How to Prepare A Site Plan

Before we see "How to a Site Plan can be Prepared", here is a little background to what it is.

Who is a Land Surveyor?
A land surveyor is person who is trained and licensed by a regulatory body to practice legal survey profession in a state. This person will be under the supervision of the state's surveyor general or the director/commissioner of surveys for that state.

One important document produced by land surveyors is the site plan (also called survey plan or professional survey or boundary survey or lot description or final survey or parcel demarcation etc).


What is a Site Plan?
A Site Plan is a graphical description of a parcel of land that is attached to the application of Right of Occupancy (RofO) or Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) over a landed property. It is a necessary legal document required by the authority to approve the development of a land parcel. It is a document that measures the boundary of a parcel of land. It gives an accurate measurement, description of the piece of land.

Information to be Shown on a Site Plan
A professional site plan drawn to scale should show the entire property (including all property lines) with the existing and proposed structures. Other information that must be shown include:
~ the name of the owner of the land surveyed
~ the address or description
~ the size and the drawn-out portion as mapped out on the survey plan document
~ the beacon numbers
~ the name of the Surveyor who drew up the survey plan
~ the date it was drawn and a stamp showing that the land is either free from government acquisition or not
~ the directional arrow (aka North Arrow)
~ the Scale at which the plan was drawn
~ the coordinates system used
~ the reference control beacons used

Why is a Site Plan Required?
The primary reason why a site plan is required is to get what is known as a "Land Information". Before a transaction is consummated over a plot of land, it is always advisable to prepare the site plan presented for the land to basically find out whether it falls under government acquisition or not and as well authenticate the claim of ownership to the land.
In the case of a new construction, building additions, substantial accessory structures, and parking must be submitted on a professional stamped survey. Land authorities will make the final determination whether your project met the requirements to be implemented on that land.

Can I Draw the Site Plan Myself?
Yes, if you have the skills to do it. However, if the purpose of the plan is for legal documentation a registered surveyor most endorses your work to be considered by any authority.

How to Prepare A Site Plan

You don’t have to be a genius to prepare a site plan, but you do have to be able to work with the tools that helps you collect data from site and draw them on a paper.

Basically, there are two phases to producing a site plan namely:-

Phase 1: Site work
Here is where the surveyor goes to the field for the purpose of data collection. Depending on the purpose and the accuracy of the survey plan, different kind of instruments are used for the site data collection. These instruments include:-
a) Chain instrument
b) Compass
c) Theodolite
d) Total station
e) GPS

Whatever the instrument used, you will collect data such as distance, bearings and coordinates that will be used to draw the survey plan in the next phase.

Phase 2: Office Work
This is where you do the actual drawing of the survey plan. There are different kind of instruments used for plotting/charting survey plan, however the most commonly use software is the AutoCAD drafting software.

Learn to draw/plot survey plans using a FREE software similar to AutoCAD from here.

Thank you for reading.