What to Send Before Ordering a Site Plan: Surveys, Photos and Proposed Changes

The most helpful information to send before ordering a site plan is straightforward: the property address, available surveys or existing plans, clear photographs and a sketch explaining your proposed changes.

You do not need to turn your ideas into a finished drawing first. Your goal is to explain the property as it exists today and show what you want to add, change or remove.

This checklist will help you prepare a useful brief and identify questions to resolve before your drawing is prepared.

Your Site Plan Ordering Checklist

1. Start with the Correct Property Address

Provide the complete street address, including the city, state and ZIP code. Add the parcel or tax identification number if you have it.

For vacant land, corner lots or properties with multiple addresses, explain which parcel and frontage the project concerns. A location screenshot can help identify the intended property, but it should not be treated as proof of a legal boundary.

Also state the purpose of the drawing: a permit application, HOA submission, project discussion or another use. This helps establish the appropriate scope before work starts.

2. Send Available Surveys and Existing Plans

If you have a boundary survey, house location plat, previous site plan or approved property drawing, send the complete document. Include all pages, notes, dates and the title block.

Use the original PDF where possible. Cropped screenshots and angled photographs can hide dimensions or distort the drawing.

For example, Fairfax County’s house location plat guidance warns that photographed, resized or poorly scanned surveys may lose their scale and may not be accepted. That is a local submission requirement, but it illustrates why preserving the original document matters.^[1]

Explain anything that has changed since the document was prepared. An older survey might not show a later patio, shed, addition or driveway expansion.

3. Take Photos That Explain the Site

Send wide views that show how features relate to one another, followed by closer photos of important details.

• The front of the property and its street access.
• Both sides of the house where accessible.
• The backyard and proposed construction area.
• Nearby sheds, patios, walls, fences and gates.
• Visible drains, utility equipment or obstacles affecting the project.

Label photos with simple descriptions such as “backyard looking toward house” or “proposed shed location.” Mention which direction you were facing if it helps.

Photos provide context. They do not establish exact dimensions, underground service locations or legal property lines.

4. Mark Up Your Proposed Changes

A simple sketch is often the clearest way to explain your intentions. Mark the proposed structure or work area and identify what stays, changes or goes.

For a detached garage, for example, you might write:

• “Add proposed garage in this location.”
• “Keep existing shed.”
• “Extend driveway to new garage.”
• “Remove this section of paving.”

Use separate colors or labels for existing features and proposed work. Portland’s residential site plan guidance similarly distinguishes existing site features from proposed development, showing why both sets of information are useful.^[2]

If a location is undecided, say so. Do not present an early idea as a confirmed design.

5. Provide Measurements with Clear Reference Points

Label proposed lengths and widths, using feet and inches consistently. Explain where each measurement starts and ends.

“Six feet from the shed wall to the fence” describes something different from “six feet from the shed to the property boundary.” Do not substitute one for the other unless the boundary position has been established.

State whether dimensions refer to outside walls, roof edges, post centers or another feature. Supplier drawings can help clarify these differences.

Flag approximate or unverified measurements rather than presenting them as exact.

6. Include Permit or HOA Instructions

Send any checklist, written request or reviewer comment you have received. Include the complete wording and attachments so the drawing can be scoped around the actual request.

Check whether the receiving authority requires a current survey, professional signature or seal, grading information, drainage details or separate structural drawings.

Requirements vary. Fairfax County, for example, requires its house location plats to be signed and sealed by a licensed professional.^[1] A general site plan drawing should not be assumed to satisfy a requirement for a certified survey.

Our guide to site plans versus surveys explains the distinction further.

What If You Do Not Have a Survey?

Tell the drawing provider what documents you have and share the submission requirements before ordering. Whether additional surveying is needed depends on the property, project and receiving authority.

Do not order a survey solely because this checklist mentions one, or assume it can always be omitted. Establish the requirement first.

A complete ordering brief can still be assembled while that question is being resolved: address, photographs, proposed dimensions, project description and any existing drawings.

Send One Consistent Project Brief

Before submitting your information, check that the sketch, measurements and supplier drawings describe the same proposal.

A short written summary helps: “Proposed detached garage, existing shed retained, driveway extended as marked.” If you later revise the design, identify the new version clearly so outdated instructions are not followed.

For an overview of drawing content, read what is included on a site plan for permit approval.

Sources

1. Fairfax County:
   Submitting House Location Plats.
   Local example of document, scale and professional-certification requirements.
2. City of Portland:
   Drawing a site plan.
   Local guidance illustrating the distinction between existing features and proposed development.