Site Plan vs. Survey vs. As-Built: Which One Does the City Want?
Three documents, one property, and at a glance they all look like the same thing: an outline of your lot with lines inside it. That resemblance is expensive. It is the reason permit applications get rejected at intake, the reason a closing gets pushed, and the reason a finished building sits without a certificate of occupancy while someone tries to find a surveyor on short notice.
A survey, a site plan and an as-built are not three versions of one drawing. They answer three different questions, they are produced by different licensed professionals, and your building department asks for them at three different moments. Here is how to tell them apart and know which one is being asked for.
The short answer
Each document is anchored to a different point in time.
Survey. What is there right now, measured. Prepared by a licensed surveyor and mapper. You need it before you design, and before you buy.
Site plan. What you propose to build, and whether it complies. Prepared by an engineer or architect. It goes in with the permit application.
As-built. What actually got built, measured. Prepared by a licensed surveyor and mapper, during construction and at closeout.
And the answer to the question in the title, for most projects, is uncomfortable: the city wants all three. Not at once, and not as substitutes for one another. The survey comes first because everything else is drawn on top of it.
The survey: what is actually there
A survey is a measurement, not a design. A surveyor goes to the property, finds physical evidence of the corners, ties it to the recorded legal description, and documents what exists.
Florida's rules for surveyors define a boundary survey as one whose primary purpose is to document the perimeter of a parcel by establishing or re-establishing corners, monuments and boundary lines. That is the survey most people mean when they say "a survey," and it is the one that shows:
Where your property legally ends. Not where the fence is, not where the hedge is where the boundary is.
Easements of record. Utility, drainage and access easements that limit what you can build and where.
Encroachments. A neighbor's shed over the line, a driveway that crosses it, an overhang that does not belong to you.
Existing improvements. Structures, paving, walls and their distances to the boundary lines.
Boundary surveys are one type among several. A topographic survey adds elevations and contours, which your engineer needs for grading and drainage. An elevation survey establishes floor and grade elevations against a vertical datum. An ALTA/NSPS land title survey is the detailed format lenders and title companies require for commercial transactions, prepared to a national standard rather than a state minimum. Ask for the wrong one and you will pay twice.
In Florida, surveying is a licensed practice under Chapter 472 of the Florida Statutes, and final drawings and reports have to be signed, dated and sealed by the registrant. A drawing without that seal is not a survey. It is a picture.
The site plan: what you propose to build
A site plan is a design document. It takes the measured reality of the survey and adds everything that does not exist yet: the building footprint, the driveway, the parking, the drainage, the utility connections, the grading.
The Florida Building Code is specific about what has to be on it. The site plan submitted with a permit application has to show, to scale, the size and location of new construction and of existing structures, the distances from lot lines, established street grades and proposed finished grades, and where applicable the flood hazard areas, floodways and design flood elevations.
Then comes the sentence that settles the whole question. The code requires that the site plan be drawn in accordance with an accurate boundary line survey.
Read that again, because it is the part people miss. The site plan does not replace the survey. The site plan is built on the survey. A reviewer looking at your site plan is checking proposed work against measured boundaries, and if there are no measured boundaries underneath, there is nothing to check.
On top of the code requirements, your site plan is also where the zoning review happens: setbacks, lot coverage, impervious surface ratio, height, parking counts, landscape buffers, drainage retention. Those are not building code items. They come from the local land development code, and they vary from one city to the next even inside the same county.
The mistake that causes most rejections
Here is the scenario we see constantly. A homeowner wants to add a pool, or a carport, or an ADU. They find the survey from when they bought the house, open it in a PDF editor, draw a rectangle where the new structure goes, and submit that as the site plan.
It gets rejected, and the applicant is genuinely confused, because the drawing does show the lot and does show the proposed work. Four things are wrong with it:
It is not sealed for that purpose. The surveyor sealed a measurement of what existed on a date years ago. They did not seal your proposed pool.
The survey may be stale. If anything was built, paved or removed since, the base drawing no longer reflects the site and reviewers check that against aerials.
The design data is missing. No finished grades, no drainage, no dimensioned setbacks from the structure to the property line, no impervious calculation.
The scale is not reliable. Marking up a PDF does not produce a document anyone can scale from.
The opposite failure is just as common on larger projects: a beautifully rendered architectural site plan with no boundary survey underneath it. It looks professional and it is unreviewable, because none of the dimensions are tied to anything real.
The as-built: what actually got built
An as-built survey in Florida also called a record survey, and recognized in the state surveying rules as one of the categories of survey a licensed surveyor performs is another measurement. This one happens after construction, and it documents what was constructed, where, and at what elevation.
Its job is verification. It answers one question: does the thing you built match the thing that was approved?
You will need one to close out a permit and obtain a certificate of occupancy, to confirm that a structure landed inside its setbacks, to document the final elevation of a floor slab in a flood zone, to record where utilities were actually installed for the agency that will maintain them, and to clear up an encroachment before a sale.
