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For land developers

From Parcel to Concept, Before the Earnest Money.

A developer's site plan has to do three things fast: show whether the land is buildable, combine the parcels into one site, and put a concept on it with the yield totaled. PlotForge™ loads any parcel from the address or the parcel number, screens it with a one-click Site Feasibility Report, merges neighboring lots into one site, and lets you drop labeled building pads with stories and units, fill the parking, and read the coverage and the unit count on the sheet.

How do developers screen a parcel and draw a concept site plan?

Load the parcel from the address or parcel number, run a feasibility report that screens flood zone, wetlands, soils, slope and road frontage from public data, merge the neighboring lots into one site, then drop building pads with stories and units, fill the parking and read the yield, coverage and stall counts on the sheet. PlotForge™ does all of it on the real recorded parcel geometry.

What a developer needs on the sheet

The concept has to be honest about the land before it is persuasive about the numbers. The feasibility layers come first, the yield second, and both print on one branded sheet:

The site, assembled — neighboring parcels loaded, merged into one site with the former lot lines kept dashed for the lot-combination filing

The constraints — flood zone and the percent of the site in it, mapped wetlands, soils, slope bands and road frontage by road name, every source named and dated

Buildable area — a tinted sketch of what is left inside the setbacks you enter, or the ones the report pre-fills where PlotForge carries the jurisdiction's rules

Building pads with units — labeled pads with stories × units per floor; footprint SF, gross SF and unit count print on the pad and total in the takeoff

Parking that counts itself — a traced parking court filled with stalls, accessible stalls placed and counted, EV tiers, a summary that prints

The plan check — the report checks what you drew against the setbacks, the road distance, flood and wetlands before anyone else does

How a developer builds the concept

Load and screen

Type the address or parcel ID, add the adjoining parcels, and run the Site Feasibility Report on the site.

Combine

Merge the parcels into one site. Keep the former lot lines dashed if the lot-combination filing wants them, or drop them.

Pad and park

Drop building pads with stories and units per floor, trace the parking court and fill it. Read the unit count, the coverage and the stall count.

Export

The branded PDF with the cover sheet for the lender or the pre-app meeting, and the DXF for the civil engineer.

The tools developers use

Multi-parcel handlingAdd neighboring parcels, merge them into one site, keep the dashed former lot line the lot-combination permit asks for.How it works → Concept building padsLabeled pads with stories × units per floor; footprint SF, gross SF and unit count print on the pad and total in the takeoff.How it works → Parking layout + ADA countsFill a traced court with stalls at 90°, 60°, 45° or parallel, accessible stalls placed and counted, EV tiers, a summary that prints. Reference geometry; local code governs.How it works → Slope analysis shadingOne click tints the site by ground slope from public lidar, for the part of the land that will cost money to build on.How it works → Live quantity takeoffPads in SF, hardscape in SF, unit counts and impervious coverage, totaled live and printed on the sheet.How it works → DXF for CADA layered DXF of the site, setbacks, pads, parking with ADA and EV layers, contours and dimensions for the civil engineer.How it works →

Which plan fits a developer

Screening sites every week

Contractor, $199/mo

Twenty feasibility reports or concept plans a month at about $10 each, every site saved in your account. Higher-volume plans include team seats for the acquisitions team; ask us.

A few deals a quarter

Job Pack, 12 plans for $144

Twelve reports or clean exports at $12 each, no subscription, credits that never expire. Compare plans.

Your firm on the sheet

White-Label add-on

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

▶ Watch the lessonHow to Find Your Property Lines by Address ▶ Watch the lessonParking Lot Layout With ADA and EV Stalls ▶ Watch the lessonZones and Revision Clouds on a Site Plan

Land developers FAQ

What does the Site Feasibility Report cover?

FEMA flood zone and the percent of the parcel in each zone, USFWS-mapped wetlands on or near the parcel, USDA soils with hydrologic group, drainage class and septic suitability, slope bands from USGS lidar, road frontage by road name with any road mapped inside the lot called out, the local building rules where PlotForge carries them, a buildable-area sketch, and a plan check of what you drew. Every source is named and dated on the sheet. It is reference-grade screening from public data, not a survey, a wetland delineation or a flood determination.

Can I combine several parcels into one site?

Yes. Load the first parcel, add the neighbors, and merge them into one site plan. The former lot lines can stay as dashed lines, which is what lot-combination filings ask for, or go away. Setbacks follow the combined site, and you can remove any parcel again.

How do the building pads count units?

Each pad carries a label, a number of stories and units per floor. Footprint square footage, gross square footage and the unit count print on the pad itself and total across the site in the live takeoff, so the yield reads on the sheet.

Does the parking count meet code?

The layout fills a traced court at the stall and aisle sizes you set and counts the stalls live; accessible stalls place themselves with van stalls, access aisles and symbols counted per the 2010 ADA Standards, with EV tiers on top. It is reference geometry for the concept; your local code governs the final count.

Can my civil engineer take it from here?

Yes. The DXF export carries the site, setbacks, roads, pads, parking with separate ADA and EV layers, contours, zones, dimensions and text on named drafting layers.

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.

Screen the site and draw the concept in minutes

Load the parcels, run the report, merge the site, pad it and park it. Free for 30 days, no credit card required; a report or a clean export is one plan credit from $29.

Screen a Parcel Free → See Every Drawing Tool