Location plan: show where your plot is, online and for free

What is a location plan, and what is it for?

A location plan is a map extract that shows where your plot sits in its surroundings: the neighbouring streets, the nearby landmarks and the plot itself, usually outlined. In the UK it is called a location plan, and the site plan or block plan is the closer view. In the United States people speak of a vicinity map, and in France of the plan de situation, filed as document PC1 with a building permit or DP1 with a prior declaration. In other countries the name varies: where you are unsure, call it a locator map and ask your authority.

Its job is simple. The officer who reads your application must be able to find the site on the ground and tell which plot is concerned, without relying on the address alone. That is why the plot is outlined, the roads are named, and north is shown.

It is not a precise drawing of the plot. The measured view, with the buildings and the distances to the boundaries, is the site plan, which has its own guide. Think of the two as a zoom: the location plan finds the plot, and the site plan describes what is on it.

What the authority asks for, and what to check

The requirements differ from one country, region and authority to the next, and this guide does not state any of them as a rule. In particular the scale, the size of the area around the plot, and the way the plot is outlined are set locally. Where a rule exists, it is written in your authority’s application checklist, so read it before you draw. In France, check with your mairie. Elsewhere, check with your local planning authority or building department.

A few things are common sense and worth including anyway: a north point, a scale or scale bar, the plot clearly outlined, the roads around it named, and enough of the neighbourhood for a stranger to find the site. If your authority wants the plot outlined in a particular colour, or the access road marked, it will say so.

• Which scale does the checklist name for the location plan, if any?
• How much of the surroundings must the extract show?
• Must the plot be outlined in a given colour, and the neighbouring land of the same owner in another?
• Is a screenshot from an online map accepted, or must the extract come from an official source?
• Must the sheet be dated, signed or carry the source of the map?

Where Plan² helps, and where an official map extract does better

Plan² is a plan editor, not a mapping service. It exports sheets at the scales 1:50, 1:100, 1:200 and 1:500. A location plan at the scale an authority usually expects for the neighbourhood is far smaller than that, so Plan² cannot produce it. In France, the plan de situation is normally a map extract at a map scale from the Géoportail or the cadastre website, cadastre.gouv.fr, and the same logic applies elsewhere: use the official map viewer of your country, or your authority’s own viewer, and print the extract at the scale it requires.

What Plan² adds is the plot itself. You find the address, bring up a map backdrop (the IGN in France, OpenStreetMap elsewhere), mark the boundary, and place the house. The overview sheet puts the plot on that backdrop with its source named. When the terrains of a project are far apart, the overview becomes a location sheet that shows where each of them is. It is a useful complement to the official extract, and a good way to check the site before you order anything.

Preparing the plot and an overview sheet in Plan², step by step

1. Open Terrain mode

   Pick Terrain in the Layers button, or open the guided flow. Its four steps are Address, Parcel, House and Around. Each can be skipped, and Back is always available.

2. Search for the address

   Type the address, or look for the plot on the map by yourself. The map is opt-in: a consent card appears first, and nothing is sent to the map provider before you accept. In France the background is the IGN aerial photo and plan. Elsewhere it comes from OpenStreetMap, through OpenFreeMap.

3. Mark the plot

   In France, tap your cadastral parcel, and tap several if the plot covers more than one: they must touch. Elsewhere there is no parcel import, so tap each corner of the plot, then Finish, working from your deed, your survey or a cadastral extract.

4. Place the house and the street

   Place the house on the plot, then draw the street and the access, so that a reader can tell on which side the road runs. Add neighbouring buildings only if they help to find the site.

5. Name each plot

   If the project has several plots, give each a name, an address and a parcel reference. Open the list of the project’s terrains to switch from one to another and to see which one holds the house.

6. Export the overview with the map backdrop

   Choose File, then Export…, pick Site plan, then tick the overview sheet. Switch on the option for the map backdrop, so the source of the map is printed under the sheet. Choose the paper and the scale, PNG or PDF, and look at the preview.

7. Check the sheet and compare it with the official extract

   Print the PDF at 100 % and read the scale bar and the north arrow. Then get the official map extract at the scale your authority asks for, and check that the plot sits at the same place on both.

Common mistakes with a location plan

• Sending a screenshot of an online map with no scale, no north point and no source. Check that your authority accepts it.
• Outlining the wrong plot, or only part of a plot that covers several parcels.
• Showing too little of the surroundings, so that a stranger cannot find the site.
• Showing too much, so that the plot is a speck that cannot be read.
• Trusting an aerial photo or a cadastral outline as a survey. Both can be a few metres off.
• Mixing up the location plan and the site plan. They answer different questions, and an application often needs both.
• Forgetting the map source. A map backdrop must say where it comes from.

What Plan² does not do for the location plan

Plan² does not draw a location plan at map scale: its scales stop at 1:500. It does not fetch the official map extract, and it does not fill in the official forms such as the PC1 in France. It does not produce sections or elevations, which are still to come.

Outside France the cadastral parcel import and the building outlines are not available, so you draw the boundary by hand and nothing on the map is a legal reference. Whatever you draw is a drawing to think with, and to complement the official documents, not to replace them.