As-built survey vs. record drawing
These two terms get used interchangeably and they are not the same thing, which causes real problems at closeout.
A record drawing is typically the contractor's set of approved plans marked up to reflect field changes. It is useful, and it is not a survey. An as-built survey is a field measurement performed and sealed by a licensed surveyor. When a building department, a utility or a lender asks for an as-built, they usually mean the sealed one. Clarify which is being requested before you order it.
The three checkpoints during construction
On new construction in Florida, surveyors typically come back to the site more than once, and these visits are what catch a misplaced building while it is still cheap to fix.
Form board survey. Before the concrete pour, the surveyor verifies the forms are where the approved plan says they should be, and certifies the elevation. Many jurisdictions will not release the slab inspection without it.
Foundation or tie-in survey. After the foundation is in and commonly before the framing inspection, this confirms the structure's actual position on the lot, the setback dimensions, and the lowest floor elevation.
Final as-built survey. At completion, for permit closeout and the certificate of occupancy.
These are local requirements, not uniform statewide ones, and they differ between building departments. Confirm the sequence with your jurisdiction before the foundation crew mobilizes, because discovering at framing that your building is eight inches into a setback is a very different problem from discovering it at the form board stage.
So which one does the city want?
Find your situation:
Buying land or a building. Boundary survey. If a commercial lender is involved, an ALTA/NSPS survey.
New house, addition, ADU, pool, garage. Survey first, then a site plan drawn on it. Then a foundation survey during construction and an as-built at the end.
Fence, shed, driveway, small accessory work. Usually a current survey with the proposed work shown on it but prepared and sealed properly, not marked up by you.
Subdividing or platting. A boundary survey is the foundation of the plat, and Florida statute requires one for platting.
Anything in a special flood hazard area. Add an elevation certificate, which has to be completed by a surveyor, engineer or architect authorized to certify elevation information.
Closing out a permit, or dealing with an old open one. As-built survey.
Selling with unpermitted work in the past. As-built survey, and expect to permit the work retroactively.
How to ask so you get the right document
Do not call a surveyor and ask for "a survey." Ask by purpose, and give them four things:
The jurisdiction. City or unincorporated county requirements differ.
What it is for. Permit application, closing, lender, plat, flood insurance, permit closeout.
The deadline and the review it feeds. A survey due before a zoning submittal is a different order of urgency from one due before a framing inspection.
The vertical datum your jurisdiction uses. NAVD 88 and the older NGVD 29 differ by a real amount, and a number reported in the wrong datum will fail review.
Then ask the reviewer directly, in writing, which documents the submittal requires. Most building departments publish a checklist. Reading it before you order anything costs nothing and saves a rejection cycle.
Not sure which document your project needs?
We prepare site plans and civil engineering plans in Florida, Texas, Maryland, and North Carolina. We review the jurisdiction’s requirements and checklist before beginning the design, helping ensure your plans include the information required for your project.
Tell us about your project, and we’ll let you know exactly what plans you need.
Frequently asked questions
Is a site plan the same as a survey?
No. A survey is a sealed measurement of what exists on the property, prepared by a licensed surveyor. A site plan is a design document showing what you propose to build, prepared by an engineer or architect. The Florida Building Code requires the site plan to be drawn in accordance with an accurate boundary line survey, which means one is built on the other rather than replacing it.
Can I draw my own site plan?
Some jurisdictions accept owner-drawn site plans for very small accessory work such as a fence or a shed, provided they are to scale and based on a current survey. For anything involving structure, drainage, grading or utilities, expect the building department to require a plan signed and sealed by a licensed design professional. Check the local checklist before you invest time in drawing it yourself.
How long is a survey good for?
There is no universal expiration date, but building departments, lenders and title companies commonly set their own limits and may require a recertification or an update if the survey is more than a few years old. Any physical change on the property new paving, a new structure, a removed wall makes the existing survey inaccurate regardless of its date.
Who can prepare an as-built survey?
A licensed surveyor and mapper. In Florida, surveying is regulated under Chapter 472 of the Florida Statutes, and final survey drawings must be signed, dated and sealed by the registrant. A contractor's marked-up set of plans is a record drawing, not an as-built survey, and the two are not interchangeable when an agency asks for one.
Do I need an elevation certificate?
If your property is in a special flood hazard area, very likely yes for permitting, for flood insurance rating, or both. The FEMA elevation certificate must be completed by a land surveyor, engineer or architect authorized by state or local law to certify elevation information, and it has to reference the vertical datum your community uses.
What is the difference between an as-built survey and a record drawing?
A record drawing is the construction set marked up to show field changes, usually by the contractor. An as-built survey is a new field measurement of what was constructed, performed and sealed by a licensed surveyor. Building departments, utilities and lenders that ask for an as-built generally mean the sealed survey. Confirm which one is required before ordering.
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