Free Site Plan Template You Can Print and Draw On
Quick answer
The template below prints on one letter sheet with the parts building departments actually check already laid out: a title block for the address, parcel number and scale, a north arrow, a grid to draw to scale on, and the six-item legend a reviewer reads. Print it at 100%, pick a scale that fits your lot on the grid, and draw. It is free, there is nothing to download and no email to hand over. What it cannot do is tell you where your property lines are, which is the part that actually takes the time.
Most "site plan templates" you will find are one of two disappointments: a city's example PDF, which is a picture of somebody else's finished lot and not a template at all, or a decorative graphic from a design tool with no title block, no scale and no north arrow. Neither gives you a sheet you can put a pencil on.
So here is one.
The template
- Property lines with lot dimensions
- House and every existing structure
- Your project, dimensioned
- Setback distance to each property line, written as a number
- Easements of record, from the plat
- Street names and driveway
Or use your browser's print dialog and choose “Save as PDF”. Print at 100%, not “fit to page”, or the scale will not hold.
Print it at 100% scale. Browsers default to "shrink to fit", which quietly rescales the grid and breaks the one thing a site plan has to get right. If your department wants a PDF, print to PDF from the same dialog once the drawing is finished, or photograph or scan the completed sheet at a straight angle.
What every site plan template has to contain
A template is only useful if it has slots for the things a reviewer looks for. There are six, and each one is considerably more work to fill than to name:
- Property lines with lot dimensions. A real number written along every side. These come off your recorded plat, and on anything that is not a plain rectangle they arrive as bearings and curve data that have to be plotted rather than measured.
- Every existing structure. House, garage, shed, driveway, walkways, existing deck or patio. Coverage is cumulative and the reviewer recalculates it from what you drew, so anything left off makes the total wrong rather than merely incomplete.
- The project, dimensioned. Length, width and total area, matching the figures on your application form. A drawing that disagrees with the form is a correction on its own, even when both numbers are legal.
- Setback distances, written as numbers. One per property line the project faces, each measured to the nearest projecting point rather than to the wall you drew: the bottom step on a deck, the eave on a garage. This is the single most-flagged omission in residential plan review.
- Easements of record. Drawn from your recorded plat, not from what is visible in the yard, because nothing marks them on the ground. This is the item that forces a redesign rather than a redraw.
- The basics block. North arrow, stated scale, parcel number or address, and adjacent street names. Plans missing these are sometimes returned unread.
The template above has a slot for all six. Filling them is the part that takes the afternoon: five of the six depend on information that exists nowhere on your property, and the sixth depends on holding a stated scale across the whole sheet by hand. The pre-submission checklist is the same list in checkable form, and the complete guide explains what each element is for.
Choosing a scale that fits
This is the step people skip, and it is the one that decides whether the drawing works. The grid above is a standard graph grid with a heavy line every five squares. Pick a scale where your whole lot, plus a little margin, fits inside the drawing area:
| Lot frontage | Try a scale of | One heavy square equals |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 60 ft | 1 in = 10 ft | 10 ft |
| 60 to 120 ft | 1 in = 20 ft | 20 ft |
| 120 to 200 ft | 1 in = 30 ft | 30 ft |
| Over 200 ft | 1 in = 40 ft or more | 40 ft |
Write the scale you chose in the title block before you start drawing, then stick to it everywhere on the sheet. A drawing that says 1 inch = 20 feet and does not measure that way is worse than one with no scale at all, because the reviewer will trust the label and then find it wrong.
Engineer's scales are decimal (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 feet to the inch) and are the right family for a site plan. Architect's scales, the ones written as fractions like 1/4 inch = 1 foot, are for floor plans and will not fit a lot on a letter sheet.
Why most online templates fail
Worth knowing before you go looking for a better one:
- City "sample site plan" PDFs are examples, not blanks. They are genuinely useful for seeing what your specific department expects, and worth pulling for that reason, but you cannot draw on somebody else's lot.
- Design-tool templates optimise for looking good. They frequently ship with no scale mechanism at all, which makes them unusable for a permit no matter how tidy the output.
