separate question, set out on the six counties and the City of Galax page.
The drawing's purpose decides whose name goes on it
No single statute says who draws a site plan, because the phrase covers several documents. Each has its own rule.
| The document | Who may prepare it | Where the rule is |
|---|---|---|
| Preliminary studies, plans or plats of a proposed subdivision | The owner, city planners, land planners, architects, landscape architects or others with training or experience in subdivision planning or design | Va. Code 15.2-2262 |
| A subdivision plat intended for recording | A certified professional engineer or land surveyor | Va. Code 15.2-2262 |
| Incidental plans for roads, grading, surface drainage, culverts and erosion control in planning land and subdivisions | Part of the practice of land surveying as the Code defines it | Va. Code 54.1-400 |
| Construction documents where a licensing exemption does not apply, or where the building official decides it is necessary | A registered design professional | 13VAC5-63-110 (USBC Section 111.1) |
| Engineered documents, with their computations | Sealed by the registered design professional responsible for the design | 13VAC5-63-90 (USBC Section 109) |
The recorded document is the strict one, and what it shows and how it gets to the clerk is covered under what a plat is. For a house on its own lot the question is usually whether the construction documents need a seal at all. Carroll County's residential plan checklist says residential plans may be exempt from an architect or engineer seal, while leaving the building official able to require that design anyway. When that happens, and what triggers it, is the subject of when you need an engineer to build on land.
Two limits apply to everyone else. Unless exempted, a person must hold a license before practicing engineering, which includes design, consultation, evaluation or analysis involving improvements to real property. And when a person not licensed as a land surveyor determines topography or contours by photogrammetric or other remote-sensing methods, Va. Code 54.1-402 has the document carry a note that it is "for general information only and shall not be used for the design, modification, or construction of improvements to real property".
The boundary comes first, the drawing second, the review third
Because the code ties the site plan to an accurate boundary line survey, the work runs in a fixed order even when nobody writes the order down.
Locate the lines
A boundary survey is a land surveyor's work. If the lot has never had one, or the old one no longer matches the ground, that comes before any drawing.
Test the idea
Before anyone pays for a finished sheet, a rougher look at whether the house, well and septic site fit is the job of a feasibility study.
Draw to the permit office's list
The site plan shows the construction, the well, the septic site, the distances and the grades, on the lines the survey set.
Let the office decide the rest
The building official, or the zoning administrator in a zoned locality, decides whether the drawing is complete and whether any part needs a design professional's seal.
The drawings go to the design professional or land surveyor you engage, and the question of what your permit needs goes to the building official. Where the brokerage's part in a tract stops, and what it does not draw or seal, is set out on the land development and feasibility page.
Did the building office ask for a site plan on your lot?
Send the county, the lot and what the permit office asked for, and Lowell will come back with which drawing it is and which professional prepares it. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Can a homeowner draw the site plan for a house permit?
The building code section that lists what a site plan shows does not name who must draw it; it requires the drawing to be to scale and to follow an accurate boundary line survey. Whether the permit office accepts an owner's drawing, and whether any part needs a design professional's seal, is the building official's decision, so ask that office before paying anyone to draw it.
Does every building permit application need a site plan?
Not under the statewide building code by itself. USBC Section 109.2 requires a site plan with the permit application when the building official determines one is necessary, and a locality that zones may separately require a plan of development to be approved before building permits issue. Whether a particular house needs one is a question for that locality's building official; in Carroll County that office is at (276) 730-3016.
Does a site plan replace a boundary survey?
No. The building code requires a site plan to be drawn in accordance with an accurate boundary line survey, so the survey comes first and the plan is laid over the lines it establishes. Locating those lines is a land surveyor's work, and a site plan drawn on guessed lines puts every measured distance on the sheet in doubt.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- 13VAC5-63-90: USBC Section 109, construction documents and Section 109.2 site plan Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development
- 13VAC5-63-110: USBC Section 111.1, construction documents prepared by a registered design professional Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development
- Va. Code 15.2-2286: zoning ordinance provisions, including a plan of development before building permits (A 8) Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 15.2-2246: site plans and plans of development Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 15.2-2241: mandatory provisions of a subdivision ordinance, including review of plats, site plans and plans of development (A 12) Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 15.2-2262: who prepares a subdivision plat for recording, and preliminary studies Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 54.1-400: definitions, including the practice of land surveying Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 54.1-402: exemptions, and topography from remote sensing Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 54.1-406: license required before practicing engineering Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 62.1-44.15:51: definitions, including the agreement in lieu of a plan Virginia General Assembly
- Building Official: office, address and phone Carroll County, Virginia
- Construction permit applications: fillable forms emailed with plan documents Carroll County, Virginia
- New dwelling packet: residential plan checklist and the architect or engineer seal Carroll County, Virginia
- Planning and Community Development: site plan and subdivision review Grayson County, Virginia
- Building Official: plan review, permits and floodplain development City of Galax