How an industrial outdoor storage site plan is put together

The short answer

An IOS site plan is assembled from the outside of the parcel inward, and each layer is settled before the next one is drawn. The first layer is the district and the approval path: in Buckeye a yard on land not zoned I-2 goes through a rezoning or a PAD before site plan review ^[1], and in unincorporated Pinal County the storage has to serve an established primary use ^[2]. The second is the frame: the setbacks that must stay clear of storage, the landscape buffers and the screen line ^{[6, 1]}. The third is the yard itself: the storage height read against the wall, the stall module and the gate, then a surface for each area and a footprint held for retention ^{[1, 4, 7, 8]}. The site data table closes the plan and records the disturbed area against the dust and stormwater lines, which begin at 0.10 acre for a Maricopa County dust permit and at 1 acre for ADEQ construction coverage ^{[5, 9]}.

At the zoning stage the plan is a concept exhibit, not an engineered set: Buckeye's rezoning conditions have it titled as a conceptual site plan and marked as not yet reviewed ^[10]. The plan is preliminary, and the client's engineer of record builds the sealed grading, drainage and utility set on it. The rules jurisdiction by jurisdiction are on the industrial outdoor storage site plans hub and the Arizona IOS page; this guide covers the order the plan is drawn in and what each layer has to show.

Step 1: confirm the district, the path and the parcel

Three questions decide whether there is a yard to draw, and each answer goes on the first sheet.

Principal use or accessory use? Pinal County admits outdoor storage only as an accessory to a primary use already in place, so the plan has to show that primary use ^[2]. In Buckeye the question is one of zoning: I-2 is the district whose stated purpose takes in outdoor storage, and land outside it is rezoned or taken through a PAD before site plan review ^[1]. The paths are compared jurisdiction by jurisdiction on the Arizona IOS page.

Which code governs? Pinal County cancelled its comprehensive code draft in February 2025 ^[11], which is the reminder that a plan is drawn to the adopted code; the IOS site plan hub follows the changes in both counties.

What sits over the parcel? Lot minimums, military airport compatibility and the PM-10 boundary can each limit a yard before a stall is placed. The Arizona instances are set out on the Arizona IOS page and in the Buckeye model project.

Step 2: draw the frame before the stalls

Setbacks, buffers and the screen line come off the parcel first, and stored area is measured only inside them.

Two rules show why the frame comes first. Casa Grande keeps storage out of the street half of any required front or street-side setback and out of its required interior side and rear setbacks ^[6]. Buckeye's Apache-Rainbow Employment Overlay lets storage move partway into a wide arterial buffer only behind a screen wall ^[1], so along an arterial the sheet carries three lines: the buffer edge, the encroachment limit and the wall. The buffer widths are in the Buckeye model project.

The screen line is written differently from code to code: as a ceiling on height, a floor, a height that changes with location, a required material or a full enclosure. The plan notes which rule governs each frontage. Pinal County sets 6 ft as the most a screen may be, while Casa Grande sets 6 ft as the least ^{[2, 6]}; the industrial outdoor storage hub tables the others. Frontage changes the wall as well, since Buckeye's overlay restricts chain-link and long unbroken wall runs where a yard faces freeways and arterials ^[1].

Step 3: tie the storage height to the wall

Where nothing stored may rise above the wall, as in Buckeye's overlay and in Goodyear, the wall height is also the storage height ^{[1, 3]}. The site data table therefore pairs, on each frontage, the wall height with the height of the tallest stored item. In Buckeye's overlay a side or rear wall above the standard limit in an industrial district has to be requested from the Zoning Administrator ^[1].

Step 4: lay the stalls, the gate and the building

The stall layer is counted by stall type, and each module is drawn to its dimension; the tractor-trailer module on record, in Henrico County, Virginia, is 12 ft by 50 ft ^[4]. The entry belongs to the same layer. Casa Grande's DSA-22-00148 yard weighed trucks on a scale at its gated entrance, both arriving and leaving ^[12]. The office or flex building is then checked against whatever cap governs its area, which in Henrico was fixed by proffer ^[4]. The recorded yard programs are tabled on the IOS site plan hub.

Step 5: assign a surface to each area

A yard is surfaced area by area, not as one site. The written rules range from Grand Prairie, Texas, which requires concrete for driving and storage surfaces, to a Maricopa County condition that accepts sealed recycled asphalt on storage areas left unpaved ^{[13, 7]}. Casa Grande's DSA-22-00148 narrative divided its site the same way, with an all-weather yard behind the fence and asphalt at the parking and the entry ^[12]. Unpaved storage is where objections gather, as the Henrico County staff report shows ^[4].

The site data table lists each surface by area, because the paved, sealed and all-weather areas are what the engineer of record grades and drains.

Step 6: hold land for retention and record the disturbed area

The preliminary plan reserves the retention footprint; the engineer of record sizes the basins. Unincorporated Maricopa County's practice holds the 100-year, 2-hour storm on developed land ^[8], and the freeboard rules are on the Arizona IOS page.

The disturbed area is recorded because permits key off it: a dust permit from 0.10 acre in Maricopa County and from 0.1 acre in Pinal County, and ADEQ construction stormwater coverage from 1 acre ^{[5, 14, 9]}. The Maricopa permit runs for one year and ADEQ bills annual fees until a notice of termination, so the disturbed area is shown phase by phase ^{[5, 15]}.

Step 7: total it in the site data table

The site data table is where a reviewer checks the plan against each rule above:

What each review stage looks at

The split runs the same way in each record. The concept plan settles the zoning path, the frame, the wall and storage heights, the stalls and the disturbed area, and the engineer of record carries grading, drainage, retention sizing and utilities into the sealed set; Buckeye seals the civil, grading, drainage and building plans but not the zoning-stage concept ^[10]. One yard's submittal is set out in full in the Buckeye model project, which stages accept an unsealed plan is mapped state by state in where unsealed site plans are accepted, and the concept-to-permit handoff in preliminary versus final site plans.

Where to go next

Each step above is worked through on a real code in the two Arizona model projects, one in Buckeye and one covering Pinal County and Casa Grande. For the state and metro layers, read industrial outdoor storage site plans in Arizona, the Arizona state page and the Phoenix metro page; the Texas surfacing rule above comes from a city covered on the Dallas-Fort Worth page.

A preliminary site plan for a yard carries every line in Step 7. Related layouts: industrial, warehouse and flex space site plans where the building leads; truck stop site plans, where trailers circulate through the site; and RV and boat storage, where stalls run in rows behind a screen. Rendered views of an industrial yard are on flex and industrial rendering. On the blog: the IOS development guide and a site plan laid out around the wrong truck.

How these sources were chosen and when the page is reviewed: how we research.

By Viola Sauer, Principal, Innowave Studio