Even before a set of architectural drawings is created, it\’s necessary to determine if a building will fit on a piece of real estate. This is where a site plan comes into play. No complete set of architectural plans is really complete without the site plan. A site plan, also known as a plot plan, is a drawing representing a piece of property where a home or any other type of building is going to be placed or remodeled relative to the property it will be built on.

So lets see what\’s included in a Site Plan:

Boundaries: The boundary is the measurement and angles of lines that define the shape, width, and depth of a piece of real estate. These are measured by using coordinates of a line with their distance from one point to the other. For instance if a lines coordinates are N32d15\’32\”E ~ 325.0\’, it means the line is started in a north easterly section that is angled thirty two degrees, fifteen minutes, thirty two seconds by a distance of three hundred twenty five feet. After all the boundary lines are complete it should represent a closed area.

Building Footprint: This is the representation or drawing of the perimeter of the structure that is to be built on the property. This will include porches, and decks attached to the house. The footprint is located on the drawing by dimension lines associating it with the from and site boundaries. If the lot is tight and the house just barely fits into the property, a rear dimension is shown also. Porches are usually included as part of the footprint.

Setbacks and Easements: Setbacks are the lines where local municipalities have ordered that a structure cannot cross. This allows for access to the fron back and sides of the home is the lot is big enough. Easements are where utilities like water, gas, sewer, and/or power lines cross the properties area.

Roadways: These are the roads that are touching the property. If no road is accessible from the land, then a right of way must exist so that the owner can have access to their property. These roads are usually located outside of the property boundary in an are called a Right Of Way and noted on the drawing in most cases as R/W.

Driveways and Walkways: These show where vehicle access, parking and foot access are located in relation to the house. On most residences the walkway is usually around or wider than three feet and driveways are build wide enough to accommodate at least one vehicle. The common width is around twelve feet wide for a driveway.

Utility Locations: This is where access to services like water, power, sewer, or septic tanks are shown on the drawings.

Topography: This is representation of the surface features of a piece of property, indicating their relative positions and heights of the ground in relation to the finished floor of the house. These are represented by curved lines depicting how the properties hills and ditches looks before and after construction.

Tim Davis is a seasoned drafter and teacher who has developed a class on
drawing site plans at http://siteplans.8m.com.

Tim Davis is a seasoned drafter and teacher who has developed a class on drawing site plans at http://siteplans.8m.com.

Author Bio: Tim Davis is a seasoned drafter and teacher who has developed a class on
drawing site plans at http://siteplans.8m.com.

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