- Anything promising to fill itself in from your address is producing a base map traced from public parcel data, not a template and not a permit-ready plan. That is a real category with real uses, covered honestly on the site plan generator page.
The part a template cannot do for you
Honest limitation, and it is the whole job: this sheet does not know where your property lines are. Every element in the list above depends on that one input, and getting it wrong invalidates the drawing no matter how neatly it is presented.
The boundary numbers come from your recorded plat or your county's parcel records, not from the fence, which is famously not on the line. Finding them is one step. Reconciling them is the harder one, because a GIS parcel outline and the dimensions written on your plat rarely agree exactly, and the gap between them is routinely a few feet, which is the same magnitude as the setback you are trying to prove. The six-step walkthrough covers how to find them and how long it realistically takes, and site plan vs plot plan vs survey covers when your city wants certified boundaries instead.
Budget an afternoon for a simple rectangular lot, and more if yours has a curve, a corner, or an easement you have not located yet.
When we draw one instead, that reconciliation is precisely what you are paying for. The parcel outline is checked against the dimensions on your recorded plat rather than trusted from GIS alone, easements are drawn from the recorded documents rather than from what is visible, every setback is dimensioned from the nearest projecting point, and the scale is verified across the whole sheet rather than assumed from the software. A permit-ready site plan is $89 to $259, delivered in 24 to 48 hours, and 98% of the plans we deliver clear review with no correction notice at all, with revisions free until your building department accepts the drawing.
What to submit, and in what format
Once the sheet is filled in, check your department's submittal page for three things: the file format (most now want a single flattened PDF), the sheet size (letter is usually fine for residential, some want tabloid), and whether they still take paper copies at the counter. A correct drawing in the wrong format still bounces at intake, before review has even started, so this is worth the two minutes. It is check 7 on the pre-submission checklist. If we draw your plan we match the format to your department before delivery; if you are drawing it yourself, this one is on you.
What happens after that is covered on the site plan review page.
Frequently asked questions
Is this site plan template really free?
Yes. It is on the page, there is nothing to download, no email address to hand over and no account to make. Print it, or use your browser's print dialog and choose Save as PDF if you want a file. We sell drafted site plans, and the honest position is that a printable template plus an afternoon is a perfectly good substitute on a simple lot.
Can I use a site plan template for a building permit?
Yes, provided the finished drawing carries what the reviewer needs: property lines with lot dimensions, all existing structures, the project dimensioned, setback distances written as numbers, easements of record, and a basics block with a north arrow, a stated scale and the parcel address. Many departments accept a neat hand-drawn plan on exactly that basis. Some require a certified survey instead, which no template can substitute for, so check your department's submittal checklist first.
What scale should a site plan be drawn at?
Pick the largest engineer's scale where your whole lot still fits on the sheet with a margin. As a rule of thumb: 1 inch = 10 feet for frontages up to about 60 feet, 1 inch = 20 feet up to about 120 feet, 1 inch = 30 feet up to about 200 feet, and 1 inch = 40 feet or more beyond that. Write the chosen scale in the title block before you begin and hold it across the whole drawing.
Do I need a site plan template in PDF form?
Only if your department asks for a PDF, and most now do. You do not need a separate PDF file to start: print this template on paper, draw on it, then either scan the finished sheet or use your browser's print dialog and choose Save as PDF. Either route produces the single flattened PDF that permit portals typically want. Print at 100% rather than fit-to-page, or the scale will not survive the trip.
Can I draw a site plan by hand, or does it have to be done on a computer?
By hand is fine in most jurisdictions for a residential accessory project, and plenty of approved plans are pencil on graph paper. What matters is that it is drawn to a stated scale, legible, and complete. A small number of departments require digital submission or a specific file format, which is a formatting requirement rather than a drafting one, so confirm on your department's submittal page before you start.
Permit requirements vary by city, county, and state. The information in this guide provides general guidance based on common building codes and practices across the US. Always verify requirements with your local building department before starting your project.