Site Plan

Your floor plan shows the house. The site plan shows the lot, drawn to scale from overhead with the house on it. IRC Section R106.2 requires one with every permit application. It has to give the size and location of new construction, any existing structures, and the distances to the lot lines. Every review discipline reads it, so it is the sheet that stalls a permit.

Maricopa County's checklist shows the real bar. It asks for a north arrow, a vicinity map, a scale bar, the parcel number, and dimensioned property lines. Every structure on the ground gets labeled and measured, fences and propane tanks included. A square-footage table carries the lot coverage math, and overhangs of the first 2 feet from the main building do not count. You show a setback measurement from each structure to each property line, all easements, any wash crossing the parcel, the driveway and its surface material, and the septic tank and disposal field with setbacks to the house, the lot lines, and any well within 100 feet.

Buildable area gets settled here, not in design. On a Scottsdale hillside or Environmentally Sensitive Lands lot, the site plan carries a NAOS dedication. A septic system may not sit inside the NAOS at all. The city's checklist also pins the driveway: 100 feet minimum from the right-of-way line at a street intersection, 25 feet from a side property line, 18 percent maximum slope, and a fire truck turnaround past 200 feet.

For example, a Rio Verde Foothills lot with a wash across one corner can lose its planned pad once the drainage flows and septic setbacks land on the drawing.

A plat is the recorded map that created the lot. The site plan is your house on that lot. Scottsdale rejects incomplete submittals without giving correction comments. That pushes a thin plan to a third round before a permit issues.