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For commercial builders

The Commercial Site Plan, Counted and to Scale.

A commercial site plan has to carry the numbers a reviewer checks first: the building area, the parking count with accessible stalls, the lot coverage, and the setbacks to the property lines and the road. PlotForge™ loads the recorded parcel from the address, you drop the building pad at its size, trace and fill the parking, run the drive aisles and the entrance, and the counts and the coverage print on the sheet. For the tenant-improvement site plan, the restripe, the addition or the pre-app, it is minutes, not a week.

What does a commercial site plan need to show?

A commercial site plan shows the parcel's property lines with dimensions, the building footprint or pad with its area, the setbacks to the property lines and the road, the parking layout with the stall count and the accessible stalls, drive aisles and entrances, loading and dumpster areas, walks, landscaping or open space, utilities and easements, and the lot coverage. PlotForge™ draws it on the recorded parcel.

What the plan reviewer looks for on a commercial site plan

Commercial review starts with counts: stalls, accessible stalls, coverage, square footage. Then access and circulation, then the setbacks. The sheet has to put every number where the reviewer looks:

The parcel, dimensioned — the recorded property lines, every side with its length and bearing, loaded from the address

The building at its area — a pad or a traced footprint with the square footage on it; stories × units for mixed-use

Parking, counted — stalls at 90°, 60°, 45° or parallel with live totals; accessible stalls placed with van stalls and access aisles and counted; EV tiers; a summary that prints

Circulation and access — drive aisles and the entrance from the street traced at full width, the loading zone and the dumpster pad as labeled zones

Setbacks and easements — distances to the property lines and the road centerline labeled; recorded easements drawn at their width

Coverage and open space — building, hardscape and impervious coverage totaled on the sheet; landscape islands and open space as zones with their area

How a commercial builder draws the site plan

Load the parcel

Type the address or the parcel ID; merge adjoining parcels if the site is more than one lot. The lines load to scale.

Place the building

Drop a pad at the building's size, or trace the existing building from public footprint records for a tenant-improvement or an addition.

Park and circulate

Trace the parking court and fill it; mark the entrance so the accessible stalls sit nearest the door. Run the drive aisles and the entrance drive.

Count and export

Read the stall summary, the area and the coverage on the sheet. Export the PDF with the cover sheet and the DXF for the civil engineer.

The tools commercial builders use

Parking layout + ADA countsFill a court or click a row; 90°, 60°, 45° or parallel with live counts; accessible stalls counted per the 2010 ADA Standards; EV tiers; a summary that prints. Reference geometry; local code governs.How it works → Concept building padsA labeled pad with its footprint, gross area and stories × units, printed on the pad and totaled.How it works → Auto-add existing buildingsThe existing building from public records in one click for the tenant-improvement or addition site plan.How it works → Driveway & sidewalk ribbonsDrive aisles, the entrance drive and the walks traced to full width with mitered corners, fused into one hardscape outline.How it works → Freeform zones & areasLoading zone, dumpster pad, landscape islands, detention and future phases as labeled zones with their area and a hatch.How it works → DXF for CADA layered DXF with the parcel, setbacks, the building, parking with separate ADA and EV layers, zones, contours and dimensions for the civil engineer.How it works →

Which plan fits a commercial builder

Projects every month

Contractor, $199/mo

Twenty permit-ready plans a month, every drawing tool and the DXF, every site saved in your account. Higher-volume plans include team seats for estimating and the field; ask us.

Pre-app and proposal exhibits

Studio, $29/mo

Save every site, share plan files with the architect, export the PNG for the proposal, and buy plan credits when a clean sheet is due. See Studio.

Your firm on the sheet

White-Label add-on

Your logo in the title block of every exported sheet in place of ours, +$50/mo with Contractor. See White-Label.

▶ Watch the lessonParking Lot Layout With ADA and EV Stalls ▶ Watch the lessonZones and Revision Clouds on a Site Plan ▶ Watch the lessonAdd Existing Buildings to a Site Plan in One Click

Commercial builders FAQ

Is a PlotForge site plan enough for a commercial permit?

For many commercial submittals (tenant improvements, additions, restripes, accessory structures, pre-application and planning review) a to-scale site plan on recorded parcel lines with the counts on it is exactly what is asked for. New commercial construction usually also requires civil engineering: grading, utilities and stormwater sealed by an engineer. PlotForge draws the site plan and hands the engineer a layered DXF to build on.

Does the accessible stall count follow the ADA table?

The accessible stalls place themselves and are counted per the 2010 ADA Standards, with van stalls, striped access aisles and symbols, and the summary prints on the sheet. It is reference geometry; your local code and your design professional govern the final design.

Can I show the existing building for a tenant improvement?

Yes. One click places the existing building from public footprint records, editable, and you add the new entrance, the patio or the parking changes around it. The parking court can be re-filled at a different angle to show the restripe.

Can I show loading, dumpster and landscape areas?

Yes. Trace each as a labeled zone with its square footage, a hatch fill and a solid or dashed outline. Landscape islands inside the parking court are zones too, and the hardscape total excludes them.

Can I show the setback from the road?

Yes. Turn on road centerlines and the corner-to-centerline distances dimension automatically, on top of the property-line setbacks. Recorded easements draw at their width with a plat-style label.

Is a PlotForge™ site plan a survey?

No. The property lines are the recorded parcel lines from public records, drawn to scale over an aerial photo. That is what most building departments accept for a permit site plan, and it is not a boundary survey or an engineered drawing. If your office requires a sealed survey for this project, PlotForge can trace that recorded survey as the boundary and the sheet prints a notice saying so.

Does it work where I am?

PlotForge™ covers all 50 states and Washington, D.C.; the only exceptions in the country are named on the coverage page. It is also expanding into Canada, starting with select counties in Ontario and Alberta. The most reliable check is free: sign up, type the address, and watch the lot load.

Draw the commercial site plan in minutes

Load the parcel, place the building, fill the parking, read the counts and the coverage. Free for 30 days, no credit card required; a clean, permit-ready export is $29.

Start a Commercial Site Plan Free → See Every Drawing Tool