Apply for site plan approval

Site plan applications help us maintain City standards for the location and function of buildings and structures.

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If you’re planning to construct a new building or addition on property within a site plan control area, you must apply for site plan approval. To find out if you need site plan approval, call 311 (905-615-4311 outside city limits) or check the property information.

Request a pre-application meeting

To start the site plan approval process, you must request a pre-application meeting in ePlans to provide the pre-application drawings and documents. You can choose to waive your pre-application meeting itself later.

Submit the following drawings and documents with your pre-application meeting request:

  • A cover letter that includes:
    • Applicant and property owner names
    • Brief description of the proposal
    • Proposed tenure
    • Development application you’re seeking
    • Request for a formal pre-application meeting with City Staff and external commenting agencies, if desired
  • Site plan, including the following:
    • Building footprint and dimensions (existing and proposed)
    • Building setbacks from all lot lines (existing and proposed)
    • Site statistics, such as lot area, existing and proposed gross floor area, unit types and required and provided parking
    • Landscaped areas, buffers and dimensions
    • Site access, driveway location, parking areas and dimensions
  • Elevation drawings with height dimensions, such as floor-to-floor and overall building height
  • Floor plans, survey plan and images of the property and surrounding area, if available

Drawings and documents should be saved in the correct page orientation. Each drawing plan sheet should be saved as an individual file.

File names for all drawings should include the:

  • First letter of the discipline name, such as “A” for architectural, “C” for civic and “L” for landscape
  • 3-digit sheet number
  • Drawing type

For example: A100 Site Plan.

Refer to the site plan manual for more information on standard submission requirements.

After we receive your pre-application meeting request, we’ll determine what kind of site plan application is needed.

  1. Staff will schedule a meeting with you.
  2. At the meeting, we’ll give you feedback on your proposal, along with information on all the plans, studies and documentation that you must submit. All feedback will also be available in ePlans.
  3. Staff will provide you with a submission checklist.
  4. We will deduct the pre-application meeting fee from the application fee once you submit your application.

We will upload a standard submission checklist to ePlans. It will list all required studies, as well as those required only in certain situations. You and your consulting team must review the checklist to determine which studies are required to complete your application submission.

Submit your application

Follow the steps in ePlans to submit your site plan approval application.

Submit all drawings and documents listed on the submission requirements checklist provided by staff.

Schedules and site plan undertaking documents are required for all site plan applications. You may be asked to submit additional forms, depending on your application.

  • If you didn’t attend a pre-application meeting, submit a standard list of drawings and documents, as well as any additional studies and drawings identified by you and your consulting team.
  • Make sure all files follow the document standards outlined in the manual.
  • Each study must also meet the City’s terms of reference.

City review, payment and decision

Pre-screen review

After you upload the drawings and documents, we’ll do a pre-screen review to check that the application meets requirements. This usually takes 3 to 5 business days.

If we need more information, we’ll email you. You must complete all the pre-screen corrections for your application to move forward.

Payment

After we complete the pre-screen review, we’ll email you to let you know it’s time to pay your fees. Submit your fee calculation worksheet for approval before you make a payment.

Once you’ve paid the fees, we’ll email you to confirm that your application is complete.

Department review

All relevant City departments and agencies will review your completed application to make sure it meets requirements and to establish conditions of approval. You can view comments in your project status report in ePlans.

Resubmissions

You may be required to file resubmissions. If a third resubmission is required, we recommend that you meet with reviewers for direction on how to resolve comments and get your application approved.

Approval

Once all comments are addressed and conditions have been cleared, your site plan application will be approved.

We’ll email you when your stamped and approved plans are available to download in ePlans. We’ll also forward your site plan approval to the City’s Building Department so it’s on file when you apply for your building permits.

Your site plan approval is valid for one year from the date shown on the plans.

Notify the City when work is completed

Use the following templates to notify the City that site works or partial site works have been completed:

Contact us

If you have questions about application comments, contact your reviewers directly. The phone number and email address for each reviewer is located on the first page of the project status report in ePlans.

For general questions, call 311 (905-615-4311 outside city limits) or email eplans.devdes@mississsauga.ca.