How to Draw Your Own Site Plan (and When Not To)

Yes, you can draw your own site plan, and this page shows you exactly how, the same sequence our drafters follow. Read it start to finish before you begin: the honest budget is two to four hours the first time, most of it in step 1, and knowing the whole route helps you decide upfront whether the afternoon is worth it. If it is not, the drafted version is $89 and arrives in 24 to 48 hours. If it is, here is the craft.

Before you start: the two things that sink DIY plans

First, check whether your city accepts hand-drawn plans at all. Many do for small projects; some require digital submissions or specific sheet sizes. Their site plan checklist page settles it in a minute.

Second, understand the one thing no aerial photo can give you: your legal property lines. Google Maps and Google Earth show your roof, your driveway, and your fence, but they do not show where your lot legally starts and ends, and fences are famously not on the line. Every workable DIY method combines two sources: a document with your real lot dimensions, and an aerial view for what is built on the lot. That is, incidentally, exactly how professional drafting works too; we do it with county parcel data, satellite imagery, and drafting software.

Step 1: Get your real lot dimensions

Find one of these, in order of preference:

1. An existing survey from when you bought the house (check your closing documents). Gold standard.
2. The recorded plat map for your subdivision, from your county recorder or assessor, often downloadable free.
3. Your county's GIS parcel viewer. Search "[your county] GIS parcel map." Most counties let you view your lot with approximate dimensions and print it.

Write down every boundary length. If your lot is a simple rectangle this takes ten minutes; irregular lots are where DIY starts to strain, and if your plat shows curves and angles you cannot confidently reproduce, this is the moment to hand it off rather than after your afternoon is spent.

Step 2: Choose a scale and set up the sheet

Pick a scale that fits your lot on one sheet: 1 inch = 10 feet suits small city lots, 1 inch = 20 feet suits most suburban lots. Graph paper makes this nearly automatic: with 1/4-inch squares, one square = 5 feet at the 1"=20' scale. Write the scale on the sheet immediately, and add a north arrow (your GIS printout shows which way north is).

Step 3: Draw the boundaries and existing structures

Draw your property lines to scale from the step 1 dimensions and label each length. Then add everything already on the lot: house, garage, shed, driveway, walkways, pool. Use the aerial view to get shapes and placement right, and measure the house-to-line distance at a couple of points with a tape measure to anchor the aerial against reality. Label each structure.

Step 4: Add your project, with dimensions

Draw the proposed deck, fence, shed, patio, or garage in its exact spot, to scale, and write its dimensions on the drawing. Label it clearly as proposed, cities want new work distinguishable from existing at a glance.

Step 5: Label the setbacks

This is the step reviewers care about most. Measure and write the distance from your project to each relevant property line. Then look up your zone's minimum setbacks and check your numbers against them, because if the drawing proves a violation, no drafting quality will save the application. If an easement crosses your lot (your plat or title documents show them), draw it and keep the project clear of it.

Step 6: Finish the basics block and run the checklist

Add your parcel number or site address and the adjacent street names. Then run the finished drawing through the Pre-Submission Checklist, all seven checks, before it goes anywhere near the counter. Six of the seven are about the drawing; the seventh is matching your city's submission format.

The six mistakes that get DIY plans rejected

1. A scale the drawing does not actually hold. Reviewers use scale rulers. If your "1 inch = 20 feet" is really 17 feet in places, the plan bounces.
2. Tracing Google Maps for the property lines. Aerials are for structures; boundaries come from your plat, survey, or GIS records.
3. Setback distances implied instead of written. The reviewer will not measure your drawing to guess; the numbers must be on the page.
4. Missing existing structures. A plan with only the new shed cannot prove lot coverage.
5. The forgotten easement. The classic avoidable rejection, because fixing it can mean moving the project.
6. No north arrow, scale note, or parcel ID. Some departments return these unread.

Each rejection costs a correction notice, a redraw, and another trip through the review queue. That cycle is the real price of DIY, and it is why the honest comparison is not "$89 versus free," it is "$89 versus your afternoon plus the risk of doing parts of it twice."

When DIY is the wrong call

Skip the afternoon entirely if any of these apply: your project sits within a couple of feet of a setback minimum, your lot is irregular or a corner lot with sight triangles, easements cross the lot and you are not sure where, or your city requires digital CAD-quality submissions. Those are the situations where a drafted plan from $89, drawn from county GIS and satellite data with free revisions until acceptance, is not a convenience but the cheaper path.

Not sure your project needs a permit at all? Start with our permit guides for decks, fences, sheds, patios, and garages, or the complete guide to site plans for permits.